Category: Health Care
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Another Bit of Nonsense in the Cost of Health Care
by Dick Hall-Sizemore I just had an experience that illustrates the bewildering complexity of the finances of the American health care system. Yesterday, I had a colonoscopy. I’m a veteran of this procedure, having had several because there is a history of colon cancer in my family. (No polyps this time, by the way.) The…
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Is DOJ’s Focus on Healthcare Monopolies Coming to Virginia?
by James C. Sherlock The Acting head of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, Richard A. Powers, yesterday delivered a speech that described the Justice Department’s new goals, strategies and resources for criminal antitrust enforcement. The clouds have darkened over Virginia’s healthcare monopolies. The Commonwealth. Virginia has failed in its duty to oversee its healthcare industry. The…
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Constitutionality of Vaccination Mandate
by Dick Hall-Sizemore There has been much opposition expressed on this blog regarding UVa, and, by extension, other higher education institutions, requiring students and staff to be vaccinated against COVID as a requirement for attending class in the fall. The policy has been said to be, among other things, unconstitutional. Not surprisingly, a judge has…
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Northam Administration Neglects Virginia’s Mentally Ill
by Kerry Dougherty You would think that with a medical doctor occupying Virginia’s Governor’s Mansion, Virginia would have topped the nation in COVID testing and COVID-19 vaccine rollouts and would be setting the standard for care for the mentally ill. You would be wrong on all counts. At the risk of plowing old fields, Virginia…
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Psst! We Have Some Beds for You
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Something just does not seem right about this. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports today that the state has temporarily halted admissions to its mental health hospitals. In addition to being overcrowded, on Friday, Central State Hospital in Petersburg had more patients than beds, the hospitals have lost a significant number of staff and…
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President’s Executive Order Could Bolster Healthcare Competition in Virginia
by James C. Sherlock Yesterday President Joe Biden issued an executive order (EO) on competition that has the potential to significantly affect Virginians, especially our monopolized regional healthcare markets. While an EO does not have the force of law, the president as chief executive can set priorities. The executive departments will honor the EO where…
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Time to Take the Fentanyl Scourge Seriously
by James A. Bacon Drug dealers are lacing opioids, marijuana and cocaine with fentanyl in the Washington area, reports The Washington Post. The city medical examiner identified the super-addictive and often deadly drug in 95% of the 85 overdose deaths through March this year. Law enforcement authorities are seeing similar increases in fentanyl overdoses in…
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COVID’s Latest Victims: Those Afraid to Return to the World
Many are experiencing significant anxiety as the world slowly reopens. Join VA COPES for a free virtual event on July 22 and July 29: “Coping with Re-Entry Anxiety.” https://t.co/BVofTkIWX5 pic.twitter.com/wCaLzxi2e1 — Va Dept of Health (@VDHgov) July 8, 2021 by Kerry Dougherty If there’s one thing we can all agree upon it’s that mental health…
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Virginia Nets $80 Million for Opioid Treatment
by James A. Bacon Virginia’s Opioid Abatement Authority will get an $80 million shot in the arm (so to speak) from the resolution of a lawsuit pursued by Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring and his peers in 14 other states. The bankruptcy-court settlement with the Sackler family and its company Purdue Pharma requires payment of…
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More Jumbled Thinking about Healthcare and Race
by James A. Bacon The lead story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch today focuses on the findings from a new Virginia Commonwealth University study: “Life expectancy in the U.S. sees largest drop since 1943, ‘jolting’ decline for Black people and Latinos.” The average life of Blacks fell 3.25 years and of Latinos by almost four years.…
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Virginia’s New Ruling Class: How Exploitation Works in the Real World
Medical debt, which comprises 58% of all debt collections in the U.S., is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States. Between January 2018 and July 2020, hospitals filed tens of thousands of lawsuits and other court against against patients, according to AXIOS, which drew upon Johns Hopkins University data. Until a public outcry…
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North Carolina AG takes on Hospitals That Fail to Publish Shoppable Prices
by James C. Sherlock Attorney General Josh Stein of North Carolina, fresh off killing the Sentara-Cone merger, on his very busy day yesterday had an Assistant AG send a letter to North Carolina hospitals. It demanded that hospitals comply with federal hospital pricing transparency regulations that require that hospitals make publicly available a machine-readable file containing a…
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North Carolina AG Investigation Quashes Sentara/Cone Health Merger
by James C. Sherlock In the big merger equivalent of “spend more time with our families,” Cone and Sentara issued a joint statement on June 2 that they “have jointly decided not to move forward” with their planned merger. “As this work progressed, we realized that each of our communities and key stakeholders require support…
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Sentara, Cone Health Call Off Merger
From Virginia Business: “Sentara Healthcare and Greensboro, North Carolina-based Cone Health mutually called off a merger Wednesday, according to a statement by the Norfolk-based health care system.” The Sentara Healthcare Board of Directors and the Cone Health Board of Trustees came to the mutual agreement to end affiliation plans late last week, according to the…
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How VCU and Richmond Blew It Again
by James A. Bacon Six years ago William H. Goodwin Jr. and his wife Alice championed the idea of building an independent children’s hospital in Richmond that would conduct research and provide state-of-the-art healthcare to the region’s children. The couple was prepared to contribute $150 million of the estimated $600 million cost in order to…