The profit-obsessed monster destroying American emergency rooms
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Re: The profit-obsessed monster destroying American emergency rooms
#2MBAs will turn everyone into The Joker.
Re: The profit-obsessed monster destroying American emergency rooms
#3How can I avoid an ER run by private equity?
Re: The profit-obsessed monster destroying American emergency rooms
#4I know a surgeon who had their employer bought up by private equity. It's a disaster; the paperclipification of care
Re: The profit-obsessed monster destroying American emergency rooms
#5How can I avoid an ER run by private equity?
Vote for politicians who support a single payer health care system
Re: The profit-obsessed monster destroying American emergency rooms
#6How can I avoid an ER run by private equity?
Odds are you probably can't, at least not when you need the care most, which is the exact issue the article decries. Systems like Kaiser Permanente are not, but Kaiser is a vertically integrated HMO and structured very differently (disclosure: worked for Kaiser as a hospital per-diem for a number of years). Your best option is to make sure you know what EDs are actually in-network for you so at least you're less likely to get nailed if you have a little time to work with and aren't being transported by EMS.
Re: The profit-obsessed monster destroying American emergency rooms
#7The thing that doesn't get mentioned much in these conversations that I've personally seen play a big role is the regulation. When you have highly complex regulations, you end up consolidating practices. As regulations increase, the number of distinct providers/owners decrease. Many individuals don't want to run their own practice due to the complexities (insurance, etc) that exist beyond the work (treating people). It doesn't make a lot of sense to deal with the insurance, billing, recordkeepeing, etc for a single physician or two. They wouldn't be able to compete with the larger and more effiecent practices that have more bargaining power with insurance companies anyways.
Re: The profit-obsessed monster destroying American emergency rooms
#8The thing that doesn't get mentioned much in these conversations that I've personally seen play a big role is the regulation. When you have highly complex regulations, you end up consolidating practices. As regulations increase, the number of distinct providers/owners decrease. Many individuals don't want to run their own practice due to the complexities (insurance, etc) that exist beyond the work (treating people).…
Regulations for healthcare exist are complex in every developed country, but in most everything works fine for a fraction of the cost, so I don’t think that’s the main issue
Re: The profit-obsessed monster destroying American emergency rooms
#9MBAs will turn everyone into The Joker.
MBAs and similar types are the Western capitalist equivalent of the Soviet apparatchik:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparatchik
Entities like PE or conglomerates are a lot like Soviet bureaus: giant bastions of bureaucrats appointed to run things they have no direct expertise in running.
The underlying issue here is what I call the "big dumb money problem." You get entities with more resources to deploy than intelligence or expertise to deploy them efficiently.
A major argument for things like anti-trust and some degree of progressive taxation is to avoid what I call "Soviet Kapitalism" -- which the top of the economy ends up dominated by big dumb money and bureaucratic monopolies. When this happens a market economy starts looking indistinguishable from the USSR. In a way you could say a totalitarian state like the USSR is just an extreme version of this with the state acting like one giant monopoly mega-corp.
Money needs to be redistributed so the ratio of dollars to brain cells is more balanced.
Re: The profit-obsessed monster destroying American emergency rooms
#10The thing that doesn't get mentioned much in these conversations that I've personally seen play a big role is the regulation. When you have highly complex regulations, you end up consolidating practices. As regulations increase, the number of distinct providers/owners decrease. Many individuals don't want to run their own practice due to the complexities (insurance, etc) that exist beyond the work (treating people).…
Many individuals don't want to run their own practice due to the complexities (insurance, etc) that exist beyond the work (treating people).
It’s interesting that the one specific thing you mention is insurance. That particular complexity doesn’t come from regulation. It comes from the immoral insurance industry.