Summary: Today we scrutinize health insurer profit margins. Magically, a modest apparent margin of 4.5% reveals itself upon closer inspection to be a ginormous 30%.

Summary: Yesterday Elizabeth Holmes was convicted of four counts of fraudulently representing the capabilities of Theranos, her incredibly hyped lab tech company. Good; that was

Summary: The ACA is currently more generous and thus popular, but it’s time-limited. The “Build Back Better” bill proposes some incremental fixes, but they’re tenuous.

Summary: The 2021-2022 transition invites contemplation of health reform over the past year and upcoming. We process last year via a perusal of HJM. We

Summary: A new study finds that financial incentives failed to raise clinical quality measures in Medicare Advantage plans. This completes HJM Medicare Advantage week, in

Summary: A recent commentary in JAMA proposed using private insurance health plans as intermediaries in a universal health insurance system, instead of direct payments from

Summary: This week we scrutinize Medicare Advantage (MA). Today: A survey from the Center for Medicare Advocacy found that MA plans deny, reduce, delay, and

Summary: NY Times research found a huge gap between safety problems found in nursing homes and the public reporting of those problems. Quality star ratings

Summary: On Monday we posted on how well Taiwan dealt with COVID; today, one way the US fell sadly short. NPR reports that COVID mortality

Summary: As the US approaches 800,000 COVID deaths, this week we review how pandemic control fared in two countries. Today: Taiwan, where broad public cooperation

Summary: And now for something completely different: We take cost headlines recently reported in KHN (Kaiser Health News) and imagine how they would look under

Summary: A Reuters investigation found 7,571 inmate deaths across >500 US jails from 2008-2019, including nearly 5000 among inmates awaiting trial. Death risks were 18-58%