Good morning and happy Friday.

I am very excited to bring you this Friday Pulse Check because we are now also bringing you the FLATLINING Podcast.

Economics drives healthcare

This week in our new FLATLINING Podcast, Ron and I discussed some of the ways that economics plays a role in our healthcare.  Many Americans do not seem to understand how some decisions are made about what is covered and what isn’t (think Aduhelm) and others think that everything should be covered no matter the cost.

Obviously, this doesn’t work given that there is limited money and resources, and thus people must make decisions about what they should prioritize.

Ron and I also discussed why you can trust us to talk about healthcare competently in a world where a Twitter account and two-hundred and fifty characters makes you an expert in anything.

Plus, I shared the story of a man who wanted to break into a hospital in rural Michigan to “save” patients being treated for COVID-19 in mid-2020.  This is pizza-gate level dumb.

You can subscribe to The FLATLINING Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, Amazon Music, and Audible.  You can also listen easily on our website; this week’s show is here. (I also made it easy; you can listen below.)

End of the Beginning

For the past two years, we have been hearing about how to get back to normal or that we should just accept “the new normal.”  Regardless of if you thought the “normal” we had before 2020 was acceptable or not, Ron seems to think that we will not be getting back there anytime soon.

He shared his thoughts on what might happen over the next two years as COVID-19 becomes endemic.  He closed, appropriately so I thought, with the words of Churchill: This is the end of the beginning, not the beginning of the end.

Be sure to check out the FLATLINING Podcast next week as well.  Ron and I will be discussing how COVID-19 has changed the way healthcare works and what changes may stick around in the future.

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You remember doctors, right?

Oh, the great state of California.  They are the ones where the governor ran on universal healthcare for the entire state.  Following his lead, the state legislature attempted to pass a bill that would create such a system.  Except, it died before it got to the vote because the assembly-people realized that the governor wasn’t going to sign it.

Well, in California healthcare news this week, the state wants to pay doulas more under their Medicaid program.  Now, Ron wants to be clear, he has nothing against doulas per se, but the proposal going on in California is quite ridiculous. 

Essentially, doula advocates (the doulas themselves maybe?) want to be paid $1000 per delivery.  In many states, the doctor who actually does the delivery gets paid only $800.  So why does California want to pay unlicensed, untrained, and unregulated people more than the board-certified doctor who is trained and has malpractice insurance?  That answer has yet to be given.

Update on Ukraine

As I have been the past few weeks, I wanted to share some of the happenings regarding healthcare in Ukraine.  According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN), medical facilities are near a breaking point. 

Russia has launched missile attacks on healthcare facilities and has killed twelve and injured thirty-four others.

Medical supplies and drugs are running low because supply chains have been disrupted. 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced this week that the organization will allocate $40 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to serve as aid to Ukraine and to the neighboring countries who are using their healthcare system to help refugees.

Thanks for subscribing to the Friday Pulse Check from FLATLINING.  We hope you find it informative.  If you do, would you mind sharing it with your friends and colleagues?  The same goes for our podcast.  You can help us grow and we would really appreciate it.

Have a good weekend and I’ll see you next Wednesday on the FLATLINING Podcast.

Matthew