Wednesday, December 28, 2011

More coverage on implants

in the NY Times.  The part they don't mention is that the cost of settling all this crap will ultimately be born by citizens, either directly by patients facing unreimbursed costs or by health insurance payers who will make everyone in the industry whole through higher prices.  Not only will we pay for direct damages to remove the implants and defragment people, but we'll pay all the legal bills incurred as doctors, hospitals, manufacturers and insurers try to pin blame on each other.  It's too bad no one tested these implants for effectiveness, assuming an average severity of  5K per recipient puts the total liability at 2.5 billion.  That would pay for a lot of effectiveness testing...

Coincidentally AP ran a story on the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), created by the Obama health care reform.  The mission of that organization is exactly that- testing medical effectiveness.  Expect opposition from care providers and whoever will carry water for them.  When they say "death panel", think "hip shredder". 

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