Opinion | ‘A Cash Cow for Hospitals’: What We Heard This Week

“A government program meant to provide incentives to serve lower income Americans is actually a cash cow for hospitals.” — Michael Barnett, MD, of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, on the pitfalls of the federal 340B Drug Pricing Program.

“In practice, it’s just not happening.” — Samuel Dickman, MD, of Planned Parenthood of Montana in Billings, on the low rates of terminated rape-related pregnancies in abortion ban states.

“Just because you have one [investigational new drug] doesn’t mean you can do all that other stuff.” — Paul Knoepfler, PhD, of the University of California Davis, discussing companies that try to market products for uses outside of their indications.

“There’s an expense with that new technology. Who pays for it?” — Constance Lehman, MD, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, on patients who are offered an artificial intelligence (AI) readout with their mammograms.

“[It’s] something that’s going on that’s changing your brain architecture.” — Kathleen Merikangas, PhD, of the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, discussing sleep quality and next-morning headaches.

“Regulators and policymakers may need to consider action to curb this trend.” — Christopher Goodman, MD, of the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia, on rising rates of gabapentinoid use.

“It’s below minimum wage.” — Stuart Bussey, MD, JD, president of the Union of American Physicians and Dentists, advocating for higher residency salaries in Buffalo, New York.

“This question presents an opportunity to identify patients for further evaluation.” — Dana Bliuc, PhD, of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Australia, on the fracture risks faced by adults who struggle to walk a kilometer.

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