Mechanics, insurance companies, silver tsunami

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Good evening, 66.1ers.

Talked with Dinah Kleyman earlier this week. She thinks lots of health stuff can be fixed if you fix your diet, lifestyle, that sort of thing. Told me about the Cleerly cardiac imaging scan. Looks for problems before you’re in trouble, so you can keep your heart healthy for a long time. Wow!

Had coffee with a Family Medicine doctor and nurse yesterday. Things they’re thinking about:

1. It’s more difficult every day to get legitimate medications, procedures, etc. covered by insurance. Call them, they say they don’t know how much it will cost you. Well…who does? Imagine going to the mechanic and they say your car needs an oil change, new tires, and your front suspension replaced. You ask how much, they say “not sure, can only tell you after it’s done”. What would you do? How long would this mechanic be in business? What if every mechanic did this?
   

2. Ozempic, Wegovy, other GLP-1s, especially those prescribed for weight loss, are increasingly coming with a requirement from the insurance company that the patient also work with a health coach. Wonder why? 
   

3. Providers can bill insurance for messages exchanged to give patients medical advice. Was news to me, and got me wondering…What does this mean down the road, as providers get busier and busier? As messaging evolves to be more dependent on technology? Is the billing code different depending on the human time spent writing it? Answered some of these questions with a quick search:

One more? 

The work we’re doing at Mayo Clinic exists largely because of the “silver tsunami”. 

Some are helping people manage cancer pain. Others are making sure people who discharge from the hospital don’t end up back there. Physical therapy type stuff, delivered via a Zoom call. Gemini’s definition of the silver tsunami makes a person wonder what insurance, Medicare, healthcare as an industry are going to look like in 10 years? I suppose Thomas Edison hit the nail on the head:

Have fun out there.

Marcus