December 14, 2015

Throw the Red Flag. Bidding Strips in No Touchdown

I have written about test strips, bidding, and harm. This week there is an opportunity to look into the details. But it is football season so I thought I would put the reasons to take that opportunity in football terms:

Throw the Red Flag.




Medicare instituted a program to bid test strips. It looked like a great play. They certainly are celebrating in the end zone.

The replay doesn't look good. Instead of tracking patients over time they started with a new group each quarter, in essence starting the game at zero every quarter. They counted the savings yards gained and said the scored but didn't factor in the yardage lost as increased hospitalization cost and increased mortality.

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