Medicare/CMS sets the reimbursement for COVID19 tests. Thus, a shortage is not surprising.

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StatistPriceControlsFail

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I vaguely recall from high school economics that price controls cause shortages and surpluses. The laws of economics cannot be overruled with a decree.

Given the sudden demand for COVID19 tests and apparent difficulty obtaining a test by many people, it seems like there is a shortage instead of a surplus. I haven't heard of tons of effective tests that are sitting around unused in a warehouse that would be expected in a surplus.

Thus, I can deduce that the CMS's reimbursement is a price ceiling. Imagine if the price could be bid up to any market clearing price. Sure, it would be "price gouging," but it would also be a powerful incentive for producers to innovate, compete, and produce more.

Big picture, a price should be discovered. It should not set by a central planner or politician. Bigger picture, the government should not even have Medicare, Medicaid, etc and they should be phased out. Real suffering results in this case (and has resulted over past several decades in endless numbers of cases) from the price distortions, inhibition of innovation, and infringement of individual rights by force.




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Your entire premise and argument here is demonstrably false. Price controls did not create a shortage. There is no evidence for that and to the contrary, we know the cause of it, if it can be said to even exist at this point (we are running 150k tests per day).

Just as valid as your point that "we shouldn't have Medicare" is "we should only have Medicare, not private insurance" and "we should just throw old people into a Soylent green processor."
 
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Price controls decrease incentives to capital flow.

It's not so much shortage as it is capital has been disincentivized to flow into that chamber, therefore the chamber is much more narrow than it would have otherwise been.

Medicare was disaster for Medicine from the get go, it removes any ability to practice and price that at a market rate.

Once hyperinflation hits after this lockdown crash is all over....prepare for about 1/2 or less your current purchasing power.
 
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The reason we have test shortages is because 1.5 months ago we didn't have this virus in the US. It is brand new disease and it takes a long time to ramp up production. The primers, reagents, etc have to be manufactured and in the case of serology, the antigens for detection need to be manufactured.

And people ask about the the clinical sensitivity/specificity, etc. We just don't have that. What normally takes up to a year (or sometimes years), we put together in weeks.
 
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ALL GOOD COMMUNISTS KNOW THAT CENTRALIZED MASTER PLANNERS ARE BEST AT DETERMINING HOW MUCH BREAD THE PEOPLE NEED.
 
Price controls decrease incentives to capital flow.

It's not so much shortage as it is capital has been disincentivized to flow into that chamber, therefore the chamber is much more narrow than it would have otherwise been.

Medicare was disaster for Medicine from the get go, it removes any ability to practice and price that at a market rate.

Once hyperinflation hits after this lockdown crash is all over....prepare for about 1/2 or less your current purchasing power.

As we've seen from Anthem and others recently, letting the "market" price pathology services means we'd mostly be out of jobs and replaced by technicians with an acceptable failure rate. Every time pathologists give a portion of their professional fees to the referring clinician for access to their volume, that is the "market" in action. It is pretty well accepted here that for many path services Medicare rates are preferable to private insurance. So please continue to rail against that.

If you are going to talk about the ills of price control, please consider its benefits as well.
 
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To continue to bead a dead horse- PAMA will allow the "market" to price CLFS pricing. The expectation? A rapid, steady decrease in service rates. Enjoy!
 
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A couple things I wanted to share:

1. I'm super glad that there are a number of level-headed folks on this subforum who make insightful, data-driven comments that are grounded in reality. It's nice to have y'all here.

2. I'm really impressed by the level of discussion on the pathology subforum about the science/epidemiology of the disease, and even what that means for policy decisions. I don't see this level of discussion on other specialty subforums, and that makes me excited about going into this field, "FPN" ethos notwithstanding. Excuse the sentimentality.

That is all.
 
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A couple things I wanted to share:

1. I'm super glad that there are a number of level-headed folks on this subforum who make insightful, data-driven comments that are grounded in reality. It's nice to have y'all here.

2. I'm really impressed by the level of discussion on the pathology subforum about the science/epidemiology of the disease, and even what that means for policy decisions. I don't see this level of discussion on other specialty subforums, and that makes me excited about going into this field, "FPN" ethos notwithstanding. Excuse the sentimentality.

That is all.

agree - clear from the discussions there is a lot of experience and knowledgeable folks here. Would also add that the group is pretty witty/ funny. More than a couple here could prolly do stand up comedy or write for SNL.

in general a well versed clinical pathologist has to understand internal medicine and increasingly molecular medicine. And a well versed AP pathologist has to be able to think like a surgeon and oncologist. Put these 2 together, mix in a few years experience — you got yourself a good doctor.
 
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