In Case You Missed It — Healthcare Daily Digest for Monday, 14 January

How many of you have had flu shots for this Plague Season? Did it help? Do you feel invincible? Whatever, no one likes a show-off. Some of us trust instead to luck and hand sanitizer because isn’t it possible that flu vaccinations are a little more scientifically complicated than Dr Sanjay Gupta wants to make it out to be. (“Well, sure, the vaccination is only 64 percent effective, but still: YOU WILL DIE IF YOU DON’T GET ONE.” “Thanks, Dr Gupta.”)

What happens, though, if you’re not given the chance to decide for yourself about the flu shot? Or, if refusing a shot means more than just missing the opportunity to be (allegedly) protected?

Hospitals crack down on workers refusing flu shots, a story running through the Associated Press, looks at what happens when healthcare providers decide not to take a flu shot: “Should doctors and nurses have that right, too? That is the thorny question surfacing as U.S. hospitals increasingly crack down on employees who won’t get flu shots, with some workers losing their jobs over their refusal.”

Other headlines you may want to check out:

• What’s Wrong with HIPAA?: Maybe everything. Or, at least, that’s the feeling one gets reading this piece from Ellen Ratner on WND.com. (I know, I KNOW.)

• We Solved It!: Dr David Blumenthal, President of Commonwealth Fund, has been making the rounds answering the question, “How can we save $2 trillion on health care?” Unfortunately, his answer is sort of one of those non-answers — like, when I’d stub my toe as a child and my mom would suggest she could kick my shin to get my mind off the toe. “Make it work better!” is what Blumenthal says, before dropping the mic and stomping off stage like he made a point.

• That Word. I Do Not Think it Means What You Think it Means: The “rural” designation probably should mean what we all think it should mean: areas both geographically and fiscally far from the more financially secure urban areas. However, in an interesting case in Massachusetts, there’s the Nantucket Cottage Hospital: “The 19-bed hospital on the tony island, where the number of residents balloons from 10,000 to 50,000 each summer and the median home price hovers north of $1 million, has become a national symbol of inequity and political machinations in the way the federal government reimburses hospitals for treating Medicare patients.” Why? Because “under an arcane hospital payment system, Nantucket Cottage’s rural designation has allowed the state’s 81 other hospitals to collectively reap between a $256.6 million and $367 million annual bonus for the last two years — at the expense of other states.”

• Having Their Say: In the “In Our Opinion” section of the TimesRecordNews.com site, you’ll find this essay titles Medicare must change, even if its eligibility age doesn’t.” In the past, TRN.com has been vocal about its support of raising the Medicare age to 67. Now, they’re hanging back a little: “Raising the eligibility age a couple of years, to 67, remains an attractive idea; it would save the program a lot of money. It’s just that there are a lot of other things Washington should try first.”