MTT #83: How will the FTC’s non-compete ban affect healthcare workers?

Medicine: The Truth covers the latest news and most pressing issues in medicine today. The headline story for this episode focuses on the FTC’s vote to ban non-compete agreements.

Co-host Dr. Robert Pearl explains how these clauses were originally designed to protect trade secrets, but have been used in healthcare to prevent doctors from taking new positions—and taking their patients with them.

Non-compete policies not only disrupt the doctor-patient relationship but also contribute to higher healthcare costs. As Pearl has written about in Forbes and other outlets, hospital consolidation has long been a strategic move to control market share, leading to increased medical bills and facility fees. Non-compete clauses have been central to maintaining this monopoly. It’s no surprise the ban is being fiercely opposed by the American Hospital Association and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Alongside cohost Jeremy Corr, Pearl unpacks this issue and the following topics in this episode of Medicine: The Truth.

• Care organizations led by primary care physicians are most effective, efficient
• 263,000 docs have become employees since 2012
• The FTC ban on non-compete clauses
• Research finds weight-loss drugs also treat sleep apnea
• Patient receives a pig’s kidney in experimental transplant
• S. doctors accepted $12.1 billion from drug companies over the past 10 years
• Paxlovid ineffective for vaccinated individuals with Covid-19
• Why financial breaks didn’t spur insulin usage among diabetics
• The impact of Covid-19 on child development
• HHS mandates attending doctors get permission for pelvic, prostate exams
• ChatGPT becoming more reliable and accurate in diagnosing disease
• Unnecessary inpatient care cost $6 billion last year
• Republicans reported 25% more severe reactions to Covid-19 vaccine

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Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine“  about the impact of AI on the future of medicine. All profits from the book go to Doctors Without Borders.

Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

 

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