this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2023
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
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My wife is a nurse.
The workload increases. They can't onboard nurses fast enough. The nurses pull in longer and longer hours. Eventually one gets burned out and takes some time off. The workload piles on the remaining nurses. Another gets burned out. The workload piles on even fewer nurses....
Solution A: bring in temp nurses. Problem, they cost more.
Solution B: go overdrive on onboarding. Problem, more time spent training less on patient care. Additional problem, there is a shortage.
Solution C: massively increase salary and find the workaholics. Problem, the insurance companies won't change their pricing structure.
Added to all this is cost disease. You need about the same number of nurses per patient as you did decades ago.
Can you elaborate on solution C please and explain it in a bit of detail?
Currently studying this. It depends on your payer mix. Medicare and Medicaid never negotiate. Insurers will negotiate reimbursement rate to docs/hospitals, depending on the situation. If one insurance company dominates the market, they won’t negotiate. Why would they? They insure 80% of a city, what can a hospital do? Refuse patients on that plan? Then they lose access to 80% of potential revenues
Edit: this is an oversimplification, but I’m not here to write an entire essay on reimbursement mechanisms. Fee for service is increasingly rare, but the same logic applies. There is another side to the argument of course. If you’re the best hospital in the area, you have leverage over the insurance company. It all depends on who you are and how popular you are, both for a hospital system and an insurer. Just like any company negotiating buying a wholesale good from another company.
Thanks for the write up. It was informative.
You’re welcome! Happy to talk other questions that I can give short answers to. Insurance is a wild world