A rare verdict for punitive damages and fraud against a Florida hospital opens a window on the big business aspects of weight loss surgery, which can be unsafe for patients especially when the surgeon lacks experience. The verdict also has lessons for how patients can protect themselves. A jury in Jacksonville ordered Memorial Hospital to….
Continue ReadingArchives for February 2012
Birth Control Pills Recalled
All medications carry risks and potential side effects, but seldom does a pill do precisely the opposite of what it promises. That’s why Pfizer recalled about 1 million Lo/Orval-28 and generic norgestrel birth control pills. Thanks to a packaging error, women who are taking the contraceptive risk getting pregnant. As widely reported, the recall announcement….
Continue ReadingHonesty with Patients Is Optional with Some Doctors
A large survey of doctors published in the prestigious journal Health Affairs finds that while physicians generally subscribe to the idea that honesty is the best policy, they don’t always practice honesty with patients, especially when it conflicts with their self-interest. The article by Lisa Iezzoni, MD, of Harvard Medical School and others, says: [A]pproximately….
Continue ReadingSave Money by Avoiding Insurance and Billing Errors
As health-care expert Lisa Zamosky points out on WebMD, you might not be able to control medical costs, but scrutiny of your medical bills can help you save money. The key, she says, is knowing when and how to take action. Here are four things to watch. 1. Always review your medical bills. They’re notoriously….
Continue ReadingHealth Plan Model Disappoints
What is the essential core of a health insurance policy that every insurer should have to offer its customers? The federal government is struggling to come up with a definition, but it’s proving to be not so easy. Most people know that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the health reform plan that was passed in….
Continue ReadingMinnesota Tells Dangerous Doctors: We Won’t Punish You
It’s been known for a while that Minnesota ranks dead last in the nation in the frequency with which its doctors are disciplined by the state licensing board for harming patients. Now we know why. A new investigative series by the Minneapolis Star Tribune has some dizzying quotes from state officials who are charged with….
Continue ReadingPromoting Honest Counting of Hospital-Acquired Infections
Progress is being made in the national effort to let patients know which hospitals do the best job in preventing infections. But patient safety advocates are worried that some of the early reports of hospital-specific data may be overly rosy because of fudging in the way that infections are counted. Last week we wrote about….
Continue ReadingNew Life for Home Births
For some people, the do-it-yourself movement is a congenital condition. As reported recently by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after a decline of several years, the number of women choosing to give birth at home boomed from 2004 to 2009. That’s interesting, but the number of women overall who give birth at home….
Continue ReadingRick Santorum’s (and the GOP’s) Damage Cap Problem
Rick Santorum is not the first politician to be caught in a “Do as I say, not as I did” moment. So when it came out this weekend that Santorum had asked for more damages in his wife’s medical malpractice lawsuit than the legal limit he would like to impose on all malpractice victims, it….
Continue ReadingSetting Standards for Research and Treatment
Created by the health reform legislation of 2010, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) is charged with helping to determine the most effective treatments using objective, science-based standards. We introduced this agency to our readers last year. Last week, as reported by Kaiser Health News, the PCORI issued its draft priorities and research agenda. What….
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