Is this any way to treat the most needy? Los Angeles prosecutors have announced a $450,000 settlement with yet another of the city’s hospitals accused of “patient dumping,” the practice of hustling individuals, particularly the poor and homeless, out of an institution as quick as possible and without full regard to the effect. In this instance,….
Continue ReadingArchives for April 2016
Juice cleanses? Be wary of health hype
Hype and health misinformation is a metastasizing aspect of our age, in which technology both increases the public’s access to varying points of view─and, to put it kindly, the great gullibility of all too many. Which is why it’s also heartening to see skeptics also are out there to question the widespread humbug. Look, for example,….
Continue ReadingTougher oversight needed on harms of medical devices
Problems with medical devices contribute to 3,000 Americans’ deaths annually, research shows, and fixing any one of the problem devices can cost hundreds of millions. So why aren’t government officials doing more and better in regulating them and protecting the public, a New York Times health policy columnist has asked. This health economist, Austin Frakt,….
Continue ReadingWill Congress vaporize proposals to curb tobacco use, protect kids’ health?
Just days after federal health officials warned about teen-agers’ increasing use of e-cigarettes (vaping) and hookahs, members of a House committee have approved a legislative move that shields vaping manufacturers from imminent and stringent U.S. Food and Drug Administration oversight. The appropriations committee, in a 31-19 vote, approved a proposal offered by Reps. Tom Cole….
Continue ReadingA U.S. privacy crackdown: Hospital fined $2.2 million in filming of dying patient
Hospital patients who are dying or in extreme duress should not have their privacy exploited by reality television camera shows, federal health care regulators now have made clear. They have just settled with a noted New York hospital on $2.2 million in penalties and fines for its role in cooperating with a celebrity doctor whose….
Continue ReadingNIH clinical center in Bethesda rebuked for failing to put patients first
A venerated research and care institution that happens to be in our neighborhood got a rebuke and a reminder about its need to put patients first, ensuring that their care doesn’t get trumped by research needs. A blue-chip panel conducted a sweeping review of the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda. The panel….
Continue ReadingTantalizing tales don’t always deliver useful health information
Some recent health headlines have made stories sound so enticing they’re hard to resist: Are there genetic superheroes walking among us who can provide invaluable clues to preventing deadly diseases? What’s the secret of a big, long lost research study and could it have changed contemporary views on the risks of dietary fat? Should many….
Continue ReadingLive long and prosper? It’s untrue for rural poor, especially white women
While the rich tend to live longer and generally prosper in their better health, the poor─and especially now less affluent whites and white women─ don’t fare nearly so well, new research says. And geography may be helpful to some of the poor in surprising ways. Major newspapers have been full of reports on death rates,….
Continue ReadingBad news on vaping, hookahs, and tobacco use by teenagers
Despite aggressive campaigns to discourage kids from starting to smoke, tobacco use has stayed the same among middle- and high-school aged students in five recent years, federal officials report. They blame a sharp increase in teens use of e-cigarettes and hookahs, which experts say could lead to significant health harms. The Centers for Disease Control….
Continue ReadingWhen money is no object, quality of care can suffer
Because money makes such a difference in health care in the United States, what happens when it’s no object? The results aren’t pretty, a prestigious Boston hospital has found. It rolled out the red carpet and penthouse suites for a Saudi prince who stayed for seven months of therapy for a drug-resistant infection. His lavish….
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