States may be rushing to legalize marijuana, but common sense, good research, and the law may be lagging. New reports confirm what should be inarguable: Marijuana may have health harms when smoked, and it poses safety risks when used while driving. With the new and considerable attention paid to cigarette smoking, it’s plain to see….
Continue ReadingArchives for March 2018
High-tech advances? They may prod you to get your medical records, asap
Although enthusiasts still wax on about how technology will improve lives, patients may want to be wary about purported advances that may end up complicating and even compromising crucial parts of their medical care — including how their medical records are kept and how payers decide if they’re covered. Let’s start with some kudos for….
Continue ReadingU.S. put up $1 billion already to fight opioid crisis. But states failed to spend it.
President Trump’s latest rant that drug dealers should face capital punishment fell flat in the face of new revelations on what’s going on with the fight against opioid drug overdoses and abuse that have become the leading killer of Americans younger than 50. It turns out that states have failed to spend hundreds of millions of….
Continue ReadingSick and injured battered by costs of hospitalization, long-term care, bad jobs
Illness and accidents batter and beggar Americans worse than many of us realize. New studies show it’s not just the cost of medical services but also long-term care and loss of jobs staggering the lives and finances of too many. Margot Sanger-Katz, writing in the data-driven New York Times column, “The Upshot,” reported that hospitalization….
Continue ReadingFDA launches new anti-smoking campaign that targets addictive nicotine
The federal Food and Drug Administration has taken a big step on what’s likely to be a long legal path to slash the levels of highly addictive nicotine in cigarettes — a step officials say could save millions of lives and billions of dollars in the years ahead. Commissioner Scott Gottlieb called the agency action….
Continue ReadingCan hospital costs be constrained? Maryland’s unique test says ‘yes,’ for now
Yes, Virginia (and Washington, D.C., and the rest of the U.S.): Ever-rising hospital costs can be constrained without the world coming to an end. Maryland’s four-year-old experiment — converting hospitals from a fee-for-service model to a global payment system with total revenues set at the outset of each year — is saving millions of dollars….
Continue ReadingHarsh new glare falls on fertility clinics’ booming business after major mishaps
Equipment failures in two clinics in Cleveland and San Francisco not only resulted in the loss of thousands of frozen human embryos and eggs, the incidents also have raised new concerns about safeguards and regulation of booming and costly fertility programs. Experts said the mishaps were uncommon, and they were hard pressed to explain how advanced….
Continue ReadingDoctors who take bucks from Big Pharma write more opioid prescriptions
Doctors already taking heat for selling out their prescription pads for financial gain may want to brace themselves for new anger from patients, regulators, and lawmakers over two sets of data detailing unsavory links between MDs’ payments from Big Pharma and their opioid drug prescribing. CNN, Harvard University, and CareDash.com — a site that says it….
Continue ReadingVeterans deserve better than more scandals at VA hospitals in DC, nationwide
More than 100,000 patients in the area surrounding the nation’s capital rely on a flagship hospital for what should be blue-chip care. They deserve better than the continuing scandal that envelops not only the VA Medical Center in Washington, D.C., but also its parent Department of Veterans Affairs. Investigators have excoriated the VA and its….
Continue Reading$21 million a year for one patient’s drugs? Big Pharma’s profiteering bleeds patients
Soaring prescription drug prices aren’t just an economic or policy-making puzzle, they’re also a constant nightmare for millions of Americans, whether their conditions are common, chronic, or rare. Or as reporters Katie Thomas and Charles Ornstein wrote recently in the New York Times: The burden of high drug costs weighs most heavily on the sickest….
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