An estimated 400,000 Americans have died due to opioid drug overdoses between 1999 and 2017 — and the fatalities only are increasing. By 2025, according to expert forecasts, there will be 700,000 more opioid deaths. Prosecutors now are saying that at least some of the causes of this crisis are nothing less than criminal behavior by….
Continue ReadingArchives for April 2019
Measles outbreaks increase, with cases hitting highest level since 2000
Almost two decades after public health officials declared them eradicated from this nation’s children, measles infections have returned with a vengeance to the United States, rising to the highest level in almost two decades, with hundreds of cases in almost two dozen states, and the incidences climbing still. The outbreaks have been concentrated in New….
Continue ReadingCase by case, constitutional rights are lost to corporations and forced arbitration
When older Americans suffer major injury or illness, their loved ones may find themselves under the gun, making expensive and complex decisions about their care. They’re likely to be slammed, too, with stacks of paperwork from caregiving facilities. It’s tough stuff to take in — and it too often ask them to sign documents that….
Continue Reading8 billion indicators of how companies flounder with health care costs
Even as American corporations twist themselves into pretzel shapes to persuade shareholders of their devotion to maximizing profits, why are they throwing an estimated $8 billion annually at workplace wellness programs that, according to a growing body of evidence, don’t work? The zeal for wellness programs — which aim to get workers to exercise, lose….
Continue ReadingPh.D. turns to Twitter to rat out too common species of medical research hype
James Heathers is a Ph.D. with expertise in scientific methods and data. He works in a behavioral science lab at Northeastern University in Boston. He’s young, adaptive, and savvy enough to participate in social media, especially Twitter. There, he saw a problem and a challenge with the way medical scientific findings get presented to sizable….
Continue ReadingAfter thousands of lawsuits, FDA bans mesh used in pelvic prolapse procedures
After years of patient complaints about injuries and tens of thousands of lawsuits, the federal Food and Drug Administration yanked from the market a surgical mesh widely used to repair pelvic conditions in women. The agency has been slow to act on transvaginal mesh, which has been in use since the 1970s, with surgeons increasing….
Continue ReadingConcern grows over seniors taking their own lives in long-term care facilities
With 3 out of 4 Americans insisting they would prefer to age in place at home, senior care institutions already face stiff headwinds. But an investigation by two media organizations paints a glum picture of a little discussed aspect of elder life: the “lethal planning” some older residents make in nursing homes, assisted living centers,….
Continue ReadingCost of medical billing soars to half a trillion dollars—and half may be wasted
When patients battle with the desperate extremes of a disease like a fast-spreading cancer, it isn’t just the radiation and chemo therapies that sap their spirits, there’s a demoralizing runner-up concern: The constant battling with doctors, hospitals, and insurers over medical bills. Medical billing and insurance-related costs are so over the top that they pile….
Continue ReadingTelemarketing “free” back and limb braces for seniors adds up to a $1.2 billion Medicare fraud
Federal authorities have busted up what they say is a $1.2 billion Medicare fraud that should give taxpayers and patients pause about long-distance medical consultations and the huge sums of cash washing around the medical device industry. Two dozen people, some of them doctors, have been charged in a complex ploy to gull seniors into….
Continue ReadingWhen hospitals battle superbug outbreaks, shouldn’t patients be informed?
When big hospitals are locked in bare-knuckle battles against debilitating and deadly bacterial and fungal infections sweeping their institutions, don’t patients have the right to know about these situations that might affect their lives and care? According to some hospital insiders, no. The New York Times reported that a “culture of secrecy” prevails in hospitals….
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