Nonprofit hospitals added almost $40 billion to their bottom lines in the last year and lavished a $3.5 million average salary on their chiefs. But their relentless grubbing for cash apparently was unsated still. The institutions, exempted from federal, state and local taxes in exchange for “community benefits” like charity care and financial support for….
Continue ReadingArchives for June 2019
‘Grass-roots’ vaccination foes funded by wealthy few
With children in tow and emotions cranked to the max, parents from coast to coast have protested officials’ efforts to protect the public’s health by requiring children to be immunized against contagious and infectious diseases that can cause great harm. A cornerstone of the vaccination resistance has been its proponents push to portray themselves as….
Continue ReadingConcerns rise over costly emergency intervention — a ‘bridge to nowhere?’
Medical ethicists and patient advocates are raising concerns about a big, costly, and often unsuccessful procedure that “pumps blood out of the body, oxygenates it, and returns it to the body, keeping a person alive for days, weeks or months, even when their heart or lungs don’t work,” the Kaiser Health News Service reported. Extracorporeal….
Continue ReadingWith 2020 race kicking into next gear, voters have lots to ponder on health care
Starting this week in Miami, 20 Democrats over the course of two nights will try to make the case that they deserve to be elected President. Now what will they and Republicans have to say about health care, which voters have declared a troubling issue that’s on the top of their minds? In recent weeks, the….
Continue ReadingOpioid crisis? ‘Not my fault,’ say surgeons and drug maker’s heir
As the nation’s opioid and drug overdose crisis deepens, it can be hard to watch as the “Not My Fault” crowd clucks about its blamelessness in pushing potent painkillers that have played a part in killing more Americans in 2016 and 2017 alone than lost their lives in the Vietnam War. The latest NMF protagonists….
Continue ReadingPleas for ‘wellness’ moderation: Foods aren’t dirty, bad, or a cause for shame
Moderation matters in all things, though its proponents often seem to get shoved aside by more extreme views. Now there is welcome new push-back against wellness hype by those who instead want science- and evidence-based approaches to health and nutrition to prevail. In separate and unrelated expressions of their points of view, novelist Jessica Knoll….
Continue ReadingIs this any way to learn you’re dying — hearing MDs chat outside exam room?
Ron Naito already had been rebuffed by one specialist about the severity of his illness. He was awaiting in a doctor’s examining room for his lab test results and a consultation with a second expert about his already advanced cancer. What happened next stunned the Portland, Ore., resident. But now he’s doing something to help….
Continue ReadingUCLA ripped for poor handling of another scandal over a staff physician
USC, Ohio State, Michigan State, and now, UCLA: How can big universities, with all the supposedly smart folks who head them, be so blind and deaf to student complaints that school personnel may be sexually abusing them? And why do academics keep getting caught up in situations where they appear to or may be covering….
Continue ReadingFor Insys, infamy in two opioid crisis firsts: convicted founder and bankruptcy
Insys Therapeutics, a drug maker that peddled powerful and addictive painkillers in sordid ways, entered yet another phase of its penalties for its criminal conduct: The firm in quick fashion agreed first to pay $225 million to resolve federal bribery charges, then promptly sought bankruptcy protection. Federal prosecutors, who earlier had won criminal racketeering convictions….
Continue ReadingAs temperatures rise, so can dangers to kids and pets locked in hot cars
As the weather turns toasty, it’s worth remembering that common sense and a bit of caution can save the lives of children and pets: Please don’t forget they are in your vehicle’s back seats, and don’t lock them in there with the windows rolled up — even for the briefest moment. The New York Times….
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