Two women with significant star power have opened up to the public about a rarely discussed experience — that, even in contemporary times, pregnancies do not all go well and that parents who lose a pre-term child suffer a shattering grief that others should recognize and seek to help them with. It may be a….
Continue ReadingArchives for November 2020
U.S. health watchdog issues fraud warning about doctors’ speaker programs
Buh-bye? Arrivederci? Sayonara? Can it be that the coronavirus pandemic puts an end to one of the disgraceful ways that Big Pharma and medical device makers push their wares on all-too malleable doctors — with big-money speaker programs? The inspector general’s office of the giant federal Health and Human Services (HHS) agency has warned drug-….
Continue ReadingUC offers $73-million settlement in class-action suit over abusive gynecologist
The University of California has offered to pay $73 million to settle with 5,000 women their class-action lawsuit asserting a staff gynecologist sexually abused them during medical procedures. This is yet another big case involving claims of years of widespread and sordid professional misconduct that somehow went undetected at a major institution, which has acknowledged….
Continue ReadingEven as the pandemic hits grim phase, we have much to be thankful for
With the pandemic tearing through the United States and overwhelming U.S. health care system, we pause from the grim news to tally some of the nation’s blessings in this time. We can be thankful for the courage, fortitude, dedication, and skill of an army of health workers of all kinds. They have put themselves….
Continue ReadingNeglect-and-abuse deaths send nursing homes’ pandemic toll from bad to worse
The coronavirus pandemic’s terrible toll on nursing homes and other long-term care facilities may be much worse than now estimated, as resident advocates, watchdog groups, and experts tally “excess deaths” in the facilities — perhaps one additional casualty beyond any two formally attributed to Covid-19. These fatalities are unacceptable, resulting from frantic and low-paid health….
Continue ReadingGynecologist guilty on U.S. charges, but questions linger about his practices
A federal criminal case concluded with felony convictions for a Virginia gynecologist. But the questions are only now beginning as to how a doctor could have caused so many women so much harm for so long without other clinicians, hospitals, administrators, insurers, and regulators stepping in to stop him. As the Washington Post reported, jurors….
Continue ReadingGrim reprise in nursing homes: four-fold infection hike and doubling deaths
Coronavirus cases are spiking among residents and staff at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. They increased four-fold between May’s end and late October — even as deaths among the vulnerable also doubled, disturbing new data show. Those are the findings of Rebecca Gorges and Tamara Konetzka, University of Chicago researchers who analyzed federal….
Continue ReadingAmericans urged to redouble infection preventions as pandemic rips nation
Although company-reported data on the potency of a prospective coronavirus vaccine provided rare glimmers of hope, the rampaging coronavirus pandemic triggered clangorous coast-to-coast health alarms: Infections are skyrocketing. So, too, are hospitalizations. And, yes, deaths are spiking, as well. Records are falling each day. Covid-19 is raging unchecked among the American people, with a season….
Continue ReadingWeary justices skeptical about GOP plan for high court to kill Obamacare
Although it’s risky to read too much into justices’ comments about cases argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, legal analysts found strong suggestions in such remarks to assert that the latest GOP challenge to the Affordable Care Act may have exceeded the legal validity of its extreme contentions. This could mean that Republicans — state….
Continue ReadingPatients finally gaining new access to medical records and doctors’ notes
Millions of Americans may be finding that their doctors routinely refer to them with terms like SOB and BS. But patients will be better off with this knowledge, once they learn how to translate medical abbreviations. The Associated Press reported that hospitals and health care systems nationwide quietly are complying with deadlines, and, under a….
Continue Reading