Although Medicare officials have slammed the door for now on paying for widespread use of a drug targeted for Alzheimer’s treatment, patient advocacy groups have thrown themselves into the battle over Aduhelm and whether taxpayers should pay its hefty price. Aduhelm is the risky, costly prescription medication with sparse evidence of its purported benefits for….
Continue ReadingArchives for April 2022
New focus on battling long Covid underscores infection’s persistent risk
Even as the coronavirus pandemic’s pause shows signs of faltering, medical experts are continuing their deeper digs into the novel infection’s long-term effects including how to treat debilitating long and medium Covid and the calamitous intersection between Covid and chronic conditions like diabetes. The Biden Administration — taking fierce criticism for not acting sooner and….
Continue ReadingDC budgets for major plans to tackle rising problems in road safety
Muriel Bowser, the mayor of the District of Columbia, continues to push for ways to deal with a major menace for pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists in the nation’s capital: road safety. Her latest $19 billion budget, the Washington Post reported, includes sizable spending for upgraded bike-share intersections, more bikeshare stations, and building additional bike and….
Continue ReadingBig Pharma donates big to GOP lawmakers as drug costs keep rising
While regular folks howl about the need to slash skyrocketing prescription drug costs, Big Pharma is showering lawmakers on Capitol Hill with campaign contributions and favoring Republicans in the House and Senate who show political promise — and an aversion to efforts to ensure the affordability of medications for the sick. The crushing costs of drugs….
Continue ReadingHedge funds under fire as doctor wins $26 million case on short-staffing
Medical leaders and politicians carp endlessly about medical malpractice suits, but when an emergency medical specialist diagnosed staffing shortfalls that threatened patient safety, guess what legal mechanism became crucial to his corrective crusade? Why, yes, of course, it was a lawsuit. A big one over wrongful termination. Let’s not over-focus on the irony of a….
Continue ReadingEven if pandemic lull lasts, more health care challenges are coming
The coronavirus pandemic does not have a magical on-off switch, and even if its current lull turns out to be longer lasting — and signs suggest this may not be so — the lethal infectious outbreak will keep sending shocks through the U.S. health care system that will affect us all. Experts are expressing growing….
Continue ReadingAlcohol abuse spiked during coronavirus pandemic, killing 100,000
Alcohol abuse blew up from a rising concern to a significant killer during the coronavirus pandemic, with 100,000 Americans losing their lives to booze-related causes, a 25% increase year-over-year in the first 12 months of the global infection’s outbreak. The figures from research newly published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows the….
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