Unless the patient needs really intensive, round-the-clock care, most hospital-type care can be done in the patient’s home — where it’s safer, more comfortable and less expensive. That lesson is so well accepted that it was written into the federal health care reform law — to provide financial incentives for outfits called Independence at Home….
Continue ReadingHealth Care Reform
Berwick Resignation Is a Loss for Responsible Health Care
Patients’ rights advocates lost a valuable team member this month. Dr. Donald Berwick resigned as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for reasons wholly political. The respected, forward-thinking medical professional opted to leave rather than continue in the role for which President Obama sought Congressional approval, but resorted to a so-called….
Continue ReadingWhy Don’t Medical Procedures Have Price Tags?
A primary consumer benefit of free enterprise is competition. Not happy with the service/quality/price of something you want to purchase? Compare one merchant’s offer with that of another, and take your business where it makes most sense to you. A few months ago, we wrote about a Florida law requiring urgent care clinics to post….
Continue ReadingFederal Health Agency Takes Side of Multi-Sued Surgeon
A Kansas neurosurgeon who has been sued at least 16 times for malpractice has been able to enlist one important ally in protecting his privacy: the federal agency that runs the data bank that is supposed to keep track of dangerous doctors so they don’t drift from hospital to hospital without their track record becoming….
Continue ReadingThe Cost to Consumers when Drug Companies Sue Each Other
Last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a report with the boring title “Agreements Filed with the Federal Trade Commission under the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003.” But the story it tells is hardly dull, and it has implications for anyone who takes prescription medicine. If you want to read….
Continue ReadingExposing the Myth of Frivolous Lawsuits, One Laugh at a Time
Stephen Colbert knows a thing or two about hypocrisy in the USA and how to get a laugh out of it. In this segment on his show, he interviews Susan Saladoff, director of the HBO documentary, Hot Coffee, about the myth of frivolous lawsuits. Why mention this on a patient safety blog? Because the medical….
Continue ReadingConservative Group Says Capping Patients’ Malpractice Damages Could Encourage Unsafe Medical Care
The conservative Cato Institute is out with a new study arguing that putting limits on malpractice verdicts could be doubly bad for patients. It could result in both inadequate compensation for victims of malpractice, and could reduce the incentives of malpractice insurance carriers to hit malpracticing doctors with financial penalties to encourage better and safer….
Continue ReadingThe Award for Most Fear-Mongering Health Care Statement of the Year …
… goes to Skip Lockwood, head of a prostate cancer advocacy group called Zero. When the US Preventive Services Task Force recommended against routine screening of men with the PSA blood test, Lockwood said the PSTF’s advice “condemns tens of thousands of men to die this year and every year going forward…” Prostate cancer kills….
Continue ReadingProof that Medical Innovations Can Save Lives at Low Cost
The scourge of cervical cancer — a leading cancer killer of women in the third world without access to Pap smears and HPV vaccinations — is being whipped with an unlikely low-tech, low-cost preventive treatment: Ordinary vinegar plus freezing of the cervical warts before they turn cancerous. The vinegar is brushed on the cervix by….
Continue ReadingAn Honest Discussion of “Appropriate” Care
At a time when the cost of health care represents nearly one-fifth of the U.S. gross domestic product, it is reasonable and necessary to discuss the notion of “appropriate care.” But a fair and conscientious examination of what measures, personnel and technologies should be employed to diagnose and treat medical problems must get past such….
Continue Reading