Another clarion call to simplify a program so critical to the welfare of so many Americans was sounded earlier this month in a report published online by Health Affairs. It concluded that when faced with numerous Medicare Advantage plans, older Americans were less likely to enroll than if their choice of plans was more limited…..
Continue ReadingHealth Care Reform
Is Tobacco Promotion an Issue of Free Speech, or Protecting the Public Health?
Last November, the FDA ruled that tobacco manufacturers must include on their packaging graphic depictions of the horrors smoking can wreak. The new packaging was to take effect in autumn 2012. Five tobacco companies now have taken the FDA to federal court, challenging the regulations. Among other things, they claim that the depictions: would unfairly….
Continue ReadingMore Generous Insurance Coverage for Preventive Care for Women
The news that health insurers will be required to cover contraception and related counseling, courtesy of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed last year, received a lot of media attention and political blowback. Because some people find that provision of preventive care for women objectionable, it overshadowed other elements of the new guidelines, which pertain….
Continue ReadingShortage of Vital Drugs Shows Another Free Market Failure in Health Care
The U.S. faces a growing shortage of the low-profit but vital generic drugs that cancer patients and other desperate folks rely on. These drugs are made in places like India and China in plants that the Food and Drug Administration lacks power to inspect. Meantime, Big Pharma focuses on new high-profit but low-benefit drugs. The….
Continue ReadingState Medical Boards Are Letting Patients Down
If you follow patient safety news, you’ve seen this headline before. Why should you care? Apart from retaining an attorney to represent you in the event of medical malpractice, what stands most prominently between medical consumers and the bad behavior of health-care providers is their states’ medical boards. These government agencies are charged with licensing….
Continue ReadingBetter Treatment Decisions From More Accessible Research
You have lupus, the chronic inflammatory disease in which the body’s immune system attacks its tissues and organs. Sometimes the symptoms resemble the joint stiffness and swelling of arthritis; sometimes they present as skin rashes; sometimes your kidneys malfunction. There are four different kinds of lupus whose treatment might involve a variety of behavioral interventions….
Continue ReadingFinally, the True Story of “Tort Reform” on HBO
A favorite whipping boy of the medical industrial complex is the alleged wave of lawsuits that need to be squashed for freedom to reign once more in America. Now, a new documentary airing on HBO exposes the truth behind so-called “tort reform.” The documentary is called “Hot Coffee” — after the infamous case of spilled….
Continue ReadingPlugging the “Black Hole” in Medical Licensing Boards
Too often, patients and families with a serious complaint about an incompetent or unethical medical doctor will write their concerns to the state licensing board and then see their case drop into a black hole. But now, thanks to the work of one crusading family, the state of Washington has a new law to make….
Continue ReadingAccurate quality measures needed to improve health care quality and safety
The push to make hospitals and doctors more accountable for health care quality means more attention must be paid to the accuracy and reliability of measures used to evaluate caregivers, according to Johns Hopkins patient safety expert Peter Pronovost. There is little consensus as to which measures are scientifically valid and accurate assessments of quality,….
Continue ReadingWashington state bill seeks consumer accountability for medical licensing board
Washington state lawmakers have proposed a bill that would give more rights to people who file licensing complaints alleging medical mistakes. Up to now, when something terrible happens to a patient in a hospital or under a doctor’s care, families often file complaints with the Medical Quality Assurance Commission (MQAC) – the state’s medical disciplinary….
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