If millions of young folks in the nation’s largest state seem even sunnier than before, that may be because they are getting a wee bit more needed shut eye: California has become the first state in the nation to order public schools to roll back their start times, so middle school classes generally won’t start….
Continue ReadingKidney Dialysis
Will GOP attack on Obamacare foil good plans to better kidney disease care?
More than 37 million Americans who suffer from chronic kidney disease soon may see big changes in the way their disabling condition gets treated, potentially also reducing the $100 billion that the federal Medicare program pays for care of the body’s crucial blood cleaning organs. President Trump issued an executive order calling on the federal….
Continue ReadingFor diabetics and dialysis patients, glimmers of better news on costs of care
Diabetics and those with failing kidneys may have gotten a glimmer of relief from the staggering costs of caring for their conditions, as Big Pharma relented a tad with news it will put out a less-costly insulin product and federal officials suggesting Uncle Sam soon may be upsetting the flush profits of the dialysis industry…..
Continue ReadingDialysis May Not Be the Best Choice for Older People with Kidney Failure
Dialysis is a life-saving process that filters impurities from the blood when the kidneys no longer are able to perform that vital function. But a lot of older people whose conditions require kidney dialysis are opting out, choosing a better quality of life over a longer life. A recent story in the New York Times….
Continue ReadingWhy Should Organ Donors Suffer for Their Selflessness?
In addition to their willingness to undergo a potentially risky invasive procedure for the benefit of someone else, living organ donors also are financially generous. Their out-of-pocket expenses average $5,000 because, although a recipient’s insurance covers the donor’s medical expenses, it doesn’t cover transportation, lodging, child care and lost wages. So there’s a movement to….
Continue ReadingFDA Supports Pradaxa, But Many Doctors Don’t
The blood-thinning drug Pradaxa has starred in a long-running drama with hundreds of adverse event reports, scores of lawsuits and more than 500 deaths. Introduced in 2010 as an option to Coumadin (warfarin), Pradaxa is under fire for dire side effects including hemorrhage and internal bleeding, as we wrote earlier this year. Unlike older anti-clotting….
Continue ReadingProblems with Kidney Dialysis Put Patients at Risk
For people whose kidneys no longer function well enough to process waste products or maintain proper levels of certain chemicals in the bloodstream, kidney dialysis is the only treatment except for transplant. But kidneys — and the dialysis procedure — are complicated, and a few recent stories are a heads-up for people affected by kidney….
Continue ReadingFewer central line infections in ICU, but not in other wards
The number of bloodstream infections in intensive care units (ICUs) caused by tubes inserted into major blood vessels decreased significantly between 2001 to 2009, but unacceptably high rates of infection are still occurring for patients in other hospital units and for dialysis patients, government researchers say. Central lines are tubes that are usually placed in….
Continue ReadingRampant Malpractice and Safety Hazards Found in Kidney Dialysis Centers
ProPublica, the investigative reporting group, is publishing a series on the quality of care the nation’s 400,000 dialysis patients get, and it’s not pretty. The basic conclusion: “Taxpayers spend more than $20 billion a year to care for those on dialysis — about $77,000 per patient, more, by some accounts, than any other nation. Yet….
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