health care

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Assad Shelling Hospitals, Torturing Patients: UN

Says Syrian gov't forces using denial of healthcare as 'weapon of war'

(Newser) - A new UN reports says that government forces in Syria have been using denial of healthcare as a "weapon of war": shelling hospitals, refusing treatment to people from rebel-controlled areas, and detaining and torturing patients—sometimes to death. The report says anti-government rebels are also guilty of attacking hospitals...

About Time: House Calls Making a Comeback
About Time: House Calls Making a Comeback
OPINION
Sep 6, 2013 1:15 PM CDT

About Time: House Calls Making a Comeback

They save money, keep patients out of ERs: Ezekiel Emanuel

(Newser) - One modern health care trend has old-fashioned roots: "After a half-century, the house call is making a comeback," writes Ezekiel Emanuel in the New York Times . It's a welcome trend as far as he's concerned, because these kinds of calls can take care of low-level problems...

'Cartels' Are Fueling Generic Drug Shortage

We must ensure a free market: experts

(Newser) - The US generic drugs business is effectively skirting the free market, prompting dangerous shortages that can make the difference between life and death, a group of pharmaceutical experts and activists argue in the New York Times . The US is currently facing shortages of 302 drugs, and a new law last...

Real Hospital Bill: $546 for Bag of Saltwater

 Real Hospital Bill: 
 $546 for Bag of 
 Saltwater 
in case you missed it
Aug 31, 2013 7:36 AM CDT

Real Hospital Bill: $546 for Bag of Saltwater

That's for 6 liters of water and 54 grams of salt

(Newser) - As far as price tags go, it's an attention grabber: $546 for six liters of water and 54 grams of salt. But that's what one patient was charged for what the New York Times calls "one of the most common components of emergency medicine": the IV bag....

Down With Annual Checkups!
 Down With Annual Checkups! 
OPINION
Aug 20, 2013 10:21 AM CDT

Down With Annual Checkups!

Brian Palmer thinks people should go to the doctor when they're actually sick

(Newser) - Here's some simple advice that will save you time and money: "If you're not sick, don't go to the doctor," writes Brian Palmer at Slate . Around 45 million healthy people spend 17 million hours a year completing their annual checkups, costing the health care system...

Our Enormous Hidden Problem: Unnecessary Surgeries

USA Today thinks up to 20% of cardiac procedures are bogus

(Newser) - There's an enormous epidemic afoot within the medical industry, and it's one that doesn't receive much attention: unnecessary surgeries. USA Today took an in-depth look at the issue, poring over the available research, and concludes that 10% to 20% of all surgeries in some specialties are unnecessary,...

Growing Threat to Medical Gadgets: Malware

FDA calls on manufacturers to devise security plans

(Newser) - What happens when malware attacks the very devices keeping us healthy? The threat has the FDA concerned, the Wall Street Journal reports: "We are aware of hundreds of medical devices that have been infected by malware," says a senior official. Thus far, there haven't been any known...

Parents to Sebelius: Tweak Transplant Law, Save Our Kid

Girl with cystic fibrosis needs adult lungs fast

(Newser) - Parents in Pennsylvania are calling for Kathleen Sebelius' help: Their 10-year-old daughter could have just weeks to live without a lung transplant, but current rules stand in her way. Suffering from cystic fibrosis, Sarah Murnaghan has been waiting for 18 months for a transplant. She's at the top of...

Why Americans Pay More for Colonoscopies

Because America charges more, and has made the procedure more profitable

(Newser) - Americans spend more on health care than any other country. A US hip replacement costs four times as much as one in Switzerland. A C-section costs three times as much as New Zealand. And a hospital stay costs triple that of other developed nations—though it doesn't typically last...

It's Official: Hospital Bills Make No Sense

$5K for a procedure in one hospital costs $223K in another

(Newser) - The charges on US hospital bills often seem entirely random and inconsistent, and now we know why: they probably are. The government has released data today on what 3,300 different hospitals charge for the 100 most common procedures. The results show massive variation, reports the Washington Post . One DC...

FDA Tightens Scrutiny of Surgical Robot

Move comes after increase of reports in problems

(Newser) - You may not have heard of the da Vinci surgical robot, but your local hospital surely has. The $1.5 million robot is a hot item in the medical world, having been used in 367,000 US surgeries last year. Now, however, the FDA is talking a closer look after...

VA Fudges Vets&#39; Health Data to Duck Costs
 VA Fudges Vets' 
 Health Data 
 to Duck Costs 
WHISTLEBLOWER SAYS
Mar 13, 2013 12:03 PM CDT

VA Fudges Vets' Health Data to Duck Costs

Former staffer says VA seeks to avoid expensive care

(Newser) - The Department of Veterans Affairs keeps some health data quiet to avoid the financial burden of expensive care, according to a former VA staffer set to testify today before a House subcommittee. If "studies produce results that do not support the office of public health's unwritten policy, they...

How Hospital Bills Are Killing the US
 How Hospital Bills 
 Are Killing the US 
in case you missed it
Mar 2, 2013 8:00 AM CST

How Hospital Bills Are Killing the US

Trumped-up bills 'drive the federal deficit': Steven Brill of Time

(Newser) - Getting Hodgkin's lymphoma was bad enough. Then Ohio resident Sean Recchi received his hospital bill: $83,900. You can blame his limited health insurance, but Steven Brill at Time looked behind the numbers to see why MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston charged so much. What Brill found: shocking...

Anti-Fraud Record: Per Dollar Spent, $8 Recovered

HSS boasts recovering $4.2B last year in health-care fraud effort

(Newser) - And the health-care fraud records just keep coming : The government last year recovered a record $4.2 billion that was stolen or illegally obtained from federal health-care programs, reports USA Today . That brings the since-2010 equation to this: $7.90 has been recouped via fines and legal judgments for each...

IBM's Watson to Start Dispensing Medical Advice

It teams with big insurer, hospital on two apps for doctors, insurers

(Newser) - Dr. Watson is accepting new patients. The Watson supercomputer is graduating from its medical residency and is being offered commercially to doctors and health insurance companies. IBM, the health insurer WellPoint, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center announced two Watson-based applications—one to help assess treatments for lung cancer and one...

Man Needing Health Care Threatens to Kill Obama

Stephen Espalin: I had 'no intent' to hurt him

(Newser) - A homeless Florida man says he only threatened to kill President Obama and his family in order to get better health care, the Sun-Sentinel reports. Stephen Espalin, 57, told a judge in West Palm Beach yesterday that he made the threat because he had chest pains and had been kicked...

US 'Vulnerable' to Fraud on Electronic Medical Records

Medicare is faulted for lax oversight

(Newser) - The shift to electronic medical records continues to have trouble. The New York Times reports that the federal government is doling out big money to doctors and hospitals for making the switch without properly ensuring that their new systems are up to snuff. As a result, federal investigators warn in...

Restaurateur's Plan: 5% ObamaCare Surcharge

John Metz to pass the buck to customers

(Newser) - Ordering a Grand Slam breakfast in Florida might soon cost a little bit more. John Metz, owner of Hurricane Grill & Wings and franchisee of 40 Denny's and a number of Dairy Queens in the state, plans to slap a 5% ObamaCare surcharge onto bills once ObamaCare is fully...

Romney White House Gives Health Insurers Fits

Industry could fave upheaval if he repeals ObamaCare

(Newser) - CEOs of big health insurance companies are surely salivating for a Mitt Romney presidency, right? Not necessarily, the AP reports. Though the insurance industry is no big fan of certain parts of ObamaCare, it has invested tens of millions preparing for it—and it stands to make scads of dollars...

Odds of Getting CPR Lower in Poor Areas
 Odds of Getting 
 CPR Lower in 
 Poor Areas 
study says
Oct 25, 2012 9:13 AM CDT

Odds of Getting CPR Lower in Poor Areas

Blacks and Latinos less likely to get help anywhere: study

(Newser) - Sudden cardiac arrest is America's top killer—but in the few minutes after it occurs, CPR can save a life. But cardiac arrest victims in lower-income, largely black neighborhoods are just half as likely to receive CPR as those in wealthier, white neighborhoods, a study finds. Those who suffer...

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