The New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners must decide if Dr. Philip B. Eatough, 60, overprescribed pain medications and should have his license to practice medicine temporarily suspended until an administrative law judge can determine whether or not it should be permanently revoked or suspended. An investigation by detectives and federal agents resulted in an 11-count federal indictment that has charged the doctor with prescribing the painkillers oxycodone and morphine sulfate to some of his patients illegally.
Half of the state's hospitals lost money or recorded margins of less than 1 percent in 2006, according to a recent analysis by the Healthcare Association of New York State. The average profit-margin for hospitals nationwide is 4 percent.
As part of the facility's 100-year celebration, Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center has launched Story Project, a historical archive of inspiring personal narratives written by patients, families, friends and Children's staff members and volunteers. The hospital hopes to gather 1,000 stories for the public to read.
Federal health experts are optimistic they will be able to reduce excessive deaths at an Afghan maternity hospital where a U.S. medical training program is under congressional investigation. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which runs the program, plans to send teams of obstetric and pediatric experts to Rabia Balkhi Hospital in Kabul to begin working alongside Afghan doctors to bolster their training.
Doctors who care for poor children in New Jersey are getting their first increase in Medicaid rates in two decades, and reimbursements will more than triple. The increases were possible because the governor set aside an extra $10 million in state money last summer for Medicaid reimbursements for pediatric healthcare providers in 2008, and it will be matched by $10 million in federal funding.
Free drug samples are more likely to go to wealthy and insured people than to poor or uninsured Americans, according to a study by Boston-area doctors. The findings conflicts with the view that giving away prescription medications forms a safety net for low-income patients.