Under fire from Democrats in Congress, consulting firm McKinsey & Co. today released its methodology for a controversial survey that found as many as 30% of employers might drop health insurance after the new health law takes effect in 2014. But the hot water McKinsey's in doesn't seem to be cooling off. From the start, the survey raised eyebrows because its findings were so at odds with other studies that predicted far fewer employers would drop insurance for their workers. McKinsey acknowledged in its original article about employers' possible reaction to the law's implementation that "our survey educated respondents about its implications for their companies and employees before they were asked about post 2014 strategies." What that "education" was, however, was unknown. Until now, that is.
With medical research accelerating and doctors chasing not only treatments but also outright cures for terminal illnesses, research centers are increasingly forced to make the hard decision between helping current patients and focusing on research for the future, especially when the two missions conflict. Though Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center's choice not to participate in compassionate use frustrated the director of the melanoma program there, the lead investigator of the drug's trials in New York said the decision is understandable. "It takes money; it takes resources away from what you normally would be doing. So, each hospital would have to make that decision," said Paul Chapman, MD, lead investigator of the vemurafenib trials from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Hundreds of Maryland residents every year — whether by design or circumstance — had their bodies turned over or given to the state anatomy board for science. They will share a final resting place, cremated and placed under a single grave marker in a field at the Springfield Hospital Center in Sykesville. Monday, mourners will gather as 600 more boxes of ashes are buried, joining 20,000 others, in a mass burial held every year in June. "The state has a duty to provide a dignified disposition of a body, with humanity," said Ronald S. Wade, director of the state anatomy board. "I'm a big believer that at some point, rest in peace." Many of the people buried in Sykesville, their family histories, and sometimes even their families, lost. They all have stories, and though most will be buried with them, perhaps forever, survivors say they are grateful for the respectful end.
Efforts to improve patient safety need to move beyond the hospital to outpatient settings such as doctors' offices. That's one of the takeaways from a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that analyzes the malpractice claims paid on behalf of physicians. In 2009, there were 10,739 paid claims. In that year, the number of out- and in-patient claims was about the same (and both fell from 2005 levels), but the proportion of claims associated with outpatient care had edged up slightly. Counting events involving both settings, 52.5% involved outpatient care at least in part, resulting in about $1.5 billion in malpractice payments. Tara Bishop, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of public health at Weill Cornell Medical College, says that while there are about 30 times as many outpatient visits as inpatient visits in a given year, the characteristics of the two differ so much that it's hard to make a direct comparison about the relative risk of an error
The death of a Davie, FL mother who stopped breathing during liposuction three days ago is a tragedy that should prompt the state to make surgery offices safer, her family and attorney said Tuesday. Maria Shortall, 38, was a healthy domestic housekeeper who went to Alyne Medical Rejuvenation Institute in Weston to have fat removed from her midsection on Saturday, the family's attorney, Michael Freedland, said at a news conference. The family does not know what went wrong. The family is not now blaming Alyne. Freedland called on the state to toughen the rules to ensure that all cosmetic surgery offices can handle life-threatening emergencies. Shortall is the third cosmetic surgery patient whose death has come to light in Broward County since Christmas. An attorney for the surgery office and Shortall's surgeon, Alyne co-founder Dr. Alberto Sant Antonio, declined to comment on her death.
A steep rise in people caring for elderly parents is taking a toll on the health and finances of many baby boomers, a new study says. Older caregivers who work and provide care to a parent at the same time are more likely than other workers in their age group to report poor health, with problems including depression and chronic disease. There is evidence they "experience considerable health issues as a result of their focus on caring for others," the report says. The percentage of adult children taking care of their parents has tripled since 1994, with nearly 10 million people who are 50 and older doing so in 2008, according to a new analysis of the U.S. Health and Retirement Study, a bank of economic and health data on people over age 50 that was collected by the University of Michigan. The sample contained 1,112 people age 50-plus with at least one living parent. The financial toll on care providers who are 50 or older averages $303,880 per person in lost wages, pensions and Social Security benefits over their lifetime, due to leaving the work force early to care for a parent, according to the study.