The U.S. government estimates that 80,000 Americans died of flu and its complications last winter — the disease’s highest death toll in at least four decades. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, revealed the total in an interview Tuesday night with The Associated Press. Flu experts knew it was a very bad season, but at least one found size of the estimate surprising.
State officials are crying foul after a doctor found to be overprescribing opioids -- including to an undercover investigator -- was allowed by an oversight board to keep practicing medicine. In a rare public rebuke of one of their own boards, New Jersey's attorney general and the director of the Division of Consumer Affairs said the Toms River doctor, Bruce Coplin, "put the public's safety at risk" by not adequately vetting patients at his large pain management practice.
A North Carolina woman delivered her baby girl in a mobile hospital after Florence, with help from a team that delivered a baby after Hurricane Matthew, too. Atrium Health announced the Friday birth on Facebook Saturday. “We’re thrilled to introduce you to baby girl Murphy who was born inside Carolinas MED-1 on Friday! Congratulations to mom and dad!” Atrium Health said.
Since the integration of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, uninsured Ohioans below the federal poverty level have drastically dropped to 12.8 percent in 2017 from 36.1 percent in 2008, remaining the lowest rate ever documented, according to the Ohio Department of Medicaid. Although a major decline in the uninsured, Lorain County’s free clinic and nonprofit health care providers said they have experienced an uptick in patients and a greater need in the county.
Cornell University has been investigating his research since November. In a statement, the university told BuzzFeed News that Wansink was found to have "committed academic misconduct in his research and scholarship, including misreporting of research data, problematic statistical techniques, failure to properly document and preserve research results, and inappropriate authorship."
A contract dispute between Austin Regional Clinic and UnitedHealthcare has left an estimated 5,000 Medicare patients without access to their physicians, according to clinic officials. Patients who are enrolled in UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare Advantage plan were notified through mail by the insurance company last week that Austin Regional Clinic would no longer be in their network starting next year, clinic officials say.