An increasing number of Americans, many with health insurance, are delaying or forgoing medical care because of concern about cost, according to a report from the Center for Studying Health System Change. A 2007 survey of 18,000 people found that 20% of the respondents said that they had put off or gone without needed medical treatment at some point in the prior year, up from 14% in a 2003 survey. Of those who said in the 2007 survey they had put off care, 69% cited concern about cost as a reason.
Doctors have long recruited patients to help advertise, but it has remained an open question as to whether doctors pay or remunerate those smiling patients in violation of the rules of many physician associations. But it's now clear that doctors openly offer "thank you" rebates and discounts to patients who post videos of their breast augmentations, bright white teeth or nose jobs. Most payments or freebies to post on video-sharing sites are modest, but they have raised concerns among medical ethicists and consumer advocates.
About 234 million major surgeries are performed worldwide each year, and surgery rates are much higher in high-income countries than in low-income countries, according to researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health. The rate of major surgeries was 37 times higher in countries that spend more than $1,000 per person on healthcare than in countries that spend less than $100 per person on healthcare. Researchers also examined surgical safety, and found 7 million patients a year suffer complications following surgery. Half of these complications are likely preventable, said the study authors.
Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. have joined with healthcare providers and insurers to lay out ground rules for protecting the privacy of online medical records. The guidelines are designed to reassure patients that they can enjoy the convenience of keeping their medical histories online without worrying that will open a door for outsiders to peruse the data without their knowledge. The "Connecting For Health" guidelines aim to give electronic PHRs at least the same level of protection already governing paper medical records, and also call for patients to be notified in a "timely way" if their medical information is released.
A group of leaders is getting started on a year-long effort to find a new owner for the struggling Prince George's County (MD) hospital system. Kenneth E. Glover, the man chosen as chairman of the state-created authority, has three decades of experience engineering big deals—but this could be one of the hardest. The next hurdle is waiting for the state and the county to finish negotiating how much both are willing to pony up to coax a business or consortium into bidding for parts or all of the system. The system consists of Prince George's Hospital Center, Laurel Regional Hospital, Bowie Health Campus and two nursing homes.
Latinos are the fastest-growing population group in Montgomery County, MD, and more needs to be done to boost their health and well-being, according to a report. Improvements include more access to medical care and expanding transportation and bilingual services, the report's authors state. The report added that estimates from 2005 suggest that more than 50% of Latinos in the county are uninsured, and about half do not have a primary-care doctor. Among Latinos who had not seen a doctor in the past year, the primary reason was the high cost of care, according to the report.