Maybe the health care law was about wealth transfer, after all. New research shows that the Affordable Care Act will significantly boost the economic fortunes of those in the bottom one-fifth of the income ladder while slightly reducing average incomes on the rungs above. Economists at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution, a Washington public policy center, found an average increase of about 6 percent in the incomes of the poorest 20 percent of the United States, meaning those making below approximately $20,600 a year. The study used a broad definition of income that counts the value of health insurance, which is not normally measured by Census Bureau income statistics.
Need to see a doctor? You may have to wait. A survey of physician practices in 15 metropolitan areas across the country, which was taken before the health law expanded coverage, found that the average wait time for a new patient to see a physician in five medical specialties was 18.5 days. The longest waits were in Boston, where patients wait an average of 72 days to see a dermatologist and 66 days to see a family doctor. The shortest were in Dallas, where the average wait time is 10.2 days for all specialties, and just 5 days to see a family doctor.
Across the country, an estimated 90 percent of those in county jails don't have health insurance. About the same number would qualify for subsidized health-care coverage under the Affordable Care Act. And those prisoners are more susceptible to chronic illnesses that, without treatment once they are freed, cost millions in emergency room visits. Now, the San Francisco Sheriff's Department thinks it can help cut costs — and reduce recidivism rates — by signing up many of the 31,000 people it books in jail every year for coverage under Obamacare.
Hospitals are turning away from donated blood because studies show a patient's recovery can be quicker and cheaper without transfusions, leading to layoffs at the statewide blood bank based in Orlando. OneBlood has terminated 43 employees as it works with hospitals and clinics to reduce the number of transfusions. "A new era of blood banking has arrived, and along with it comes shifts in how we operate. We must make tough decisions and align our resources and staffing needs accordingly," OneBlood spokeswoman Susan Forbes said.
Five months after they were first charged in federal court with the crime, seven Ohio oncologists have been ordered to collectively pay nearly $2.6 million in fines and restitution for importing cancer drugs not approved for use in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration. The doctors, who also were sentenced to probation, admitted to causing the shipment of misbranded drugs, a misdemeanor violation of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. The men, initially charged in criminal informations rather than grand jury indictments - which usually indicates the defendants are cooperating with federal prosecutors - were accused of obtaining drugs from outside the U.S. The drugs named included Zometa, Kytril, Taxotere, Gemzar, Eloxatin and others.
Wikipedia is the single leading source of health care information for both providers and patients, with 50 percent of physicians reporting that they've consulted the community-edited, online encyclopedia for information on health conditions. A report from IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, a medical technology company that draws on data from more than 100,000 suppliers and 45 billion healthcare transactions each year, finds that Wikipedia is the single leading source of medical information for patients and healthcare professionals. Serious illnesses, especially less common ones, are among the most frequently searched topics by English-language users.