We usually assume that new medical procedures and drugs are adopted because they are better. But a new analysis has found that many new techniques and medicines are either no more effective than the old ones, or worse. Moreover, many doctors persist in using practices that have been shown to be useless or harmful. Scientists reviewed each issue of The New England Journal of Medicine from 2001 through 2010 and found 363 studies examining an established clinical practice. In 146 of them, the currently used drug or procedure was found to be either no better, or even worse, than the one previously used. The report appears in the August issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
Long Island College Hospital remained open past its original scheduled closing date of Sunday, and medical workers and elected officials marked the occasion with a loud protest. Workers gathered opposite of the hospital's entrance to call on Governor Andrew Cuomo to help keep the facility open. LICH was set to close on Sunday, according to the closure plan approved by the state, but a state supreme court has kept a temporary restraining order in place to keep the facility open, until legal arguments are heard on Wednesday.
SHREVEPORT, La. — More than 2,300 employees at LSU hospitals in Shreveport and Monroe can start applying for jobs with the hospitals' new operator starting Aug. 5 Biomedical Research Foundation Hospital Holding Co. will take over management of the former public hospitals Oct. 1. That nonprofit, a subsidiary of Biomedical Research Foundation in Shreveport, will provide pay and benefits to hospital employees. Gov. Bobby Jindal turned to LSU hospital privatization after Louisiana faced a drop in its federal Medicaid financing rate, which meant the state gets fewer federal matching dollars for every state dollar it puts up.
INDIANAPOLIS -- In the raging federal health care debate, numbers are turning out to be some of the most partisan tools available to Democrats, Republicans and everyone with a stake in the game. Indiana residents have gotten a rare look at the spinning of statistics and price tags that happens regularly in government as Gov. Mike Pence's point man on federal health care estimated that residents would pay 72 percent more for health insurance through the insurance exchange being built. That, of course, is an incredible simplification of an incredibly complex topic, something Democratic supporters of President Barack Obama's signature legislation pointed out shortly afterward and followed with some spin of their own.
An Indiana jury Friday awarded a woman $1.44 million after finding Walgreens and a pharmacist violated her privacy when the pharmacist looked up and shared the woman’s prescription history. The lawsuit filed in Marion Superior Court spun out of a tangled relationship between the pharmacist, her husband and the man’s ex-girlfriend. The verdict and seven-figure award came at the conclusion of a four-day jury trial. "As a provider of pharmaceutical service, defendant Walgreens Co. owes a non-delegable duty to its customers to protect their privacy and confidentiality of its customers' pharmaceutical information and prescription histories," the woman's attorney claimed in the lawsuit.
A growing group of congressional Republicans is pushing leaders to defund ObamaCare in the next government spending bill, setting the stage for a showdown in September, when the current continuing resolution expires. Twelve Senate Republicans sent a letter Thursday to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) declaring they would not support a government funding bill unless it excludes funds for the healthcare law. And 66 House Republicans, more than one quarter of the conference, have signed on to a similar letter from Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) urging Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) not to allow votes on a government funding bill unless it chokes off money for the Affordable Care Act.