Article discusses the conflicts – do these payments affect prescribing patterns? Certainly an issue in a case involving a patient with several treatment options, the most effective not being that for which his/her doctor is paid.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/25/us/payments-to-doctors-by-pharmaceutical-companies-raise-issues-of-conflicts.html?_r=1&ref=health
This article ( http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/23/us-usa-healthcare-oecd-idUSTRE7AM0NN20111123 ) gives some facts about the US and how it compares to other industrialized countries regarding money spent on health care and its relation to the overall health of their citizens. It illustrates a point that my group brought up in our presentation–that the more money spent on health care does not equate to healthier and longer lives!
I’m pretty curious how this will pan out… Although I think if med mal suits are made quicker, and they trim costs there will be two major costs and benefits:
1. More victims of medical malpractice will bring suit, because they can devote the shortened period of time. Moreover, if suits are less costly, more people will be willing to bring suits and more attorney’s will be willing to take them.
2. This could have a negative influence on the amount of frivolous suits.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/judge-devises-model-for-resolving-medical-malpractice-cases-more-quickly/2011/11/16/gIQAT0EthN_story.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/19/richard-smith-execution-drug_n_1103116.html
Here’s a short article regarding EHB’s and how different federal agencies must come together to create the most ideal EHB. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/18/ED4S1M1DQG.DTL
Check this out guys! http://www.scotusblog.com/2011/11/court-sets-5-12-hour-hearing-on-health-care/
This recent New York Times article describes the new Medicare reimbursement rules that will change the payment to hospitals depending if their patients give them sufficiently high marks in surveys. Seems like a good idea. But New York hospitals are concerned that they will suffer compared to midwest hospitals because New Yorkers are likely to kvetch over small imperfections (in promptness or in meal quality) that midwesterners will accept and thus NY hospitals will be downgraded based not on objective quality but demandingness of the patient population!!
This New York Times article tells of the struggle of private safety net hospitals in Brooklyn, given increasingly smaller Medicaid payments and a poor local population. One proposed solution: have the taxpayers pick up their debt and then transfer the facilities to for-profit hospital chains, who can make them work by being more efficient. The question is if that management strategy would also include trying to avoid providing services to the poor and uninsured, thus increasing the strain on public hospitals. Echoes of the Jackson Health System dilemma??
Interesting study regarding pediatric defensive medicine in the United States. This may have interesting implications regarding drug resistance especially considering the rise of MRSA cases over the past few years.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/08/us-prescriptions-children-idUSTRE7A747G20111108
A woman in Nashville was reportedly sending parents “chickenpox lollipops” she claimed were contaminated with her sick children’s saliva at $50 per lollipop. Some vaccine-weary parents are under the mistaken idea that by doing this they will expose their children to chicken pox virus, thus bypassing the need for the formal vaccine. The parents believe that this method is more effective and safer than receiving a vaccination. In reality, the lollipops will not immunize their child and could actually expose their children to other, more severe, infections. A federal prosecutor has warned parents who are fearful of vaccinations that making a deal with a stranger who promises to mail them lollipops licked by children with chickenpox is illegal. It is a federal crime to send diseases or viruses across state lines.
Having conducted epidemiology research in my prior career, this story just makes my head hurt. For the children’s sake, I hope the lollipops were at least tasty ones.
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