medications
Health, safety violations found at U of Iowa Hospitals
State inspectors have found dozens of violations of health and safety codes at the University of Iowa Hospitals, including incidents related to the deaths of nine patients. State inspectors found the... Read more...
ALSO NOTED: Highmark questions cardiac surgery reimbursement report; Indiana examines never events; and much more...
> Health plan Highmark is vigorously questioning a recent report noting large differences in reimbursements for cardiac surgeries in the Pittsburgh area. Read more...
Study:Patients prefer to get meds from doctor
A new study has concluded that 75 percent of Americans would like to fill their prescriptions at their doctors' office instead of a pharmacy. The study was conducted by Opinion Research Corp. on... Read more...
IBM offers RFID in fight against counterfeit drugs
Electronic tracking of pharmaceuticals is becoming the norm in hospitals and pharmacies, but now IBM wants to apply it to the drug manufacturing process in an effort to stamp out counterfeiting. A... Read more...
SPOTLIGHT: Medicare patients can't get drugs for off-label uses
In theory, physicians have every right to prescribe an off-label use for medications. However, as it turns out, Medicare beneficiaries can't always take advantage of this strategy. Under a recent CMS... Read more...
Surgeon accused of hastening death to collect organs
A San Francisco physician has been charged with a particularly nasty offense--that he gave excessive medications to a patient to speed his death and collect his organs for transplant use. If... Read more...
Study:Consumers choose cheaper services, drugs
Consumers are responding to the advent of higher-deductible plans and higher co-pays as you might expect. According to a new study by consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, patients who bear a higher percentage of the cost of health services are choosing lower-cost options for their care, such as substituting generics for branded prescription drugs or primary care visits for specialist visits. In particular, the study noted, consumers seemed to be happy to switch medications to save money, …
... Read more...ALSO NOTED: Medicaid coverage varies widely; Antidepressants OK for children?; and much more...
> New research by public advocacy firm Public Citizen has concluded that Medicaid coverage varies substantially from state to state. Article
> A study by Ohio researchers has concluded that only one in 100 children under 19 will become suicidal when placed on antidepressants. …
... Read more...Study: CDHPs lead patients to drop medications
New research funded by pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts has concluded that consumers give up medications rather than switch from brand-name drugs to generics. The study, which looked at healthcare claims for two national employers, compared prescription claims for the first nine months of 2005 versus the first nine months of 2006. The employers had kicked off CDHPs for their employees in January 2006, with one of the two employers seeing more than 20 percent of employees enroll. …
... Read more...Study: Doctors, patients critique each other
While most patients think doctors care about them and treat them well, many are quite annoyed by some of the administrative issues they face when visiting their primary care provider, according to a new survey conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center. The CRNRC polled 39,000 patients and 335 primary care doctors to find out what relationships between PCPs and patients were like these days. What they found was that while most patients felt doctors were providing good …
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