Category Archives: Headline of the Day

When Healthcare Makes You Sick: What surgeons leave behind costs some patients dearly

March 20, 2013

Peter Eisler, USA TODAY – March 8, 2013.  More than a dozen times a day, doctors sew up patients with sponges and other supplies mistakenly left inside. The mistake costs

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CRE – The New Superbug

March 13, 2013

A family of bacteria has become increasingly resistant to last-resort antibiotics during the past decade, and more hospitalized patients are getting lethal infections that, in some cases, are impossible to

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Dollars for Docs Mints a Millionaire

March 11, 2013

by Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein  ProPublica, March 11, 2013  – During the last four years, the 47-year-old Draud has earned more than $1 million for delivering promotional talks and consulting for

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Lax Policing of Doctor and Pharmacy Conflicts Is Found in Medicare Coverage Decisions

March 6, 2013

NY Times By ROBERT PEAR  March 5,   WASHINGTON — Deciding which drugs will be covered by Medicare can influence huge amounts of spending, but government officials do little to police conflict of

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Developmentally Disabled, Nursing Homes Can Be Dangerous Mix

March 6, 2013

By DAVE ALTIMARI, JOSH KOVNER and MATTHEW KAUFFMAN, daltimar@courant.com The Hartford Courant, March 5, 2013    Last April, Barbara Vaccaro called a local Italian restaurant and had a plate of ziti and

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Medicare paid $5.1B for poor nursing home care

March 5, 2013

Feb. 28, 2013   By: GARANCE BURKE – SAN FRANCISCO (AP) —  Medicare paid billions in taxpayer dollars to nursing homes nationwide that were not meeting basic requirements to look after

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Missed diagnoses common in the doctor’s office

March 1, 2013

Mon Feb 25, 2013 | Feb 26 (Reuters) – Missed or wrong diagnoses are common in primary care and may put some patients at risk of serious complications, according to

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PatientsLikeMe Project Pioneers Use of Outcomes Data That Are Meaningful To Patients

February 27, 2013

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation | Feb 25, 2013,  RWJF has awarded PatientsLikeMe a $1.9 million grant to create the world’s first open-participation research platform to develop patient-centered health outcomes. The

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‘Communities of Care’ Model Saves $5 Million In Hospital Costs

February 15, 2013

C-HIT  By: Lisa Chedekel  2-14-2013  Connecticut has saved an estimated $5.4 million in Medicare costs since 2010 by reducing re-hospitalizations of patients through a collaborative “communities of care” model in

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Feds to Publicize Drug and Device Company Payments to Doctors Next Year

February 7, 2013

by Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber | ProPublica, Feb. 1, 2013 – After years of anticipation, all of the nation’s drug and medical device makers must soon begin publicly reporting

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