Uncle Sam soon will step up what may be a positive trend: getting hospitals and nursing homes to halt the unacceptable boomeranging of elderly patients between them. But will Trump officials be as quick with health care providers as they have been with poor, sick, and old patients to employ not just carrots but also….
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For early-stage breast cancer patients, dreaded chemo may be unneeded
Breast cancer patients may get a welcome respite from one of the disease’s dreaded aspects — its aggressive and costly treatments. New research suggests that thousands of women with early-stage breast cancer who now are told to get chemotherapy don’t need it, while a larger, significant number of patients can benefit by halving the time….
Continue ReadingHospitals, cancer centers ripped for ‘tear-jerker’ hype and clinical trial ‘sell out’
With cancer care raining down more than $200 billion in billings on providers, giant hospitals and specialty treatment centers are resorting to unacceptable marketing and advertising hype, including pitches that “sell out” the credibility of science and a pillar of medical practice, commentators say. Credit’s due to journalist Steve Salerno and the Wall Street Journal….
Continue ReadingRetail clinics are booming, but can’t be a cheaper cure-all for patient needs
Americans are showing with their feet and their money how they feel about doctors’ offices and shiny hospitals, places they’re shunning more and more. They’re racing to neighborhood clinics and urgent care centers that seem to be popping up on every suburban street corner and shopping mall. Before these facilities transform U.S. health care, would….
Continue ReadingBig hospital ‘obsolescence’ may be nigh, but new care centers have woes, too
Although big, rich hospitals and their sprawling campuses jammed with shiny new buildings may be reaching a point where they’re unsustainable for competitive cost, safety, and efficiency reasons, a rising health care alternative already may be hitting its own major woes that can’t be ignored. The Wall Street Journal and New York Times have put up….
Continue ReadingThe U.S. way? Rich reap good health, while poor toil in sickness
Here’s something that many Americans likely would want to think twice about letting happen: Should good health and long lives be just another of the spoils reserved to the rich? Vox, a news and information site, has posted a provocative dig into national data on longevity — a measure that has raised experts’ concern with….
Continue ReadingWhat’s a key factor in black moms’ high death rates? Segregated hospitals
The bad news for expectant black moms isn’t confined to those living in the nation’s capital: A new investigation has found higher risks of harm for women in New York, Florida, and Illinois when they deliver at hospitals that disproportionately serve black mothers. ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative site, analyzed two years of hospital inpatient….
Continue ReadingAs bad 2017 ends, So. Calif. wildfires put yet more big stress on public health
The clock may be counting down to 2017’s end but Mother Nature isn’t giving up on whipping up calamities that wreak havoc on parts of the nation’s health care system and millions of Americans’ well-being. After swaths of the country were inundated by hurricanes and flooding, the West Coast is now battling yet more huge….
Continue ReadingBig, rich hospitals can do much more to battle asthma, opioid drug abuse
Even as they rake in big bucks and ride a tsunami of mergers and consolidations sweeping the U.S. health care system, big hospitals and academic medical centers must step up on patients’ behalf, doing much more, for example, to battle America’s growing asthma woes and the opioid drug abuse epidemic. Kaiser Health News, the Capital….
Continue ReadingExperts wave red flags about health harms tied to road warriors’ hard travels
Tens of thousands of Americans will hit the skies in the next few days, struggling to squeeze in that last bit of business before the holidays shut down 2017 opportunities. Are these business travelers harming their own health? The New York Times has put up an interesting report on the ubiquity and stress of business-required travel,….
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