November 23rd, 2010 by RyanDuBosar in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Research
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Kids get inner ear infections and then they get antibiotics, despite a long-standing knowledge that it’s not always best. Any physician knows this, but who hasn’t faced an irate or anxious parent in the exam room insisting on a prescription, whether the evidence warrants it or not?
Reuters reports that the tally for all those antibiotics is $2.8 billion dollars, or $350 per child annually. And there’s only a slight benefit to them.
While hardly comforting to the parents, physicians can add more heft to their argument that antibiotics are only modestly more effective than nothing, and they can avoid the rashes and diarrhea that antibiotics incur. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
November 19th, 2010 by RyanDuBosar in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Research
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More than half of employers are likely to keep offering insurance rather than use state health insurance exchanges when they become available under health care reform in 2014, reported a survey by an insurance broker.
Willis Human Capital Practice released results of its Health Care Reform Survey 2010, which showed 55 percent of employers would keep their health plans in 2014 even if the new state exchanges offer competitive prices. The survey sampled 1,400 employers of varying sizes, industry sectors and geographies whose plans cover more than 9 million employees and dependents (including retirees).
Key findings from the survey include:
• 88 percent believe that group health plan costs will increase as a result of health care reform;
• 76 percent expect administrative compliance costs will increase;
• 72 percent plan to increase employee contributions in an attempt to offset higher administrative and premium costs. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
November 15th, 2010 by RyanDuBosar in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News
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Today begins a lame duck session of Congress before it breaks for Thanksgiving. It’s the final chance to work out a temporary patch to Medicare reimbursement before a 23 percent cut takes effect Dec. 1. Doctors are going to stop taking new Medicare patients if the cuts happen. And, as one breast cancer surgeon explains, if Medicare stops paying, so to private insurers and even military health programs. Congress will meet in December, but the damage will be done.
This all is happening two weeks before the baby boomers become eligible for Medicare. That populous generation starts to turn 65 beginning on Jan. 1, which means they become eligible for Medicare on Dec. 1, which, as we mentioned, is the day the 23 percent Medicare pay cut kicks in. Boomers will continue to become eligible for Medicare, one person every eight seconds, until December 2029. (CNN, The Washington Post, USA Today)
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
November 12th, 2010 by RyanDuBosar in Better Health Network, News, Research
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Physicians and particularly primary care doctors are reporting fewer industry ties than five years ago, according to a survey.
While 94% of doctors reported some type of perk from a drug or device maker in 2004, 83.8% did in 2009, researchers reported in the Nov. 8 Archives of Internal Medicine.
Researchers surveyed a stratified random sample of 2,938 primary care physicians (internal medicine, family practice, and pediatrics) and specialists (cardiology, general surgery, psychiatry and anesthesiology) with a 64.4% response rate. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
November 9th, 2010 by RyanDuBosar in Better Health Network, News, Research
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Antibodies can fight viruses from within infected cells, reported researchers who now believe that treatments could be applied to viral diseases like the common cold, “winter vomiting,” and gastroenteritis.
Previously, scientists thought that antibodies could only reduce infection by attacking viruses outside cells and by blocking their entry into cells. Once inside the cell, the body’s only defense was to destroy the cell. But protection mediated by antibodies doesn’t end at the cell membrane. It continues inside the cell to provide a last line of defense against infection.
Researchers at the U.K.’s Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology showed that cells possess a cytosolic IgG receptor, tripartite motif-containing 21 (TRIM21), which binds to antibodies with a higher affinity than any other IgG receptor in the human body. Antibodies remain attached when viruses enter healthy cells. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
