January 14th, 2010 by Harriet Hall, M.D. in Better Health Network, Opinion, Research
Tags: Bone Density, Boniva, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Exercise, Fractures, Harm, Merck, Osteopenia, Osteoporosis, Risk Benefit Ratio, Sally Field, Side Effects, Vitamin D
1 Comment »
A recent story on NPR accused the drug manufacturer Merck of inventing a disease, osteopenia, in order to sell its drug Fosamax. It showed how the definition of what constitutes a disease evolves, and the role that drug companies can play in that evolution.
Osteoporosis is a reduction in bone mineral density that leads to fractures. The most serious are hip fractures, which require surgery, have complications like blood clots, and carry a high mortality. Many of those who survive never walk again. Vertebral fractures are common in the osteoporotic elderly and are responsible for dowager’s hump and loss of height. There is also an increased risk of wrist and rib fractures. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
January 13th, 2010 by BobDoherty in Better Health Network, Health Policy
Tags: Government, Health Insurance, healthcare, Healthcare reform, Insurance, medicaid, Medicare, Private, Recession, Spending
No Comments »
Much of the debate about the health reform has been on whether or not it will lead to government-run health care. But the fact is that the government’s share of health care spending already is growing at a faster rate than private spending, a trend accelerated by the recent economic recession.
A new report from Medicare’s actuaries, published in the journal Health Affairs, found that “Federal government spending for health services and supplies increased 10.4 percent in 2008 . . . and accounted for almost 36 percent of federal receipts, up considerably from 28 percent in 2007. By comparison, spending for health care by private businesses grew just 1.2 percent in 2008, in part because of a drop in the proportion of employer-sponsored insurance premiums paid for by employers” while “health care spending by households grew 4.3 percent in 2008, a deceleration from 5.9 percent growth in 2007” but still more than the adjusted personal income growth of 2.7%.
The current economic recession, the authors say, had two major impacts on health spending: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty*
January 13th, 2010 by Davis Liu, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, True Stories
Tags: Advocacy, Cancer, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Medical Communications, Navigating the healthcare system, Oncology, Orthopedics, Patient Advocate, Phone Call, Primary Care
No Comments »
I’ve always wanted to be a doctor.
Never a writer.
With a new year and a new decade, I am determined to become a better writer not because of some childhood dream or expectation from others, but because of a near mishap that occurred at the beginning of 2000. A simple phone call changed the destiny of my brother from having a good outcome to having a great outcome. A simple phone call may have been the difference between “you are cancer free” to “I’m sorry to tell you it’s come back.” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the Healthcare Crisis*
January 13th, 2010 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Better Health Network, Opinion
Tags: Emergency Medicine, Narcotics, Popularity, Saying no to drug seekers, Unnecessary Testing
1 Comment »
This is my column in EM News for the month of January. Sometimes, being a physician means saying no and being disliked. It’s not a popularity contest! It’s about doing the right thing.
Most of us went into medicine because, in addition to being good students, we wanted to help people. How many oceans of ink and forests of paper have been used explaining that point to admissions committees we’ll never know. Suffice it to say, it felt very good when our professors wrote us glowing letters of recommendation. Of course, we were also saying, “I want to feel good about helping people. I want the recognition associated with the act of helping!” Premedical students, medical students, and physicians tend to be those people who desire accolades and who are naturally well-suited to attaining them. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
January 13th, 2010 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Opinion
Tags: 30 Day Readmission Rate, Addiction Medicine, Alcoholism, Bounce Backs, Cause of Readmissions, CHF, Diabetes, Hospital Readmissions, Internal Medicine, Reducing Hospital Readmissions, Why
3 Comments »
Bouncing back to the hospital refers to patients who were discharged from the hospital but return during some defined period of time. This will become important as insurance companies, including CMS, stop paying for patients who are readmitted within some defined period for the same condition. In medical circles, we usually refer to this as the 30 day readmission rate.
When hospitalist groups were first coming on the scene and were showing reduced length of stay, many folks falsely believed that hospitalists must have a higher percentage of patients bouncing back into the hospital. I have yet to see any research that indicates such trend every existed. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist Blog*
