Op-Ed in The Hill on Allowing Medicare to Directly Negotiate Drug Prices
Conclusion
There is no denying that Medicare and other government-funded programs are facing a serious funding crisis and that changes to the programs are long overdue. However, it is important to review history and not make the same mistakes that have already been made in attempting to resolve the issue. Instead, Dr. Fonseca believes that “Medicare beneficiaries should have more freedom to choose the coverage and services that best meet their individual needs and preferences.”
Related StoriesCMS Releases Report on Drug RebatesMedPAC Considers Revised Approaches to Part B Drug P...
Source: Policy and Medicine - March 16, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
The American Health Care Act And Medicaid: Changing A Half-Century Federal-State Partnership
Based on page length alone, it is evident that Medicaid is a focal point of the American Health Care Act, released on March 6. Although its fate is uncertain, the bill provides a clear sense of where the Affordable Care Act repeal and replace strategy is heading. Where Medicaid is concerned, what has been discussed for years has now become real: using ACA repeal/replace as the vehicle for a wholesale restructuring of the very financial foundation of the Medicaid program as it has existed over an unparalleled, half-century federal/state partnership.
As expected, the House bill essentially eliminates the enhanced funding lev...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - March 10, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Sara Rosenbaum Tags: Featured Medicaid and CHIP ACA repeal and replace Planned Parenthood Source Type: blogs
To Boost Sales, Gilead's Hep C Awareness Ad Focuses on Baby Boomers
Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) drug ads are less and less effective according to several studies including the eyeforpharma Whitepaper “The Great DTC Shake-Up: Patient perspectives on direct-to-consumer advertising. ”One reason for this is a"negative reaction to the use of what could be perceived as'scare tactics' or shock value to garner attention in a crowded media environment."In that report, I was quoted as saying “scare tactics might be good for awareness.” Now, however, I'm beginning to rethink that, especially whendisease awareness adsare scaring a large portion of the population to get teste...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - February 23, 2017 Category: Pharmaceuticals Tags: Gilead Harvoni Hepatitis C HepC Sovaldi Source Type: blogs
Details about CVS' MinuteClinic POCT Strategy
TheAssociation for Pathology Informatics (API) andSunquest Information Systems presented an interesting webinar yesterday entitled: Consumerism in Diagnostics: Retail Testing and the Future of Providers. The main portion of the presentation was delivered by Dan Kerls who is the Director of Ambulatory Operations forMinuteClinics.Mickey Urdea ofHalteres Associates, longtime executive and consultant in the IVD industry, also participated and asked a number of key questions and provided background commentary.Bob McGonnagle, publisher of CAP Today acted as the host. He...
Source: Lab Soft News - February 15, 2017 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Clinical Lab Industry News Clinical Lab Testing Food and Drug Administration Healthcare Delivery Lab Industry Trends Lab Regulation Medical Consumerism Point-of-Care Testing Test Kits and Home Testing Source Type: blogs
2017 update to the immunization schedule for kids
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Every year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) update the recommendations for immunizing children from birth to 18 years. This past week, the latest changes were published.
The changes are usually small, and this year is no exception. But they are important — and they are a sign of how these organizations, and all the scientists who study immunization, take immunization effectiveness and safety very seriously. There is ongoing research to be sure that vaccines do everything we want them to do. As that research is done, discoveri...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - February 14, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Claire McCarthy, MD Tags: Children's Health Infectious diseases Parenting Prevention Vaccines Source Type: blogs
What Experts in Law and Medicine Have to Say About the Cost of Drugs
By ANDY ORAM
Pharmaceutical drug costs impinge heavily on consumers’ consciousness, often on a monthly basis, and have become such a stress on the public that they came up repeatedly among both major parties during the U.S. presidential campaign–and remain a bipartisan rallying cry. A good deal of the recent conference named Health Law Year in P/Review, at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, covered issues with a bearing on drug costs. It’s interesting to take the academic expertise from that conference–and combine it with a bit of commo...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 2, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Andy Oram Drug Pricing Pharma Source Type: blogs
Project ECHO: Misplaced Skepticism Should Not Overtake Its Promise
In a recent Health Affairs Blog post titled “Project ECHO: Enthusiasm Overtakes Evidence,” Christopher Langston questions the value of investing in Project ECHO® (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes), a technology-enabled collaborative learning model originally developed by Sanjeev Arora, a physician at the University of New Mexico, to train primary care clinicians in rural communities to treat patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.
Over the past few years, an increasing number of philanthropic organizations (the New York State Health Foundation, GE Foundation, Greater Rochester Health Foundation, He...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - January 24, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: José Pagán, Elisa Fisher, Michael Hasselberg and Yeates Conwell Tags: Costs and Spending Featured GrantWatch Health IT Health Professionals Organization and Delivery Quality Project ECHO Source Type: blogs
Patient death by data: A poem
“Afternoon,” the doctor says. “What brings you here today?”
A cough? A cold? A belly ache? Some feelings of dismay?
Well, tell me just what ails you, and I’ll try to do my best,
To sort through all your problems and put your fears to rest.
But give me just a moment — my computer must get started.
Without attention to its needs, your visit goes uncharted.
You say your chest is hurting? And you’re really short of breath?
But lack of colon cancer screen could lead to early death!
And what about your tetanus shot? And hepatitis C?
And what of all the illness hidden in your family tree?
I know your chest is hu...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - January 23, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/ellen-kemper" rel="tag" > Ellen Kemper, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Primary care Source Type: blogs
The True Causes of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
Conclusions
Conventional medicine claims that infants sleeping on their backs is the best prevention for SIDS and has lowered the rates of SIDS. Research shows that statistical manipulation explains away any decline in SIDS, which continues to be a serious problem in the US. The US has the highest infant mortality rates compared to 34 other industrialized nations, while we also have the highest infant vaccination rates.
Substantial evidence links vaccinations to being the primary cause of sudden infant death syndrome.
References:
https://vactruth.com/2016/03/22/why-doctors-recommend-vaccinations/
http://www.mayoclinic.org...
Source: vactruth.com - January 22, 2017 Category: Allergy & Immunology Authors: Michelle Goldstein Tags: Logical Michelle Goldstein Recent Articles Top Picks Top Stories Source Type: blogs
A 7-Pound Premature Baby Died After Receiving 8 Vaccine Doses, Her Death Was Blamed On Co-Sleeping Instead Of The Toxic Vaccines
Conclusion
Medical examiners are putting the blame on parents for co-sleeping, while completely ignoring the vaccines given to the child hours or days before, when investigating these infant deaths. They will also relate an infant’s death to poisoning of the body due to something the child ingested or inhaled, but not from the poisons injected through the vaccines. [29]
In the state of Louisiana, health officials have been applauded for having fairly high vaccination rates, but at the same time, Louisiana has consistently been ranked one of the worst states in the nation for having high infant mortality rates, but nowher...
Source: vactruth.com - January 19, 2017 Category: Allergy & Immunology Authors: Augustina Ursino Tags: Augustina Ursino Case Reports on Vaccine Injury Human Recent Articles Top Picks Top Stories Aysia Hope Clark Lafayette General Medical Center National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Recombivax Source Type: blogs
Becoming a Digital Contributor: A Reflection on the Expanding WikiProject Medicine Course
By: Christine Greipp, MLIS, fourth-year medical student, University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine
The Expanding WikiProject Medicine course at UCSF, described in a recent Academic Medicine article, intrigued me for a number of reasons. With a master of library science, I had been a medical librarian before a medical student. My prior work was in consumer health and patient education within a tertiary hospital. I firmly believe that medicine is at its best a partnership between physicians and patients. So I naturally jumped at the chance to participate in this project, which has the admirable and ambitious...
Source: Academic Medicine Blog - January 17, 2017 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Guest Author Tags: Featured Trainee Perspective humanities in medicine medical education medical students research Source Type: blogs
Project ECHO: The Evidence Is Catching Up With The Enthusiasm
Enthusiasm can be a double-edged sword, as Christopher Langston notes in his recent critique of Project ECHO. He describes the model’s success as a case of enthusiasm overtaking evidence.
It’s true that the spread of ECHO has outpaced the publication of the research exploring it.
The enthusiasm of specialists and primary care providers engaged in this model of collaborative practice and mentorship has spurred tremendous momentum for ECHO all over the world. In fewer than 14 years, Project ECHO, which I developed with my colleagues at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center as a way to help people with hepat...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - January 13, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Sanjeev Arora Tags: Featured Health Professionals Organization and Delivery Population Health Public Health Quality Primary Care Project ECHO Source Type: blogs
Breast Feeding When Mom Feels Sick
Between sleep deprivation and putting the needs of others before their own, it’s pretty common for moms to get sick. It’s not uncommon for me to get questions about breast feeding when mom feels sick and I totally understand the concerns. There’s not one answer for everyone, but here are my thoughts.
Should I breast feed the baby if I’m sick?
Personalized precision medicine: If you have a minor illness, such as the cold or flu, not only is breast feeding still okay, but it can also be one of the best things you can do to help protect your baby. Your baby has probably already been exposed to the virus. As you ma...
Source: Conversations with Dr Greene - January 9, 2017 Category: Child Development Authors: Dr. Alan Greene Tags: Dr. Greene's Blog Uncategorized Breastfeeding Breastfeeding Tips Source Type: blogs
Breast Feeding When Mom Feels Sick
Between sleep deprivation and putting the needs of others before their own, it’s pretty common for moms to get sick. It’s not uncommon for me to get questions about breast feeding when mom feels sick and I totally understand the concerns. There’s not one answer for everyone, but here are my thoughts.
Should I breast feed the baby if I’m sick?
Personalized precision medicine: If you have a minor illness, such as the cold or flu, not only is breast feeding still okay, but it can also be one of the best things you can do to help protect your baby. Your baby has probably already been exposed to the viru...
Source: Conversations with Dr Greene - January 9, 2017 Category: Child Development Authors: Alan Greene MD Tags: Dr. Greene's Blog Uncategorized Breastfeeding Breastfeeding Tips Source Type: blogs
