health care

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Electronic Medical Records May Be Raising Costs

Critics says it's simple for doctors, hospitals to overcharge Medicare now

(Newser) - Electronic medical records are supposed to make things better, right? The idea is to make billing and care more efficient, which should reduce costs, too. Except, the New York Times reports that Medicare has been shelling out substantially more money to hospitals in recent years, thanks in part to the...

Drop in Circumcisions Could Raise Health Care Costs
As Circumcision Rates Fall, Health Care Costs Jump
STUDY SAYS
Aug 21, 2012 3:49 AM CDT

As Circumcision Rates Fall, Health Care Costs Jump

Medicaid shouldn't drop procedure, researchers say

(Newser) - American health care costs could be snipped significantly if the fall in circumcision rates was reversed, a new study claims. Around 55% of baby boys in the US are circumcised (down from 79% three decades ago), and 18 states have reduced funding for the procedure. If levels fall to Europe'...

Hospitals Should Be More Like ... Cheesecake Factory
Hospitals Should Be More Like ... Cheesecake Factory
in case you missed it
Aug 11, 2012 6:53 AM CDT

Hospitals Should Be More Like ... Cheesecake Factory

Atul Gawande argues for standardized health care

(Newser) - Medicine is plagued with inconsistency—different doctors have different preferred procedures; outcomes and costs are not predictable—and in an extensive New Yorker piece, Atul Gawande offers up a proposed solution: "Create Cheesecake Factories for health care." The doctor and author is serious—so serious that he spent...

Romney a Fan of ... Israel's Socialized Health Care

Mitt praises health care system at fundraiser

(Newser) - Mitt Romney simply cannot wait to repeal ObamaCare, but he is a fan of Israel's health care system … which has been socialized since its founding in 1948, BuzzFeed points out. During his visit to the country, Romney today praised Israel for spending so little on health care: "...

Romney Booed in NAACP Speech

Crowd jeers when he talks about repealing ObamaCare

(Newser) - Mitt Romney spoke to the NAACP national convention today, and most of the headlines are centering on the boos he got when he started talking about ObamaCare and the president himself. He endured three rounds of jeering in all, which amounted to the "most hostile reception of his campaign...

House on ObamaCare Vote: Now We're Repealing a Tax

GOP gleefully bandying about 'T' word in 31st vote

(Newser) - House Republicans will vote to repeal the health care reform law today, and if that sounds familiar, it's because they've done it 30 times already . But this time House leaders are gleefully bandying about the "T" word in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling that...

Obama, Romney, and the Truth About Health Care

AP runs down a few of their biggest distortions

(Newser) - We're getting a lot of conflicting information about how the health law will shape our future—and unsurprisingly, neither the current inhabitant of the Oval Office nor the man who would replace him is giving us the full picture. The AP parses President Obama and Mitt Romney's biggest...

GlaxoSmithKline Settles Fraud Case for Record $3B

It's the largest penalty ever paid by a health care company in US

(Newser) - GlaxoSmithKline is about to set a new record: It's paying $3 billion in what government officials say is the largest health care fraud settlement in US history, the AP reports. The company will plead guilty to charges related to three drugs, the Justice Department says: Prosecutors say GSK promoted...

Canadians Don't Threaten to Move to US

Hilariously, Americans vowed to head north over health care ruling

(Newser) - A lot of people were upset over yesterday's Supreme Court ruling in favor of health care reform, and BuzzFeed noticed that more than a few were protesting in a pretty hilarious fashion: by threatening to move to Canada. "I'm moving to Canada, the United States is entirely...

Some States on ObamaCare Deadlines: Who Cares?

Several skeptical of expanding Medicaid, too

(Newser) - The Supreme Court's ObamaCare decision is putting many states in a tight place: They've got to set up exchanges, the law's health insurance markets, by Jan. 1, 2014. But by Jan. 1, 2013, they have to show those exchanges will be ready on time—or the feds...

Health Insurance Ads Go Cuddly

Firms shift marketing toward individual consumers

(Newser) - Health insurers are targeting a new audience: you. If the health care law's individual mandate remains intact, the companies could be looking at 120 million new potential customers by 2020, an analyst tells the New York Times . Regardless of the Supreme Court decision on the law, insurers believe the...

Top Insurer: Law or Not, We'll Keep ObamaCare

UnitedHealthcare to maintain preventive services, other Obama rules

(Newser) - Elements of President Obama's health care law will survive regardless of the Supreme Court's decision. The nation's biggest health insurer, UnitedHealthcare—which covers some 9 million people—plans to maintain several sections of the law's "Patient's Bill of Rights": It will continue to offer...

Two-Thirds Want to Dump ObamaCare


 Two-Thirds 
 Want to Dump 
 ObamaCare 
NEW POLL
Jun 7, 2012 11:10 AM CDT

Two-Thirds Want to Dump ObamaCare

Just 24% want justices to keep ObamaCare intact

(Newser) - With a Supreme Court ruling due by the end of June, two-thirds of Americans want at least a piece of ObamaCare overturned, a New York Times/CBS News poll finds. The results mark little change since before Supreme Court arguments in March. About 41% say the whole law should be dropped;...

Retiring? Better Have $240K for Health Care

Fidelity releases annual estimate

(Newser) - Retiring this year? You and you significant other will need $240,000 for health care expenses, according to Fidelity Investments' latest annual projection. That's up 4% from last year's $230,000 estimate, which is a typical—and actually fairly modest—increase, BusinessWeek reports. Since 2002's $160,000...

Medical Bills? Your Credit Score Could Take a Whack

Health providers are using collection agencies more aggressively

(Newser) - That unpaid medical bill your insurance company promises to cover for you? Watch out, because even small medical bills are more likely to damage your credit score these days, the New York Times reports. A Texas man was surprised to find that an unpaid $200 ambulance bill (for his son'...

Black Kids Not Receiving Equal Care in ER: Study

Odds of getting pain meds lower than those of white kids

(Newser) - Black kids don't receive the same emergency-room care that white children do, according to a new study of 2,000 kids who sought treatment for abdominal pain in 550 hospitals. It found that black children were 39% less likely to receive painkillers than their white peers. The racial gap...

Highest, Lowest Doctor Salaries

Radiologists at top, pediatricians at bottom

(Newser) - The annual survey from Medscape/WebMD has all kinds of interesting factoids about physician finances—including the fact that many doctors regret their career choice. Highlights:
  • Highest paid: Radiologists and orthopedic surgeons make $315,000, followed by cardiologists ($314,000), anesthesiologists ($309,000), and urologists ($309,000).
  • Lowest paid: Pediatricians ($156,
...

Debt Collectors Go After Patients ... in the ER

'Patients are harassed mercilessly,' one hospital employee says

(Newser) - One of the country's biggest medical debt collectors has reached a new low: sending employees into hospital emergency rooms to "encourage" patients to pay past medical debts before receiving treatment. The Minnesota attorney general is investigating Accretive Health's practices; its debt collectors are allegedly instructed to all...

Health Report: Same Test Can Cost $786—or $1,819

Choice of provider could have big effect on your premiums

(Newser) - Yet another factor that could put a crimp in your wallet when it comes to health care: The cost of procedures such as colonoscopies, mammograms, and Pap smears vary wildly across the nation, according to a new report picked up by USA Today . Researchers found that colonoscopies, for instance, could...

Clarence Thomas: Justices Ask Too Many Questions

Lawyers deserve a chance to talk, he argues

(Newser) - Clarence Thomas thinks that his fellow Supreme Court justices asked too many questions during the recent oral arguments over health care—and that they ask too many questions, period, reports AP . "I don't see where that advances anything," Thomas told an audience at the University of Kentucky...

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