WATSONVILLE – For the greater part of 2008, Dr. Chris O’Grady closed his doors to new Medicare patients.
He was already caring for so many elderly patients in his Watsonville-based family practice that he was often going home at 10 p.m.
Medicare paid him far less than he considered fair – and now the government was threatening to cut the rates again.
Many of the county’s primary care doctors have struggled before reaching the same conclusion.
Read the rest of this entry »

THURSDAY, Feb. 5 (HealthDay News) — Last summer, Keith Blessington had just been told that he was eligible for private health insurance to replace his government-funded COBRA coverage when it ran out.
Then, the 55-year-old New Hampshire resident was diagnosed with late-stage stomach cancer, and everything changed.
Although the COBRA coverage paid for most of the cost of his initial surgery, by the time he got out of the hospital having had half Read the rest of this entry »

THURSDAY, Feb. 19 (HealthDay News) — A powerful clot-busting drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in stroke patients in 1996 is still rarely used in Medicare patients, new research shows.
Only 2.4 percent of the more than 495,000 admissions for stroke at the 4,750 hospitals evaluated were given tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), said study author Dr. Dawn Kleindorfer, an associate professor of neurology at the University Read the rest of this entry »

When cancer strikes one member of a family, what seems like an intensely personal catastrophe can suddenly bring down the entire household.
But Sunday, for 200 men, women and children who know the disease’s terrible toll all too well, a holiday party hosted by a unique program for patients and their families offered a chance to give thanks, both for a happier ending and for the help they received in getting there.
“It’s like they don’t care about Read the rest of this entry »

MONTHS after a country hospital served baked beans for three weeks because NSW Health had not paid its meat bill, staff are still using petty cash to buy food over the counter for patients because businesses are refusing to deal with the health service.
Meat supplies were cut off to 15 hospitals across the Greater Western Area Health Service in September after the Dubbo Meat Company waited four months for a $30,000 bill to be settled.
It is believed Read the rest of this entry »

Is alcohol a tonic or a toxin? The question is especially critical to older people, whose overall medical picture gives alcohol the potential to be a health benefit or a life-shortening hazard.
Yet experts say that doctors rarely ask older patients how much and how often they drink. Not knowing the answers to these questions can result in misdiagnosis, medical complications and life-threatening accidents. Doctors may also fail to recognize Read the rest of this entry »

Washington, D.C. – infoZine – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration licensed RiaSTAP, an orphan drug for the treatment of bleeding in patients with a rare genetic defect known as congenital fibrinogen deficiency. Without treatment, these patients are at risk of potentially life-threatening bleeding.
People with congenital fibrinogen deficiency are unable to make sufficient amounts of fibrinogen, which plays an important role in blood coagulation Read the rest of this entry »

A year ago today, the
that federal law bars lawsuits “challenging the safety or effectiveness of a medical device,” as long as the device is marketed in a form approved by the FDA.
The ruling, in a case called
, relied heavily on a federal law that regulates medical devices; now, some key congressional players are looking to change the law, this morning’s
reports.
Democrats Henry Waxman and Frank Pallone plan to introduce Read the rest of this entry »

Four men seeking treatment for erectile problems were exploited by a doctor who treated them as customers rather than patients, a report by the Health and Disability Commissioner has found.
The four men complained to the commissioner after they were seen at four different branches of the New Zealand's Men's Health Clinic which specialises in erectile dysfunction.
Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson said the doctor, who was Read the rest of this entry »

By Bruce Mirken Special to Salem-News.com
Pressure from the Bush Administration to keep marijuana illegal in other nations is fading.
(SAN FRANCISCO) – Germany is about to become the fifth country to allow at least some patients to use natural marijuana as medicine. According to a
, the German government recently notified four patients that they would be allowed to receive medical marijuana produced under the
Dutch government’s medical Read the rest of this entry »