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A medical examination by the University of Pennsylvania of the US diplomats stationed in Cuba has shown their hearing problems were a result of symptoms of concussions. They had no trauma. It is believed it is caused by bombardment of low toned sound waves.
All environmentalists agree that we need to get rid of fossil fuel cars which smog. Let's see what happens now. A new study by UC Davis and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has show that there is a very strong link between smog and the use of lotions, perfumes, hair sprays, and other grooming and cleaning products. I want to see the attempt to ban them.
Anthem continues its cost cutting. The newest is that anesthesiologists are not necessary for cataract removal. I remember when Medicare said people did not need to come to the hospital the day prior to surgery but could be admitted the day of surgery and when Medicare said ophthalmologists did not need assistant surgeons all made a huge stink regarding patient safety. We were wrong and Medicare was right. Maybe Anthem is also right. I had two cataract surgeries. The first the anesthesiologist gave me meds and the second I had only local with no meds. Both went well and without a hitch. Medicare does now allow anesthesiologists to be present for cataract removal. Most cataract surgery is on Medicare patients.
California Healthline has a story about two people who essentially run San Diego County Medicaid managed health Community Health Group. They believe it is a conflict of interest but not illegal for the husband and wife to be paid as much as they get. She is the CEO and is being paid just above $600,000. That is a very high pay for a local Medicaid HMO head but the Group made 19% last year. He is a consultant and makes $275 an hour with a cap of about $575,000. The article makes all this sound terrible but it is all above board.
Another study, this one by Johns Hopkins, has shown the medical errors account for a huge number of deaths per year. The new study says the number is about 440,000. Medical deaths are defined as one caused by inadequately trained staff, error in judgment or care, a system defector a preventable adverse effect. None of these are on a death certificate so a subjective methodology is used. Top
The past CEO of SUNY upstate, a state run hospital, Dr. John McCabe resigned one year ago. He has done no work since for the hospital but has collected a salary of $600,500. He supposedly is a consultant to the now CEO of Upstate Medical University. He does nothing. This is a travesty but with New York it is routine politics as usual.
The Medical University of South Carolina has fired 13 people for HIPAA violations in 2017. They were mostly illegal snooping in medical records.
Anthem Blue Cross has accused California's Sonoma West Medical Center and Palm Drive Health Center of business fraud. They want money repaid, all $13.5 million. Anthem believes that the hospitals billed illegally for tests done by Reliance Laboratory. The lab paid the hospital $2 million for doing toxicology tests for the lab. The hospital used part of the money to purchase testing equipment. Providers from around the country send specimens to Reliance for testing. Reliance keeps part of the specimen and sends the rest for screening to various labs including the one in Sonoma. Sonoma bills Anthem for doing the tests but Anthem says it really does not as the tests have nothing to do with patients even seen by Sonoma West or its physicians. The hospital gets a huge markup, up to ten times, over what would be paid to a commercial lab. Illegal? Unethical, yep. The hospitals have rejected Anthem's claims and will be sued. Top
It is amazing when those in charge of EMR in an institution give an interview about their system. It is almost always great. A true interview would be with the rank and file physician who logs on the computer in the early morning prior to starting seeing their patients and are still logged on for hours after the 5 pm go home time. One way to get the computers and programs better would be to pay the physicians something for their overtime and more if they finished on time. In no other field would one be paid for a 9-5 job and spend many hours finishing paper work with no compensation. The feds pushed EMR to lessen administrative costs. No way is that happening and that has now been proven by a study by Duke and Harvard. The main thing computers are for is the maximalizing of charges. Top
DISCLAIMER: Although this
article is updated periodically, it reflects the author's point of view at the
time of publication. Nothing in this article constitutes legal advice. Readers
should consult with their own legal counsel before acting on any of the
information presented.