The use of retail health clinics has risen from 10% of consumers in 2007 to 17% in 2010.
If your heritage is non-African, you are part Neanderthal. This latest research confirms earlier findings. (HT: Tyler)
No increase in surgical deaths after each new class of medical school graduates begins residency programs at teaching hospitals in July. There is a 10% increase in fatal medical errors.
Mom says doctor prescribed spanking for son.
Human Swallows a Cheap Deworming Pill; Mosquito Bites Human; Then Mosquito Dies.
Why does the generic pill have a different shape and color than the brand pill?
Big bash—Obama birthday party planned the day after the US goes broke: $38,500 per couple.
Gaga slammed by disability groups after performing on stage in wheelchair.
World-Renowned Heart Surgeon’s License Revoked For Performing Hundreds Of Unnecessary Surgeries.
Trends: divorce parties in Japan; funeral strippers in Taiwan. (HT to Tyler)
Would you give up TV for the rest of your life for $1 million? How about the Internet?
Patient Bills Her Doctor For Making Her Wait
Britain to launch “win a baby” lottery. Winners get free fertility treatments.
Most physicians adhere to the ”rule of rescue” by allocating the last bed to the gravely ill patient. The alternative: save money and harvest the organs for other patients.
What’s wrong with this headline: “Falls in hospitals are not preventable and the burden shouldn’t be borne by hospitals.” See our answer here.
Study: Best hospitals are physician-run.
The hospitals’ argument for spending more money on hospitals: they employ people.
US spending on health care in 2009 per person: $8086. That’s more than $32,000 a year for a family of four.
Ezra: What if Congress does nothing? The deficit will go away eventually, but there will be pain.
To meet the debt ceiling limit, sell some of the federal government’s $144.2 billion in assets. Robert Murphy via David Henderson.
Yglesias: FDA rejection of hand held skin cancer detection device is pound foolish: This is sort of “the equivalent of rejecting the first cell phone on the grounds that callers might mishear important messages.”
NHS Update: 100,000 terminally ill “do not get proper palliative care.”
Medicare less efficient: private insurers spent $453 per beneficiary on administrative costs, compared to $509 for Medicare in 2005. Robert Brook via Avik Roy.
Contra Orszag: Google is ending its on-line health records service.
How much we socialize is genetic.
Unhappy nurses: 25% of registered nurses (RNs) will seek a new place of employment in 2011 because of job dissatisfaction.
Pain Costs U.S. $635 Billion a Year. That’s more than $6,000 per household per year.
Tricare families pay $460 a year for a family insurance—the same premium they paid 16 years ago.
Several major insurers are paying Medicare fees to out-of-network providers. Patients pay everything above that amount.
Teenagers’ brains are similar to those of drug addicts.
Fast food near schools are not an obesity risk for teens.
Your TV is killing you: Television viewing is boosting diabetes rates.
Does talking about your problems make you feel better? No.
Gottlieb: Requiring drug makers to prove a drug is not only safe and effective, but that it outperforms other drugs in the same class, will raise costs and delay access.
CMS will begin using predictive modeling to assess the likelihood that a claim is fraudulent before it’s paid. UnitedHealth Group saved $125 million over a two year period using the method claims.
