Monthly Archives: January 2008

U.S. suffers from fiscal cancer, states U.S. Comptroller David Walker

Posted on January 23, 2008 by admin

Ignored by most politicians, David Walker, who heads the Government Accountability Office (GAO), is taking his message on tour. His presentation on the unsustainability of the U.S. economy can be viewed on YouTube. The biggest contributor to the coming fiscal … Continue reading →

Posted in medicare | 2 Comments

New York: state-controlled hospitals, possible $50,000 malpractice surcharge on doctors

Posted on January 19, 2008 by admin

The New York State health department has plans: to control the cost of hospital care, and to rescue the state’s malpractice insurance carriers. In 2006, the “Berger Commission” (the Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century) decided that … Continue reading →

Posted in professional liability | 2 Comments

Top penalty for not buying insurance to quadruple; federal mandates proposed

Posted on January 17, 2008 by admin

The penalties for not buying insurance in Massachusetts have been set too low to “encourage” compliance, stated Jonathan Gruber, a director of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector. The proposed 2008 top penalty of $912 per year is a four-fold jump … Continue reading →

Posted in mandatory insurance | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Record for data loss set in 2007

Posted on January 15, 2008 by admin

In 2007, more than 79 million records were compromised in the United States, a fourfold increase from 2006. Many contained Social Security and/or credit card numbers. While government and private entities are spending more and more on firewalls, encryption, and … Continue reading →

Posted in privacy | 1 Comment

New Jersey law makes HIV testing routine in prenatal care

Posted on January 13, 2008 by admin

By a measure signed into law by Acting Governor Richard Codey, pregnant women will be routinely tested for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). It also requires testing of newborns whose mothers with positive or unknown HIV status. Although women will be … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Top hospitals typically disregard brain-death guidelines

Posted on January 7, 2008 by admin

 Many highly regarded hospitals in the U.S. routinely diagnose brain death without following the guidelines promulgated in 1995 by the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), according to a survey presented at the American Neurological Association (ANA) annual meeting (Kurt Samson, … Continue reading →

Posted in medical ethics | 5 Comments

Time to change CPR guidelines, cardiologist says

Posted on January 5, 2008 by admin

Although compressions-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was unveiled in 2003, after a decade of research, the American Heart Association still stops short of recommending it. Two new studies, of 10,000 Swedish and 5,000 Japanese patients, who suffered a witnessed, out-of-hospital cardiac … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 2 Comments

New life for sale: $3 billion human egg industry booms

Posted on January 3, 2008 by admin

There’s a new kind of brokerage firm in our brave new world: agencies that assemble databases of young women and market their eggs to customers who want a baby and can’t produce one themselves. Some offer photographs and information about … Continue reading →

Posted in medical ethics | Leave a comment

UnitedHealth Group ex-CEO forfeits $620 million

Posted on January 1, 2008 by admin

William McGuire, M.D. former chief executive of UnitedHealth Group, agreed to one of the largest executive-pay givebacks in history, forfeiting $620 million in stock option gains and retirement pay, to settle civil and federal claims against stock-option backdating. The final … Continue reading →

Posted in managed care | 2 Comments