By the Associated Press November 17, 2009 A Miami man accused of bilking Medicare out of millions of dollars has been arrested in Ecuador two years after he allegedly fled. ... FULL STORY
November 16, 2009 “I don't get my identity from being a senator. I may get some of it from being a doctor … a real honorable profession.” —GOP Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma in a Washington Post profile of the physician/senator who's sometimes called “Dr. No.” ... FULL STORY
November 16, 2009 Gallows humor in a hospital may not be appropriate when applied to an individual patient who has just met a tragic end, but it can be beneficial if it allows doctors and medical staff to get past a difficult moment and be at their best for the next patient. It also helps if they feel remorse about it later. ... FULL STORY
November 16, 2009 What's the deal with hospitals and Ponzi schemes?Last winter, Outliers learned that several hospitals were apparently unwitting investors in New York money manager Bernie Madoff's multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, including North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, Great Neck, N.Y. ... FULL STORY
By the Associated Press November 13, 2009 A Texas woman lied about having breast cancer and spent $10,000 raised at a benefit to have her breasts enlarged, authorities said. ... FULL STORY
November 09, 2009 “You go to bed in a four-poster bed. You put a hat on one of the posts and drink schnapps, and when you see two hats, you are no longer bothered by symptoms of influenza.”—William Schaffner, chairman of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, describing a Swiss-German home flu remedy in a Wall Street Journal story on the proliferation of alternative treatments for the H1N1 virus. ... FULL STORY
November 09, 2009 It appears not even the babymaking business is recession-proof these days. A recent decline in business has prompted one Chicago-area fertility clinic to offer a money-back guarantee to patients. ... FULL STORY
November 09, 2009 Crackle? Pop? No, snap! Kellogg Co. has bowed to pressure and said it would stop making claims on its Cocoa Krispies boxes that the chocolate cereal “now helps support your child's immunity.” The breakfast cereal giant was under fire in recent weeks from the San Francisco city attorney and a bevy of nutrition experts on national television news shows for making the claims. ... FULL STORY
November 09, 2009 Speaking up has never been so colorful.The Joint Commission manages the Speak Up program with the CMS to raise awareness among patients about medical errors, infections and communication with doctors, and encourage people to be more involved in their care. While most of the campaign's marketing materials include brochures and posters that hospitals can hang in their facilities, the accrediting organization recently added a coloring book that providers can download for kids aimed at teaching them hand hygiene and flu prevention techniques. ... FULL STORY
By the Associated press November 04, 2009 State lawmakers are criticizing a plan from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics to ask outpatients for their permission to contact them about making donations to medical research. ... FULL STORY
November 02, 2009 “I explained to people 65 or older, ‘The reason we are doing this is for children. I told them: ‘They are at very high risk for this flu, and you’re at low risk. I am sure you wouldn’t want to get a shot that left a kid who is at risk in harm’s way.’ ”—Jonathan Fielding, the director of the Los Angeles County’s Public Health Department, in the New York Times on how he explains to senior citizens why H1N1 vaccination efforts are targeting children. ... FULL STORY
November 02, 2009 Six Harvard Medical School researchers got more than a morning jolt of caffeine from their coffee recently. According to reports from administrators, the group experienced dizziness and in some cases fainting after drinking coffee from a brew machine located inside a research building lounge. All six had to be taken to Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center emergency room for treatment. ... FULL STORY
November 02, 2009 Historic video and audio interviews, photos and scholarly presentations were all compiled to commemorate the special moment.Was it part of the hoopla surrounding the new Michael Jackson movie? ... FULL STORY
November 02, 2009 William McGuire's reputation in healthcare was permanently tarnished when a stock backdating scandal forced his ouster as chairman and CEO of UnitedHealth Group in 2006. But he remains a hero in the field of lepidopterology—the study of butterflies and moths. ... FULL STORY
By the Associated Press October 29, 2009 Sleepless in Seattle? Hardly. West Virginia is where people are really staying awake, according to the first government study to monitor state-by-state differences in sleeplessness. ... FULL STORY
By the Associated Press October 28, 2009 Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina acknowledges its timing on two recent mailings was unfortunate. ... FULL STORY
October 26, 2009 “These are not libertarians, they are not lefties, they are not right-wing lunatics. They are healthcare professionals, and they think the vaccination is not going to be good for them.”—Lawyer Terence Kindlon in the New York Times on why the three nurses he is representing are suing the state of New York over an H1N1 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. ... FULL STORY
October 26, 2009 It wasn’t long ago that Charles Wesley Mumbere was working as a nurse aide at the Golden LivingCenter-Blue Ridge Mountain in Harrisburg, Pa., caring for nursing home patients and keeping mostly to himself.That was then. Last week, Mumbere was coronated king of the Rwenzururu Kingdom in the western mountains of Uganda, where a populace of about 300,000 has waited for decades to be recognized as a kingdom by the African nation’s leadership. ... FULL STORY
October 26, 2009 Emergency medical specialists triaging ambulance patients at the front end of an emergency call is one thing, but using a computer to help dispatchers do the triaging is, well, something else.The emergency medical service in Yokohama, Japan, apparently is at the “something else” end of the spectrum. ... FULL STORY
October 26, 2009 At least two trade schools are set to capitalize on the U.S. Justice Department's new guidelines on pot prosecution. In a memo last week, Deputy Attorney General David Ogden told federal prosecutors that they should not spend time seizing cancer patients' stashes or prosecuting medicinal suppliers, but instead focus on major drug suppliers and traffickers. ... FULL STORY
By the Associated Press October 21, 2009 Ever wondered how that "Smart Choices" sticker wound up on the front of Froot Loops or Cocoa Puffs? Well, federal health officials are having similar thoughts, and they're warning food manufacturers. ... FULL STORY
October 19, 2009 “We just finished the first quarter. There are three quarters to play. The bench is worn out. The quarterback keeps getting sacked. And the crowd has about had it, too.”—Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who has challenged parts of the Senate's health reform package, on where the legislative process now stands. ... FULL STORY
October 19, 2009 While the twisting legal saga of Richard Scrushy has had a yard sale air lately, the case took another turn last week when the imprisoned former CEO of HealthSouth Corp. claimed he just didn’t know where many of his assets are located. Scrushy, who is serving a sentence in federal prison in Texas for a bribery case, has already seen his fleet of automobiles auctioned off. More sales are on the way, with plans to auction a lakefront estate, some boats and other property. ... FULL STORY
October 19, 2009 Nurses worn down by the demands of the job may have a stylish new champion. The Urban Zen Foundation, founded by the fashion designer Donna Karan, has added a two-day nursing workshop to its roster of wellness events. ... FULL STORY
