Study of telemedicine finds misdiagnoses of skin problems | Wall Street Journal
Researchers posing as patients with skin problems sought help from 16 online telemedicine companies—with unsettling results. Some of the online doctors misdiagnosed syphilis, herpes and skin cancer, and some prescribed medications without asking key questions about patients' medical histories or warning of adverse effects, the researchers found.
Hospitals, doctors differ on universal healthcare in Colorado | Denver Post
The campaign to establish the nation's first universal healthcare system in Colorado may be a longshot, but insurance companies and hospitals aren't taking chances. A single donor, Anthem, has kicked in $500,000 to defeat the initiative, or more than three times the amount given by all proponents combined.
Blame growth for much of Nevada's poor healthcare rankings, studies say | Las Vegas Review Journal
Two recently released reports from the University of Nevada School of Medicine say Nevada has remained near the bottom of many healthcare rankings partly because of population growth.
Massachusetts nurses excluded from national nursing compact | Worcester (Mass.) Telegram
The Nurse Licensure Compact, legislation that would allow licensed nurses from one state to cross borders physically or electronically, has been adopted by 25 states. The compact allows nurses to practice in other states that joined the compact without going through another licensing procedure. While Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine have joined the compact, Massachusetts and the other New England states have not.
Hospitals scramble to offer mental healthcare to depressed physicians | Stat
Hospitals across the country are scrambling to care for a particularly hard-to-reach group of patients: their own staff. A study published this week in Academic Medicine finds that 35 percent of medical residents — young doctors recently out of medical school — experience clinically significant depression. The finding confirms previous research showing that physicians-in-training are at much higher risk for depression than the general public.
S.C. Medicaid agency apologizes for patient privacy breach | (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier
The South Carolina Medicaid agency apologized this month to a man whose identity was compromised when a staff member misplaced his health insurance application. Jim Connor tried to apply for low-income Medicaid coverage in December after he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. Instead of processing the application, a Medicaid employee told him he wouldn't qualify for the program. She advised him to drink some green tea and research his cancer diagnosis online.
