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People in state high-risk insurance plans often feel left behind
The federal health law set up new plans that are cheaper and more comprehensive than the older ones run by states but consumers need to go without insurance for six months to qualify.
Drugs & Medicines
Weekend Reading: Health articles online
Investigate IVF clinics? Will there be a debate over Medicare’s future? Is Obama’s ruling on contraception an attack on religion? School-based health centers: a nonpartisan solution?
Computer prescribing cuts drug errors
Incomplete and unclear prescriptions, which numbered in the hundreds during the months before the systems were installed, dropped to single digits at both hospitals, study finds.
New cancer drugs offer hope — but at an often staggering cost
Julie Grabow, an oncologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, recently prescribed an exciting new therapy for a 60-year-old woman with metastatic breast cancer — Afinitor made by Novartis. There was a catch, though. Novartis is charging $10,000 per month for the drug
Another look at Washington state’s prescription drug abuse epidemic
Washington ranked fourth highest nationally in per-capita prescribing of methadone in 2006 (the most recent year for which reliable data is available) and 11th for oxycodone — the two biggest killers.
How to find the right drug treatment program
The National Insitutes of Health has issued an 8-page guide to help you pick the right drug abuse treatment program. The booklet, Seeking Drug Abuse Treatment: Know What to Ask, says there are five key questions you should ask about a program:
Teens and young adults talk about coping with cancer in new video series
Teens and young adults with cancer talk about their experiences with the disease – from treatments and hair loss, to dealing with school, friends and family.
New bill would put taxpayer-funded science behind pay walls
Right now, if you want to read the published results of the biomedical research that your own tax dollars paid for, you can get free online. But a new bill in Congress wants to make you pay.
The health law goes graphic
Two years after the passage of the federal health law, more than 40 percent of people say they know little or nothing about how it will affect them. Now a new book in adult comic-strip for seeks to explain the ins and outs of the new legislation.
Recall includes Excedrin, NoDoz, Bufferin and Gas-X products
Products may contain stray tablets, capsules, or caplets from other drugs, or contain broken or chipped tablets, manufacturer says.
Beware of stem-cell scams, says FDA
The FDA has approved only one stem cell product, but desperate patients are often vulnerable to unscrupulous providers of unproven, potentially harmful stem-cell treatments.
Weekend Reading: Santorum is coming for your contraceptives and why it’s so hard to lose weight
A pick of the best articles about health from this week: Rick Santorum’s war on contraception, the “Fat Trap” that makes is so hard to lose weight, and even with health care reform millions will remain uninsured.
Baby boomers trigger jump in knee replacement surgeries
Whether it’s music, lifestyles, or a refuse-to-age outlook, Baby Boomers think of themselves as trailblazers. Now, that generation born between 1946 and 1964 can claim credit for another “first”—a dramatic increase in knee replacement surgeries.
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