What are QIOs?
According to the CMS website, Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) are private, mostly not-for-profit organizations, which are staffed by professionals, mostly doctors and other health care professionals, who are trained to…
Spreading the Health Care Cost Pain to the Elderly
Medicare is the ever-growing elephant dragging the country under, so I’m pleased to see that its beneficiaries are starting to feel a bit of a squeeze. In Medicare rise could…
Urodynamix Develops Non-invasive Diagnostics For Urologic Conditions
Urodynamix Technologies is a medical devices company that has developed a technological platform utilizing near infrared spectroscopy to develop non-invasive diagnostic instruments for urologic conditions. Near infrared spectroscopy uses a…
Cost of Injection Jumps from $15 to $1,500
The following is from an AP story. See also Merrill Goozner’s comments here. A drug for high-risk pregnant women has cost about $10 to $20 per injection. Next week, the…
Metabolic/Bariatric Surgery Types
Gastric bypass surgery is currently considered the gold standard for surgical treatment of obesity. Studies have shown that patients tend to experience 50-80% excess weight loss (EWL) over a two…
Will There Be Enough PCPs To Treat New Medicaid Patients?
One of the key components of health reform is expanding Medicaid eligibility to more individuals. My comments on the Health Reform provisions were expanded Medicaid coverage was that it was…
Does the GOP Have a Health Plan?
The Republicans have no plan to insure the uninsured. How do I know that? A New York Times editorial told me. So did Ezra Klein, writing in The Washington Post.…
Insurance Companies Get Reprieve on Certain Administrative Rules, Consumer Groups Worry
The Obama administration is delaying the implementation of certain rules under the new reform law that will enable protections for patients-consumers who wish to appeal claim denials or coverage reductions…
Rare Form of Dwarfism Protects against Cancer, Diabetes
People affected by a rare, inherited form of dwarfism virtually never get diabetes or cancer, scientists have reported. Their findings may someday open up new ways to treat or prevent…
Boston Scientific Receives FDA Approval of New Spinal Cord Implant System to Manage Pain
If you can’t fix or get rid of back pain from the spinal cord area, I guess this is the next best solution with managing it and offers something other…
