The Department of Health and Human Services released a report titled “Questionable Billing by Skilled Nursing Facilities.” The title says it all… but we’re still going to comment. In recent years, government analyses have discovered improprieties in the amount of Medicare dollars billed by–and paid to–to skilled nursing facilities (a general term that includes nursing …
For decades, McNeil Consumer Healthcare has given the world some of the most popular over-the-counter (OTC) medications, including Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl, Sudafed, and Zyrtec. But with a long string of recent product recalls, McNeil is at risk of losing consumer trust. The latest recall affects several highly popular brands. In consultation with the U.S. Food and …
Last fall, the National Football League (NFL) unveiled new guidelines regarding concussions, encouraging players to recognize symptoms, report them to coaches, and follow treatment suggestions. The announcement was met with cautious optimism that the culture of head-cracking aggression might be softened. The culture is as thick-skulled as ever, but the NFL is making another attempt, …
Imagine this: You’re in your car, stopped at a traffic light when another car slams you from behind, pushing you across the road and into a light post. Your car is totaled and you have some serious medical bills. Who do you think will end up paying your bills? Well, if the driver who hit …
Road statistics show that of all normal (and legal) driving maneuvers, the most dangerous is something we do every day: Making a left turn. Studies of intersection wrecks show that making a right turn caused only 4% of collisions, but making a left turn caused a whopping 50% of intersection collisions. The reason has to …
Abbott Diabetes Care is recalling about 359 million glucose test strips. The test strips are unable to absorb enough blood for proper monitoring, and this means the strips may give falsely low blood glucose results. If the strips are exposed to warm weather or prolonged storage, they may be more likely to provide a false result. …
Santa Claus prepares all year long for Christmas. If he is anything like the rest of humanity, there’s a good chance he might have procrastinated on the toy-making and is now working day and night to make his gift-delivery deadline. And then he and his reindeer must fly around the world in a single night…a …
Palliative care is treatment intended not to heal, but to relieve symptoms so that the patient feels better. Despite the fact that it is an important part of treatment, especially for people with incurable disorders, palliative care is not well understood by most people, including those who need it. For people with a terminal illness, …
It won’t be in next year’s model cars, but there is a terrific new device that could become a built-in standard in the next few years. According to an article in ScienceDaily, German researchers have developed a system that tracks a driver’s eye movements. If the driver’s eyes close for too long, the device emits …
These are the kinds of mistakes that make you slap your head in disbelief: Surgeons who operate on the wrong patient or on the wrong part of the body (also known as “wrong site” mistakes). In 2004, hospitals nationwide adopted a Universal Protocol that was supposed to prevent wrong-patient and wrong-site surgeries. The protocol consisted …
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