The True Price of Health Care Spending

March 15, 2010

Natural News

By David Gutierrez

The U.S. healthcare system loses between $505 and $850 billion a year to mistakes, inefficiency and fraud, according to a report by Thomson Reuters. This amounts to one-third of all national healthcare spending.

“America’s healthcare system is indeed hemorrhaging billions of dollars,” the report says.

According to the report, unnecessary medical procedures and treatments — including antibiotic overuse and superfluous tests — account for 37 percent of all wasted spending, $200 to $300 billion per year. Fraud — including false Medicare claims and kickbacks for referrals or prescriptions — accounts for another 22 percent, as much as $200 billion a year. Medical errors are responsible for 11 percent of excess spending, or $50 to $100 billion yearly. Preventable health problems, such as diabetes, cost the healthcare system $30 to $50 billion per year.

One of the easiest areas to repair might be administrative inefficiency, which accounts for a full 18 percent of medical overspending.

“The average U.S. hospital spends one-quarter of its budget on billing and administration, nearly twice the average in Canada,” the report says. “American physicians spend nearly eight hours per week on paperwork and employ 1.66 clerical workers per doctor, far more than in Canada.”

Administrative inefficiency can also lead to other wasteful practices.

“It is waste when caregivers duplicate tests because results recorded in a patient’s record with one provider are not available to another or when medical staff provides inappropriate treatment because relevant history of previous treatment cannot be accessed,” the report says.

Although the United States has the highest per capita healthcare spending and spends a higher proportion of its GDP on healthcare than any other nation in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (a group of predominantly high income Western democracies), it has the highest rates of heart disease, obesity, diabetes and neonatal death in the developed world, as well as the unhealthiest population.

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Foodborne Illness Costs US $152 Bil Annually

March 3, 2010

Reuters

By Christopher Doering

Food safety advocates are hoping that the study will boost efforts in Congress to overhaul the nation’s antiquated food safety system.

Dozens of pathogens, many of them unknown, creep into the food supply each year, sickening millions. The price tag includes medical costs, lost productivity and quality-of-life, according to a study from the Produce Safety Project.

“This is significantly more than previous official estimates and it demonstrates the serious burden that foodborne illness places on society,” said Sandra Eskin, a spokeswoman with Make Our Food Safe Coalition, a group of consumer, public health and other groups pushing for stronger food safety laws.

The latest study to delve into foodborne illnesses comes as Congress works to craft legislation that would mark the first major overhaul of the food safety system in 50 years.

The House passed its bill last July and the Senate, which has been bogged down with healthcare and regulatory reform, is expected to act this year.

“My hope… is that the sobering numbers of this report will compel the Senate to act immediately on food safety legislation,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who has vigorously pushed for food safety reform. “We literally cannot afford to wait.”

Past official government estimates of health-related costs of foodborne illness have ranged from $7 billion to as much as $35 billion, but they considered only limited costs and pathogens, according to the report.

The new study, an initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts and Georgetown University, considered more pathogens and health-related costs, pushing the price tag to $152 billion. Overall, foodborne illness costs related to produce total $39 billion per year, the study estimated.

The U.S. food supply has been battered by a series of high-profile outbreaks, many involving produce, such as lettuce, spinach, peppers and peanuts, since 2006 led to a rash of illnesses for consumers and cost businesses millions.

Many firms including Kellogg Co, whose company lost nearly $70 million in products from the recent peanut recall, and ConAgra Foods have been among those affected.

An estimated 76 million people in the United States get sick each year with foodborne illness and 5,000 die, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study found Kentucky had the lowest cost per foodborne case at $1,731. Alternatively, greater exposure to higher cost pathogens pushed the price tag to about $2,008 per case in Hawaii. The average cost in the United States was $1,851.

Typical medical costs from a case of foodborne illness range from $78 in Montana to $162 in New Jersey with much of the difference due physician and hospital charges. The average productivity loss from a case of foodborne illness is between $377 in Mississippi and $924 in Delaware.

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Influenza Vaccine Has No Effect

February 10th, 2010

The Local

There is no evidence to support the contention that the influenza vaccine administered to the over 65s is of any more use than opening the windows and washing hands, a new study from the Cochrane Collaboration claims, according to a report in the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper.

•Sweden evaluates swine flu response (17 Jan 10)
•Swine flu named year’s top Swedish news story (30 Dec 09)
•Sweden’s swine flu response wins EU praise (4 Dec 09)

The Cochrane Collaboration, an international not-for-profit organization providing up-to-date information about the effects of health care, has compiled data from 40 flu seasons worldwide.

The institute has concluded from the studies that there is no clear evidence to suggest that the flu jab offers any more protection than cheaper, hygiene-based methods such as hand-washing.

“Our analysis is compiled using millions of data from 40 seasons worldwide. What we have seen is that the influenza vaccine can at best have a very small effect,” said Thomas Jefferson, one of the authors of the report, to the newspaper.

The Swedish Welfare Board (Socialstyrelsen) has for the past 40 years advised all those over 65-years-old to take an annual dose.

Most local health authorities in Sweden pay for the flu jab at a cost to the taxpayer of 25-30 million kronor ($3.5 million) per annum.

This is not the first time the Cochrane Collaboration has sounded the alarm over the paltry effects of the vaccine with a report published four years ago drawing the same conclusions, according to the newspaper.

The institute has now selected the best 75 of the available studies for this latest review of the evidence. While conceding that the studies are not of the best research quality, it concludes there is little evidence to suggest that the flu vaccine has any real effect.

The institute thus recommends a larger international, state-financed study to examine the vaccine and existing healthcare recommendations.

Click here for the full report

Nearly 20% of Workers Underemployed

February 23th, 2010

gallup.com

By Jenny Mariar 

Gallup’s daily measure of U.S. employment reveals that 19.9% of the U.S. workforce was underemployed during the month of January, translating to close to 30 million Americans who are working less than their desired capacity. Those who were underemployed reported spending 36% less than those who were employed, $48 per day versus $75 per day.

These results are based on January interviews with more than 20,000 adults in the U.S. workforce, aged 18 and older. Gallup classifies respondents as “employed” if they are employed full time or are employed part time but do not want to work full time. Gallup classifies respondents as “underemployed” if they are employed part time but want to work full time or are unemployed.

As unemployment rates remain high, reduced spending by millions of underemployed Americans has obvious implications for economic recovery. Spending is, however, just one of many ways underemployment costs the U.S. and hurts its workforce. Gallup’s employment measure also reveals further disparities between the employed and the underemployed on vital indicators such as attitudes toward money, access to healthcare, demographics, and wellbeing.

Personal Finances

Underemployment is generally associated with a less-than-desired income, and Gallup data highlight the stark contrast in spending attitudes between the employed and the underemployed. Sixty percent of employed respondents feel good about the amount of money they have to spend, while only half as many (29%) of the underemployed report feeling good. Further, the underemployed are less likely than the employed to say they are able to make a major purchase, such as a car or home repair, if needed (25% vs. 58%, respectively).

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Study Reveals Benefits of Acupuncture in Pregnancy

February 23th, 2010

The Wall Street Journal

By Shirley S. Wang

Acupuncture designed to treat depression appears to improve symptoms in pregnant women, suggesting it as an alternative to antidepressant medication during pregnancy, a study found.

The study, published Monday in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, is the largest to date examining the effectiveness of acupuncture to treat depression in pregnant women. It was funded by a grant from the government’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. “Acupuncture that we have tested works for pregnant, depressed women,” said Rachel Manber, a study author and professor at Stanford University. However, “no single study is enough to make policy recommendations,” she said.

Depression in pregnancy is a risk factor for postpartum depression. Postpartum depression is associated in some studies with poorer cognitive and emotional development in children. Some have linked depression in pregnancy and low birth weight.

As many as 14% of pregnant women are thought to develop a significant depression at some point during their pregnancy, according to the study authors, comparable to numbers who suffer from postpartum depression. Antidepressants are generally considered safe for use in pregnancy, but research has been limited and concerns continue to grow, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. One study showed that the risk of persistent pulmonary hypertension, a potentially serious lung condition, is significantly greater in newborns whose mother took antidepressants later in pregnancy. The Food and Drug Administration recommends that patients and physicians “carefully consider and discuss together” the benefits and risks taking antidepressants during pregnancy.”Antidepressants are not an attractive option for many women,” said Dr. Manber. “Many women are concerned about using antidepressant medication during pregnancy.”

Acupuncture, based on ancient Chinese medicine, attempts to treat conditions by stimulating points on the body, most often with needles stuck in the skin and moved by hand or electrical stimulation, according to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

In the study, 150 clinically depressed pregnant women who weren’t previously taking antidepressants were randomly assigned to get either acupuncture for depression, acupuncture not specifically designed for depression, or massage for eight weeks. Those who got acupuncture targeting depression had a significantly greater decrease in depressive symptoms, compared with the other women. Some 63% of women in the acupuncture-for-depression group responded to treatment, compared with 44% in the other groups.

There wasn’t a difference between the groups in full recovery from the depression. Though this study didn’t compare acupuncture for depression with another active treatment, the response rates are comparable to those rates from other depression treatments in studies of non-pregnant individuals, Dr. Manber said. And future work needs to examine how acupuncture for depression compares with standard treatment like antidepressants or psychotherapy, as well as who responds to treatment and what the optimal dose of the acupuncture treatment should be.

Click here for the full report

Study Links Soft Drinks to Pancreas Cancer

February 8, 2010

Reuters

By John O’Callaghan

People who drink two or more sweetened soft drinks a week have a much higher risk of pancreatic cancer, an unusual but deadly cancer, researchers reported on Monday.

People who drank mostly fruit juice instead of sodas did not have the same risk, the study of 60,000 people in Singapore found.

Sugar may be to blame but people who drink sweetened sodas regularly often have other poor health habits, said Mark Pereira of the University of Minnesota, who led the study.

“The high levels of sugar in soft drinks may be increasing the level of insulin in the body, which we think contributes to pancreatic cancer cell growth,” Pereira said in a statement.

Insulin, which helps the body metabolize sugar, is made in the pancreas.

Writing in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, Pereira and colleagues said they followed 60,524 men and women in the Singapore Chinese Health Study for 14 years.

Over that time, 140 of the volunteers developed pancreatic cancer. Those who drank two or more soft drinks a week had an 87 percent higher risk of being among those who got pancreatic cancer.

Pereira said he believed the findings would apply elsewhere.

“Singapore is a wealthy country with excellent healthcare. Favorite pastimes are eating and shopping, so the findings should apply to other western countries,” he said.

But Susan Mayne of the Yale Cancer Center at Yale University in Connecticut was cautious.

“Although this study found a risk, the finding was based on a relatively small number of cases and it remains unclear whether it is a causal association or not,” said Mayne, who serves on the board of the journal, which is published by the American Association for Cancer Research.

“Soft drink consumption in Singapore was associated with several other adverse health behaviors such as smoking and red meat intake, which we can’t accurately control for.”

Other studies have linked pancreatic cancer to red meat, especially burned or charred meat.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer, with 230,000 cases globally. In the United States, 37,680 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in a year and 34,290 die of it.

The American Cancer Society says the five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer patients is about 5 percent.

Some researchers believe high sugar intake may fuel some forms of cancer, although the evidence has been contradictory. Tumor cells use more glucose than other cells.

One 12-ounce (355 ml) can of non-diet soda contains about 130 calories, almost all of them from sugar.

Click here for the full report

Health Spending On the Rise

February 5, 2010

Reuters

By Donna Smith

Economists at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, known as CMS, said in a new report that the national healthcare spending will grow an average 6.1 percent a year over the decade to $4.5 trillion in 2019, about 1.7 percent faster than the overall economy. Healthcare will account for 19.3 percent of the economy in 2019, the report said.

Last year an estimated $2.5 trillion was spent on healthcare in the United States, accounting for about 17.3 percent of the economy, the report said.

The United States spends more on healthcare than any other country, even with about 46 million people lacking medical coverage. An effort by President Barack Obama to expand health coverage and rein in soaring costs stalled in the U.S. Congress after Democrats lost their supermajority in the Senate following a special election in Massachusetts last month.

Democrats are weighing their options on how to advance the legislation in the face of solid Republican opposition.

The CMS report shows that medical spending and numbers of uninsured will continue to grow in the absence of reform.

“This report basically says nothing much has changed in that regard,” said CMS chief actuary Richard Foster.

“All that (rising medical costs and the uninsured) is still there, all that argues that some form of healthcare reform is still a good idea,” he added.

By 2019 the United States will spend about $13,387 per person per year on healthcare. That is up from about $8,047 in 2009 and a projected $8,290 per person in 2010, the report said.

The economic slump had a big impact on slowing the growth of private health spending as laid-off workers lost employer-sponsored coverage. At the same time, spending by the Medicaid government health program for the poor has gone up.

Public payments will account for half of all U.S. healthcare spending by 2012 and reach 52 percent by 2019 as baby boomers increasingly sign up for the Medicare health program for the elderly, the CMS economists said.

The report said spending on prescription drugs grew by an estimated 5.2 percent in 2009 due mostly to higher prices for brand name drugs. An improving economy will accelerate spending growth for prescription drugs to 5.6 percent by 2011, they said.

But growth in prescription drug spending will slow in 2012 and 2013 as patents expire on many top selling brand-name drugs sold by big pharmaceutical makers such as Pfizer and Merck, the report said.

After that, growth in drug spending will begin to accelerate again to 7.7 percent in 2019 because of rising drug prices and new drug approvals as well as an increasing share of more expensive specialty drugs, the report said.

Click here for full report.

Obama Breaks C-SPAN Transparency Promise

February 2, 2010

Chicago Sun-Times

By Lynn Sweet

WASHINGTON–President Obama finally admitted on Monday that he broke his pledge to open up negotiations over health care–even have them televised on C-SPAN. This comes after administration spokesmen and top advisors for months now have been pretending that Obama was not breaking an oft repeated campaign promise.

The admission came during an interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer in advance of Wednesday’s State of the Union address. Obama said he would “own up” to what he called a “legitimate mistake” during his speech before a joint session of Congress. Obama’s promise of opening up the backroom deals–using C-SPAN–was a standard line on the 2008 campaign trail, a crowd pleaser that always, always won him applause.

Once he got to Washington, the promise was soon abandoned. The Obama White House only once invited C-SPAN in–and that was not a real negotiation session, but a day of several workshops with health care stakeholders, in an invitation list the White House controlled. Inviting cameras into dealmaking with members of Congress–never happened.

“You know, I think your question points out to a legitimate mistake that I made during the course of the year, and that is that we had to make so many decisions quickly in a very difficult set of circumstances that after awhile, we started worrying more about getting the policy right than getting the process right,” Obama said.

“But I had campaigned on process. Part of what I had campaigned on was changing how Washington works, opening up transparency and I think it is — I think the health care debate as it unfolded legitimately raised concerns not just among my opponents, but also amongst supporters that we just don’t know what’s going on. And it’s an ugly process and it looks like there are a bunch of back room deals.

“Now I think it’s my responsibility and I’ll be speaking to this at the State of the Union, to own up to the fact that the process didn’t run the way I ideally would like it to and that we have to move forward in a way that recaptures that sense of opening things up more,” he said.

Click here for the full report.

FDA Tells Drug Companies to be Aware of Abuse

January 29, 2010

Los Angeles Times

By Andrew Zajac

The Food and Drug Administration is calling on pharmaceutical firms to give more attention to the potential for abuse of new drugs when subjecting them to pre-market testing.

The agency this week released a draft of voluntary guidelines to assist drug makers in figuring out which compounds should be placed under the Controlled Substances Act. The law regulates the handling, record-keeping and dispensing of drugs deemed to be dangerous or addictive if misused — in some cases imposing criminal penalties for misuse.

The guidelines urge researchers to look beyond traditional indicators such as whether a compound is addictive and consider other characteristics that could lead to abuse. Advances in chemistry have created properties in drugs that may include previously unrecognized abuse potential, the FDA said.

Though FDA officials said no specific event triggered release of the guidelines, they pointed to the anesthetic propofol as an example of a drug that might be flagged for restrictions if subjected to more rigorous consideration of potential abuse.

Propofol was in the cocktail of drugs that caused the death of pop star Michael Jackson. It currently is not a controlled substance, but that status has been under review by the Drug Enforcement Administration, which enforces the Controlled Substances Act.

“Until recently, there hadn’t been much indication that it was being abused. But we have gotten calls from the [healthcare] industry telling us, ‘You need to take a look at it,’ ” said DEA spokeswoman Barbara Carreno.

She said the DEA initially had not thought propofol was subject to abuse because it required careful administration with a needle and was regarded simply as an anesthetic. But medical professionals have found that the drug also induces a mild euphoria and other pleasant side effects. Since it’s not a controlled substance, propofol is relatively accessible in medical settings.

Anesthesiologist Scott Fishman said propofol was one of a number of drugs that “were released for one purpose, and society — or the street — finds another use.”

In urging drug developers to cast a wide net for indicators of abuse potential, the FDA is saying, “Let’s do the testing instead of society doing the testing,” said Fishman, who is chief of pain medicine at the UC Davis School of Medicine. Fishman said drug makers might balk at the higher costs that could result from following the proposed guidelines.

A spokeswoman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America said her organization had not studied the document.

The FDA will collect industry and public comment for two months before issuing final guidelines.

Click here for the full report

G.E. Attempting to Silence Medical Imaging Critics

January 22, 2010

Natural News

By E. Huff

GE Healthcare, a British subsidiary of multinational giant General Electric, is suing Henrik Thomsen, a senior radiologist and professor of radiology, for sounding the alarm about the dangers of the company’s medical imaging drug, Omniscan. After witnessing kidney patients who had received the drug develop potentially fatal conditions, Thomsen publicly exposed the drug’s dangers which caused a firestorm of controversy.

In an effort to muzzle Thomsen, GE Healthcare has already spent more than 380,000 British pounds, or about $610,000, in legal fees pursuing litigation against him. Utilizing loopholes in Britain’s libel laws, the company is alleging that Thomsen falsely accused GE of suppressing sensitive information about the drug’s risks at an Oxford scientific congress presentation in 2007.

Investigation into these claims has shown that Thomsen accurately described his clinical experience and that no such misrepresentation took place. When questioned about this fact, GE spokesmen had no response other than to suggest that Thomsen indirectly slandered the company through insinuation.

Many in the scientific community have expressed outrage over the blatant misuse of British libel laws to silence honest and open debate and dissemination of unbiased information about medical procedures and drugs. Scientists and clinicians who act on behalf of patient safety by highlighting the facts rather than corporate talking points should not be gagged by powerful corporations who leverage their influence and money to manipulate the legal system for their own gain, say those who support libel reform.

Hundreds of people in both the U.K. and the U.S. have died from the side effects of Omniscan and two other similar medical imaging drugs. Filled with toxic contrasting agents like gadolinium, a toxic heavy metal, Omniscan is implicated in causing nephrogenic systemic fibrosis, a skin condition that can cripple a person and possibly cause death.

Legal action is being taken against the companies that produce these drugs by patients in both the U.S. and the U.K. ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit news organization in the U.S. whose purpose is to serve the public interest, has been closely watching the effects of medical imaging drugs, divulging the truth about the dangers they pose.

Nevertheless, GE Healthcare is holding its ground in the fight against Thomsen. As it stands, the company has achieved success in silencing Thomsen as he now refuses to discuss the risks associated with Omniscan in public forums. Until libel reform is enacted, officials believe that companies will continue to misuse the courts to silence the truth and achieve their own ends.

Click here for the full report

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