Healthcare

VICTORY!! Federal Employee HIV Drug Discrimination

June 16, 2014  ·  Jerry Flanagan

<p>Over the weekend, one of our federal employee "John Doe" clients received a nice surprise from his health<img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-2776" alt="" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/images_rxmarketing.jpg" style="width: 200px; height: 136px; float: right;" width="430" height="292" /> insurer: the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association ("BCBS") will no longer charge higher (discriminatory) co-pays for HIV drugs and has taken HIV drugs off its mandatory mail-order drug list, which threatened patient health, safety, and privacy.</p>

Is Your Doctor Stoned? Physicians With Substance Abuse Problems Continue To Work

June 16, 2014  ·  Mark Reback

<p>We trust doctors with our lives. They’re supposed to take care of us. But physicians are only human.</p> <p>Government studies indicate at least 100,000 doctors — or about one in 10 currently working — is addicted to drugs or alcohol. Some are performing surgeries while stoned, injuring and even killing unsuspecting patients, according to TODAY national investigative correspondent Jeff Rossen, who found numerous cases of doctors busted for substance abuse. </p>

SEIU Vows To Boost Criticism Of Hospitals Resisting Partnership

June 14, 2014  ·  Mark Reback

<p><strong>On a leaked internal call, an SEIU leader pledges to boost criticism of holdouts.</strong></p> <p>Shortly after reaching a truce with much of the hospital industry last month, California's largest healthcare union vowed to step up its criticism of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and two hospital chains that balked at the agreement.</p> <p>On an internal conference call leaked to the media, a leader of the Service Employees International Union lashed out at the three holdouts and talked about using the new deal to bring them "to heel."</p>

United Healthcare Agrees To Settle HIV/AIDS Discrimination Lawsuit

June 12, 2014  ·  Mark Reback

<p>LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) – United Healthcare has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit in which consumers with HIV or AIDS claimed it discriminated against them by forcing them to use its own in-house mail-order service instead of local pharmacies.<br /> <br /> Any current or future class member who is receiving HIV/AIDS specialty medications through the program by mail may exercise his or her right to opt-out of the program for specified reasons at any time, using simple and expeditious methods to do so, according to the May 29 settlement document.<br /> <br />

Strange Bedfellows: The Healthcare Workers Union and the Hospital Association

June 9, 2014  ·  Mark Reback

<p><a href="http://www.scpr.org/news/2014/06/09/44585/strange-bedfellows-the-healthcare-workers-union-an/">Click here to listen to the audio of this radio broadcast</a>.</p> <p>The informal partnership between one of California’s leading healthcare unions and the <a href="http://www.calhospital.org/">California Hospital Association</a> has drawn mixed reviews, with some praising the deal between the traditional adversaries, and others saying the union is getting too cozy with management.</p>

Initiative to Stop Drunk, Overprescribing and Negligent Doctors Will Save Lives

June 5, 2014  ·  Mark Reback

<p>Each year, 440,000 Americans die from medical negligence. It’s the third leading cause of preventable death, behind only heart disease and cancer. A big cause of these preventable deaths is doctors recklessly prescribing opioid narcotics.</p> <p>Two weeks ago, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckus took on this problem by suing five of the world’s largest drug manufacturers.</p> <p>While the Orange County DA takes on the national drug companies, there’s also a simple fix close to home.</p>

United Healthcare to Settle HIV Mail-Order Meds Lawsuit

June 5, 2014  ·  Mark Reback

<p>HIV-positive people may soon be able to opt out of United Healthcare’s specialty mail-order pharmacy program, as a class action settlement against the nation’s largest insurance provider enters into its final stages in court, according to a statement from the National AIDS Treatment Advocacy Project (NATAP).<br /> <br />

Hospital’s Healthcare Fee Causes Nothing But Headaches

June 5, 2014  ·  Mark Reback

<p>he arthritis in Jill Smith's knees can make walking unbearable. So she receives injections of an expensive pain medicine called Orthovisc once or twice a year.</p> <p>It's not that Smith, 58, of Pacific Palisades, has problems with the $200 fee that her doctor<strong> </strong>at the Santa Monica Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine Group charges each time she comes in for her shots.</p> <p>And it's not that she's even griping about the nearly $1,000 charged for the three doses of Orthovisc she requires per knee for each round of treatment.</p>

Initiative to Raise Monetary Awards in Lawsuits Against Doctors Heads for Ballot

May 26, 2014  ·  Mark Reback

<p><strong>The measure would also require random drug and alcohol testing of physicians.</strong></p>

Bill About Doctors’ Substance Abuse Would Compromise Patient Safety

May 18, 2014  ·  Mark Reback

<p>If anyone should know how to steer clear of cures that are worse than the disease, it's doctors.</p> <p>That's why it seems so odd — on the surface — that the California Medical Assn. would sponsor a bill to re-create a drug- and alcohol-treatment program for physicians that has failed miserably in the past. It's when you look under the surface that you recognize the CMA's real motive is to stave off a November ballot initiative that would be even tougher on doctors than the measure it's sponsoring.</p>

Measure To Raise Medical Malpractice Cap Qualifies for Nov. Ballot

May 16, 2014  ·  Mark Reback

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California Voters To Consider Raising Four-Decade-Old Cap On Medical Malpractice Awards

May 16, 2014  ·  Mark Reback

<p>SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California in November will vote on whether to raise a four-decade-old cap on medical malpractice awards to $1.1 million, from $250,000, officials said on Thursday, likely ensuring a bitter and costly fight between lawyers backing the measure and doctors who oppose it.</p> <p>Representatives of patients have tried for at least 20 years to persuade the state to raise the limit on pain-and-suffering awards, which was set in the 1970s and is not indexed to inflation. Opponents say a higher cap will raise healthcare costs and choke off access to care.</p>