Healthcare

AARP’s idea of health insurance is junk

November 20, 2008  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> It wasn't a big shock to me when AARP announced that it would be <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/us/19insure.html">"investigating" deceptively marketed health insurance</a> carrying the AARP brand, in response to a U.S. Senate investigation. AARP may technically be a nonprofit, but it also aggressively and profitably markets commercial services that appear at first to be an AARP benefit. AARP's "insurance,", from partner company United Health, is just a capped flat payment for certain medical services. Anyone who fell seriously ill wouldn't be "covered" and could be left deeply in medical debt. So why should we trust AARP's self-proclaimed role in national health reform? </p>

Another huge medical data breach is mishandled

November 8, 2008  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> Both president-elect Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain backed electronic medical records during their campaign. Computerizing patient data, which could increase efficiency and cut costs, is part of every major federal health reform...</p>

Cost of care still #1 concern for Mass. residents

October 23, 2008  ·  Consumer Watchdog

A new survey out of Massachusetts questions whether the newly insured under that state’s mandatory health insurance law are really protected. <br /> <br /> According to a new poll, the <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/10/23/medical_costs_still_burden_many_despite_insurance/">cost of health coverage is still a major concern for patients</a>...

Stem cell subcommittee OKs phone-in rules

October 14, 2008  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> In its fight to muster a quorum for regular stem cell board meetings, a <a href="http://www.cirm.ca.gov/meetings/2008/10-13-08.asp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">board subcommittee </a>has signed off on ...</p>

Who You Gonna Call?

October 7, 2008  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> <strong>Steps to Take When an Unexpected Medical Bill Comes in the Mail</strong> </p> <p> Figuring out how to lodge a complaint in our highly fractured health care system can be a bewildering ordeal. </p>

Arnold: Protect Maria, let the rest go bankrupt!

October 1, 2008  ·  Consumer Watchdog

A few years ago Warren Beatty claimed at our consumer group's annual dinner that the definition of a "Schwarzenegger Republican" was a Bush Republican who called himself a Schwarzenegger Republican. Schwarzenegger's final verdict on California health care legislation this week proved Beatty's point.

Health Care Reforms Back on Governor’s Plate

September 27, 2008  ·  Consumer Watchdog

Bills passed by the Legislature this session and awaiting the governor's signature or veto take aim at what critics call some of the most egregious, but still relatively rare, practices in the health care system: insurers that cancel a patients' coverage after they get sick, hospitals and doctors that stick patients with huge bills while they're haggling with insurers for payment and insurance companies that use customer premiums to pad profit margins instead of to pay for medical care.

Med Privacy Protected

September 24, 2008  ·  Consumer Watchdog

A bill that would have allowed pharmacies to sell patient prescription and medical information to third-party companies narrowly passed the California State Senate before failing in the State Assembly. "This bill is marketed as something that it's not," says Jerry Flanagan, healthcare advocate for Consumer Watchdog and one of the leading critics of the bill. "It's all about drug companies trying to raise their profits by marketing to people in their mailbox." The mailings would have touted expensive brand-name drugs, rather than encouraging patients to try less expensive, generic versions when available, according to Flanagan.

Hitches in Mass health insurance mandate

September 17, 2008  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> I just got word that Massachusetts is considering delaying several key portions of its mandatory health insurance law. </p> <p> The <a href="http://www.businessinsurance.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?post_date=2008-09-17&id=13970">tra...</a> </p>

Drug Liability Law’s Day in Court

September 15, 2008  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> <strong>Consumers' ability to collect damages from drug makers over serious side effects is at stake in an upcoming ruling.</strong> Consumer advocates say this tilt would be unfair, because consumers should have a remedy against a drug company that sold them a defective drug or didn't fully disclose its side effects. "This is as sweeping a legal decision as the Supreme Court has ever made for prescription drug users," says Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, a consumer rights organization based in Santa Monica. "This preemption is exactly what the drug companies have sought for the last 20 years from Congress." </p>

State, Insurers, Doctors in Battle Over Balance Billing

September 12, 2008  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p> Jerry Flanagan of the Consumer Watchdog group in Santa Monica feels sympathy for doctors who can't break what he called the stranglehold of insurance. But he also blames the medical association for holding up years of efforts to end balance billing. "As sympathetic as we are for the physician, we think there is no excuse for billing the patient because of disputes between the doctor and the insurance company," he said. Referring to strategies that would solve the problem, he said: "That's what we've been waiting five years for." </p>

Cancer? Ask Plenty of Questions

September 7, 2008  ·  Consumer Watchdog

My sister had the advantage of a hell-raising brother who's accustomed to rattling cages and demanding answers. And I was lucky enough to know a doctor who gave me entree. But Jamie Court of Consumer Watchdog advises all patients to ask tough questions of their doctors. "If the best treatment isn't in the HMO network," he said, "the patient may never hear about it. Even if it's the most likely way to save their life."