THURSDAY, March 8 (HealthDay News) — Adults under the age of 50 who live in low-income neighborhoods experience more chronic pain than those in more affluent communities, new research finds.
Blacks, however, experienced more chronic pain and disability than whites regardless of where they lived, according to the researchers from the University of Michigan.
THURSDAY, March 8 (HealthDay News) — Caring for people with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia will cost the United States about $200 billion this year, a total that includes $140 billion paid by Medicare and Medicaid, new statistics released Thursday show.
Medicaid payments are 19 times higher for seniors with Alzheimer’s and other dementias and Medicare payments for the conditions are nearly three times higher, compared to payments for other patients, according to the “2012 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures” report from the Alzheimer’s Association.
By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, March 7 (HealthDay News) — One-third of Americans are in families that are having trouble paying for health care, a government report released Wednesday shows.
Data for the first six months of 2011 found that one in five families has difficulty paying medical bills, one in four pays bills over time and one in 10 can’t pay medical bills at all, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
TUESDAY, March 6 (HealthDay News) — Doctors are more likely to order imaging and other diagnostic lab tests for their patients if they have computer access to the test results, according to a new study.
Although this technology was intended to reduce costs and increase efficiency, researchers from Harvard Medical School found easy access to test results was associated with a 40 percent to 70 percent increase in imaging test orders. Computerization actually could be driving costs up, they said in the study, published in the March issue of Health Affairs.
TUESDAY, Feb. 28 (HealthDay News) — Poor people are less likely to sue their doctor than patients with more money are, a new study shows.
This finding may come as a surprise to many physicians who think otherwise due to an “unconscious bias” they have against low-income patients, according to study author Dr. Ramon Jimenez, of the Monterey Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Institute in California, and colleagues. The researchers added that this kind of stereotype could make some doctors less willing to treat poor patients or lead them to care for their low-income patients differently.
THURSDAY, Feb. 16 (HealthDay News) — Average medical costs for a stroke patient with language impairment (aphasia) are more than $1,700 higher in the first year after stroke than for a patient without aphasia, a new study finds.
Researchers analyzed the medical records of 3,200 Medicare patients in South Carolina who had an ischemic (blocked blood flow to the brain) stroke in 2004. They found that 12 percent of them had trouble speaking because of the stroke.
THURSDAY, Feb. 16 (HealthDay News) — Doing away with the U.S. health care reform act’s requirement that all Americans must have health insurance would not dramatically increase the cost of buying policies through new insurance exchanges, but would significantly reduce the number of people who get insurance, according to researchers.
The findings from the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization, are based on estimates created using a computer model. The investigators found that eliminating the so-called “individual mandate” would increase a person’s cost of buying insurance by 2.4 percent and reduce the number of Americans who would get new health coverage in 2016 from 27 million to 15 million.
TUESDAY, Feb. 14 (HealthDay News) — Most people forced to retire early because of back problems face ongoing financial struggles, a new study finds.
Not only does early retirement reduce immediate work income, it also affects long-term financial health by significantly reducing the ability to accumulate wealth, said the researchers at the University of Sydney in Australia.
MONDAY, Feb. 13 (HealthDay News) — Young adults in states that allow them to stay on their parents’ health insurance until age 26 have better access to health care, according to a new study.
The findings suggest a potential positive impact from a provision of the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. health care law passed in 2010 that requires private insurers to support children on their parents’ health insurance policies through age 26, the Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers said in a Mount Sinai news release.
By Maureen Salamon
HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, Feb. 9 (HealthDay News) — A shocking new national survey suggests that nearly all orthopedic surgeons may order unnecessary tests, referrals or hospitalizations to avoid being sued, to the tune of $2 billion a year.
The report is the first of its kind to demonstrate that “defensive medicine” — practiced to help exonerate doctors from malpractice accusations but adding no benefits to patient care — is common among orthopedic surgeons across the United States, the study authors said.
