The emergence of laboratory benefits managers: PBM déjà vu?
Laboratory benefits managers have emerged to help insurers and others manage the expanding worl of diagnostic testing. Oversight is needed. More
From assisted hatching to embryo glue, most IVF ‘add-ons’ rest on shaky science, studies find
In the 40 years since the world’s first “test tube baby,” fertility clinics have cooked up nearly three dozen such “add-ons,” or supplementary procedures. Like immune therapy for supposed genetic incompatibility, they’re not essential to IVF. Instead, clinics offer procedures such as “assisted hatching” and “embryo glue” and “uterine artery vasodilation” as purportedly science-based options that increase the chance of having a baby. Except there is little to no evidence that the vast majority of IVF add-ons do any such thing, conclude four papers published on Tuesday in Fertility and Sterility, the journal of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. More
Financial Hardships Of Medicare Beneficiaries With Serious Illness
In a national survey, seriously ill Medicare beneficiaries described financial hardships resulting from their illness—despite high beneficiary satisfaction with Medicare overall and the fact that many have supplemental insurance. About half reported a serious problem paying medical bills, with prescription drugs proving most onerous. More
How One Employer Stuck a New Mom With a $898,984 Bill for Her Premature Baby
Dignity Health said its employee, an ER nurse, failed to meet the deadline to add her premature newborn to its health plan, so she was responsible for the medical bills. It rejected her appeals for a year until ProPublica called. More
More doctors than ever are pharma-made millionaires
Is sunshine really the best disinfectant? Or do we need much more than transparency when it comes to financial conflicts of interest? More
The ‘cancer growing in cancer medicine’: pharma money paid to doctors
Americans are rightly furious about the high and unsustainable price of cancer drugs, which now routinely cost more than $100,000 per year of therapy. Those prices are made worse by the fact that most cancer drugs offer only modest benefits — one study put the median benefit at 2.1 extra months of life — along with the fact that expert physicians frequently recommend these drugs for off-label uses, meaning using a drug for a purpose it was not initially approved for. More
Doctors speak out on conflicts of interest in obstetrics
With help from a network of industry-independent experts, doctors are speaking out against conflicts of interest in maternal safety recommendations More
Advice to Give Women Blood Thinners After C-Sections Draws Fire
Doctors are criticizing a recent recommendation from medical experts to give blood-thinning drugs to nearly all women who give birth by caesarean section, saying the advice may be unsafe and tainted by potential conflicts of interest. “This is basically an experiment being done on new moms,” said Adam Urato, chief of maternal fetal medicine at MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham, Mass., said in an interview. More
This year’s spoooooookiest pharma ads
It's a Lown Institute tradition to highlight pharma's fear-mongering on Halloween, and this year is no exception. More
‘The Price We Pay’ Argues Rising Health Care Costs Undermine Public Trust In Medicine
Americans are losing trust in their doctors, says Dr. Marty Makary in his new book, The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care — and How to Fix It. The reason, he argues, is that medical care is just too expensive. More
Private Equity Is Trying to Sell Medical Residencies for Profit
Slate More
The RCT blind spot
Randomized controlled trials are known as the "gold standard" in medical research--but they also have a significant down-side... More
News story or advertisement? Advertorials obscure hospital sponsor
A new series of articles in the Boston Globe touts the generosity and quality of Boston Children’s hospital. But who is funding these articles…? More
Shkreli Awards
Lown Institute’s top ten list of the worst examples of profiteering and dysfunction in health care, named for Martin Shkreli, the price-hiking “pharma bro” that everyone loves to hate. More
We help journalists avoid reliance on sources with financial conflicts of interest
For the past 11 years, HealthNewsReview.org has helped journalists find industry-independent experts to use as sources in their stories. It’s an effort begun by journalists Jeanne Lenzer and Shannon Brownlee (now a VP at the Lown Institute), but joined by me and Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD, of Georgetown not long after. More
The debate around 5G’s safety is getting in the way of science
It seems 5G is likely as safe as any other cell phone technology—but that shouldn't preclude more research. More
Virginia’s “best” hospital sues 6,000 patients each year
The University of Virginia Medical Center is ranked as the "best" hospital in Virginia by U.S. News & World Report, but the hospital is among the worst when it comes to suing patients for unpaid medical bills. More
Purdue bankruptcy settlement not enough, AG Healey, former addicts say
Recovering addicts who say Purdue Pharma got them hooked on opioids are turning their heads at the company’s bankruptcy deal. Dr. Vikas Saini, president of the Lown Institute and co-chairman of the Right Care Alliance, said measuring dollars against human lives isn’t fair. “Both Purdue and the Sacklers are really kind of dodging what the truth is here,” said Saini. “They deserve to face real justice and honestly I don’t think real justice is about the money.” More
What are private insurers doing to prevent fraud? Not Much.
Why aren't private insurers prosecuting people who commit fraud? Because it would hurt their bottom line, a ProPublica investigation finds. More
The life cycle of medical debt
Two stories in the recent news demonstrate how hospitals and debt collection agencies will go to extreme lengths to get the money they believe they are owed. More