Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
How Medical Testing Became A Key Profit Center In The Health Care System
Testing has become to the United States鈥 medical system what liquor is to the hospitality industry: a profit center with large and often arbitrary markups. From a medical perspective, blood work, tests and scans are tools to help physicians diagnose and monitor disease. But from a business perspective, they are opportunities to bring in revenue 鈥 especially because the equipment to perform them has generally become far cheaper, smaller and more highly mechanized in the past two decades. (Rosenthal, 12/15)
Doctors who are the most prolific prescribers of powerful narcotic painkillers and stimulants often have worrisome records, a ProPublica analysis of Medicare data shows. In 2012, 12 of Medicare's top 20 prescribers of drugs such as oxycodone, fentanyl, morphine and Ritalin have faced disciplinary actions by their state medical boards or criminal charges related to their medical practices, and another had documents seized from his office by federal agents. These drugs have a high potential for abuse and are classified as Schedule 2 controlled substances by the Drug Enforcement Administration. (Ornstein and Grochowski Jones, 12/15)
The Food and Drug Administration鈥檚 warning last month was unusual: Doctors shouldn鈥檛 use a common surgical tool on most women because it can spread hidden uterine cancer. A year earlier, the FDA had no official concerns about laparoscopic power morcellators, which it began approving in 1991. (Kamp and Burton, 12/15)
Federal officials who investigated Rivers鈥 death, which has been classified by the medical examiner as a 鈥渢herapeutic complication,鈥 found numerous violations at the accredited clinic, including a failure to notice or take action to correct Rivers鈥 deteriorating vital signs for 15 minutes; a discrepancy in the medical record about the amount of anesthesia she received; an apparent failure to weigh Rivers, a critical factor in calculating an anesthesia dose; and the performance of a procedure to which Rivers had not given written consent. In addition, one of the procedures was performed by a doctor who was not credentialed by the center. (Boodman, 12/16)
