health care

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IBM's Watson Gets a Job With Health Insurer WellPoint
 IBM's Watson Gets a Job 
Sep 12, 2011 6:59 AM CDT

IBM's Watson Gets a Job

Will aid WellPoint doctors, nurses in patient diagnoses, treatments

(Newser) - Looks like Watson’s Jeopardy appearance was the ticket to a high-profile job. As the health field goes increasingly digital, health insurer WellPoint is teaming up with IBM to use the technology in medical settings. Watson will ultimately help doctors with diagnoses and treatment suggestions, the Wall Street Journal reports....

40% of Europeans Are Mentally Ill
 40% of Europeans 
 Are Mentally Ill 
STUDY SAYS
Sep 5, 2011 6:03 AM CDT

40% of Europeans Are Mentally Ill

Depression, dementia, alcoholism, and strokes lead the way

(Newser) - Nearly 165 million Europeans—about 38%—suffer from depression, anxiety, insomnia, dementia, or other mental and neurological illnesses, according to a new study. And with less than a third of those getting the treatment they need, Reuters reports that these illnesses are costing Europe hundreds of billions of euros each...

Feds Catching 85% More Health Care Fraudsters

This is shaping up to be a banner year

(Newser) - Health care fraud prosecutions have shot up this year, thanks to an Obama administration crackdown, according to new figures from a Syracuse University research team. Already the feds have prosecuted 903 people for fraud this year, which is 24% more than they nabbed in the entirety of 2010, and puts...

Doctors Slam Perry for Fringe Health Procedure

Expert: I'd never let my family undergo this back treatment

(Newser) - Doctors are raising concerns over a back treatment undergone last month by Rick Perry that’s a bit “past the edge” of mainstream medicine. In the procedure, stem cells were removed from the Texas governor’s fat and developed in a lab for injection into his back and bloodstream....

Poverty Shouldn't Be A Crime: Barbara Ehrenreich
 We've Made It 
 a Crime to Be Poor 
barbara ehrenreich
Aug 13, 2011 2:21 PM CDT

We've Made It a Crime to Be Poor

10 years after 'Nickel and Dimed,' author Ehrenreich says things are even worse

(Newser) - A decade after her expose on America's working poor, Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich has a sobering assessment: "Things have gotten much worse, especially since the economic downturn that began in 2008," she writes in Salon . For one thing, the economy was booming around 2000 when she...

More Cancer Patients Try Risky 'Hot Chemo Bath'

But doctors unsure treatment merits its invasiveness

(Newser) - A combination of surgery and heated chemotherapy is rising in popularity—even though patients compare it “to being filleted, disemboweled and then bathed in hot poison,” writes Andrew Pollack in the New York Times . The surgery plus heated chemo, or Hipec, involves cutting the patient open, probing the...

Court Calls Health Law Unconstitutional

Appellate panel says insurance mandate is unconstitutional

(Newser) - A federal appeals court today struck down the requirement in President Obama's health care overhaul package that virtually all Americans must carry health insurance or face penalties. A divided three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the so-called individual mandate, siding with 26 states that...

US Health Care Tab to Hit $4.6T in 2020

Innovation, aging society main causes of soaring costs

(Newser) - Doom, meet gloom: The nation's health care tab is on track to hit $4.6 trillion in 2020, accounting for about $1 of every $5 in the economy, government number crunchers estimate in a report out today. How much does that work out to per person? Including government and...

AARP: Families Provide $450B in Unpaid Care

One in four adults caring for a family member at home

(Newser) - About one in four US adults provided unpaid care for a sick or disabled family member at home in 2009, and AARP estimates the dollar value to be $450 billion, the AP reports. These 42.1 million people provided an average of 18.4 hours of care per week, up...

Health Law May End Co-Pay for Birth Control

May be one of several preventive-care benefits insurers must provide

(Newser) - Insurers may soon have to provide birth control co-pay-free. Under last year’s Affordable Care Act, contraception could be one of several preventive services insurance firms must provide at effectively no cost to patients—but the measure faces opposition from groups like the Family Research Council. Things may become clearer...

Book Scuttles Obama's Health Care Story

His mother had health insurance when she died, and it paid up

(Newser) - A recent book on President Obama’s mother undermines his oft-told story that his mother spent the final years of her life battling insurance companies over her medical bills. The book, by New York Times reporter Janny Scott, reveals that Ann Dunham actually had health insurance that readily paid her...

Obama, Democrats Offer to Slash Medicare in Exchange for Tax Raises
 Obama Offers 
 Medicare Cuts 
Jul 5, 2011 5:50 AM CDT

Obama Offers Medicare Cuts

As long as GOP is ready to raise taxes

(Newser) - Medicare and Medicaid are on the table and President Obama has told Republican lawmakers he's ready to start cutting tens of billions of dollars from the programs to reduce the federal deficit—as long as Republicans are prepared to accept tax raises in return. "We are very willing...

Gay Couples May Have to Marry ... to Keep Benefits

Some New York companies phasing out 'domestic partner' perks

(Newser) - Now that gay marriage is legal in New York, some couples might have no choice but to take the plunge—at least if they want to keep their health insurance. Two major companies—Raytheon and IBM—say employees in same-sex relationships must get married if they want to keep the...

Texas Votes to Defund Planned Parenthood

Major health care reform law headed for Perry's desk

(Newser) - Texas is set to become the latest—and largest—state to cut funding to Planned Parenthood. An omnibus health care bill passed by the state legislature and headed for Gov. Rick Perry's desk blocks Planned Parenthood from receiving some $38 million in state family planning money and from taking...

In Florida, Urgent Care Clinics Must Now Post Prices

But prices listed will only apply to cash customers

(Newser) - When you set out to purchase almost any good or service, you can expect to get a price upfront—but not at medical facilities. That's what Florida state Rep. Richard Corcoran discovered last year when his wife needed an MRI, and found out it could cost anywhere from $350...

Obama 'Mystery Shoppers' to Check Doctors' Access

They'll try to see whether physicians give preference to private insurance

(Newser) - The Obama administration fears there are too few primary care doctors to go around—so it’s launching a team of “mystery shoppers” to look into the physicians’ availability. The undercover callers will seek appointments at doctors’ offices nationwide to determine ease of access. Some will say they’ve...

Guy Robs Bank ... to Get Prison Health Care

NC man aimed for 3-year sentence with $1 heist

(Newser) - A North Carolina man with a bad back, a growth on his chest, and no job or money decided to swap his freedom for prison health care by robbing a bank. Richard James Verone, 59, walked into a bank, handed the teller a note demanding just $1—then sat down...

UK Docs, Nurses Face Cleavage Ban

Crackdown follows patients' complaints

(Newser) - Following patient complaints, health care workers outside London have been warned to rein in “excessive cleavage” and cover midriffs, the Telegraph reports. The national health care service has also barred shorts, mini-skirts, denim, and unkempt beards. The goal: a “professional and consistent” appearance. “There had been complaints...

Colbert Tries 'Google Test' —on Pawlenty

And savages his debate performance in the meantime

(Newser) - Several pundits declared Tim Pawlenty the loser of Monday’s GOP debate, after he backed off his sweet “ObamneyCare” jab , and Stephen Colbert is upset. “Forget ObamneyCare,” he quipped, “I want to know how Minnesota’s health care plan keeps Tim Pawlenty alive without a spine....

Paul Krugman: Don't Listen to Joe Lieberman--Medicare Means Savings

 Actually, We 
 Need More 
 Medicare 
paul krugman
Jun 13, 2011 9:58 AM CDT

Actually, We Need More Medicare

Lieberman's plan to raise eligibility to 67 would mean huge costs

(Newser) - Joe Lieberman’s proposal to raise Medicare eligibility to age 67 is proof that we’ve really “gone off the rails,” writes Paul Krugman in the New York Times . Really, we should be doing the opposite: extending Medicare, because it “actually saves money—a lot of money—...

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