National “DNA warehouse” bill passes
Passing the House of Representatives on a voice vote, S. 1858 has been sent to President Bush for signature. The Newborn Genetic Screening bill was passed by the Senate last December. The bill violates the […]
Insurers under investigation for fraudulent reimbursement rates
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuoma has issued subpoenas to Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealth, WellPoint, and other insurers in a broadening investigation of possible fraud in setting insurance reimbursements that cost consumers hundreds of millions of […]
AAPS News – Apr 2008
Volume 64, No. 4 April 2008 ELECTRONIC PANACEA The current Democrat front-runner for the Presidency has it in his “Blueprint for America” also: “lowering costs through investment in electronic health information technology [HIT] systems.” It […]
AAPS News – Mar 2008
Volume 64, No. 3 March 2008 LEVELING Listen to the rhetoric on “health care reform,” with its “progressive” tilt. How often do reformers use words such as “excellence,” “breakthrough,” “optimal,” or “innovative”? And how often […]
French judges investigate vaccine manufacturer for manslaughter
In what was called a “thunderclap in the vaccine industry,” French authorities have opened a formal investigation concerning a hepatitis B vaccination campaign by GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur in the 1990s. It is alleged that […]
Registry for egg donors proposed after young woman dies of colon cancer
After her daughter died at age 31 of colon carcinoma, Dr. Jennifer Schneider of Tucson wondered whether three cycles of egg donation might have been related. She is asking Congress to create a registry of […]
Vaccine compensation fund to pay award to autistic girl; broad implications feared
Although an attorney representing the federal government said that it “has not conceded that vaccines cause autism,” Associated Press headlines read that “officials concede vaccines’ link to illness like autism” (AP 3/6/08). Petitioner Hannah Joling, […]
Economic shocks straight ahead?
As former Comptroller General David Walker told 60 Minutes, the unfunded liabilities of entitlement programs, especially Medicare, are so huge that even shutting down the Pentagon would not help significantly. He states that leaving this […]
NHS updates: Patients starve; not allowed to pay for extra care
Recent news from the UK: 1. Statistics obtained by Conservatives show that the number of patients released from British National Health Service (NHS) hospitals with malnutrition has doubled in the decade since Labour came to […]
Patients and doctors reject protocol medicine
While pressure mounts to get doctors to follow “best practices,” getting patients to follow them will be even more difficult. A 2007 Harris Interactive poll found that 43% of Americans say they are concerned about […]
