December 13, 2024
(ProPublica) – Leaked internal documents show that the insurance giant is culling providers of applied behavior analysis from its network and scrutinizing the medical necessity of therapy. Advocates say the company’s strategy may be illegal. ProPublica has obtained what is … Read More
December 13, 2024
(KFF Health News) – More and more minor interventions, however, have been rebranded and billed as surgery, for profit. These tiny interventions don’t yield huge bills — in the hundreds rather than the thousands of dollars — but, cumulatively, they … Read More
December 13, 2024
(Associated Press) – A Florida woman has been charged with threatening her health insurance provider during a phone conversation after police say she uttered the same words found on the bullet casings used in the killing of an insurance executive … Read More
December 13, 2024
(The Atlantic) – West Virginia gave obesity drugs to teachers and state employees—then took them away. The program was, by health measures, a success. Patients shed as much as 120 pounds, their cholesterol dropped, their prediabetes faded, and they cut … Read More
December 13, 2024
(The Hedgehog Review) – Related to, and compounding, those and other problems is a consequential and arguably insidious paradigm shift—one that is moving medicine away from the guiding imperatives of patient care and the cure of illness to an overriding … Read More
December 13, 2024
HEC Forum (vol. 36, no. 4, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
December 11, 2024
(STAT News) – Decades ago, the health insurance business put in place a dike to hide and contain the public’s disdain for for-profit health insurers, and to keep reformers at bay. Now, that dike might collapse. As the former VP … Read More
December 11, 2024
(Stars and Stripes) – A proposal to ban health care coverage of certain medical treatments for the transgender children of service members has become a point of contention as the House readies this week for a vote on a defense … Read More
December 11, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – 3D-printed weapons—like the one police believe suspect Luigi Mangione used—are increasingly common The homemade handgun and suppressor that police say was used in last week’s killing of a UnitedHealthcare executive is intensifying the debate over the … Read More
December 11, 2024
(New York Times) – When Moira Legault, who has brain cancer, was given about a year to live, she knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with Tyler Ferron. Almost $30,000 of transferable vendor services were donated … Read More
December 11, 2024
Medico-Legal Journal (vol. 92, no. 4, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
December 10, 2024
(Wired) – From hoodies to erotic fan fiction, the internet is flooded with expressions of support and love for the suspected killer—a development experts find concerning. These sellers are trying to cash in on the internet’s peculiar fascination with Mangione, … Read More
December 9, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – Luigi Mangione, an Ivy League graduate who had worked in tech, was arrested in Pennsylvania and found with a firearm suppressor, a ghost gun and multiple fraudulent IDs A person of interest in the killing of … Read More
December 9, 2024
(CNBC) – A federal judge approved a landmark class action settlement this week between Aetna and same-sex couples in New York who alleged the insurance behemoth had discriminated against them and other LGBTQ customers seeking fertility treatment. Aetna, a subsidiary … Read More
December 9, 2024
(Vox) – Americans have many justified grievances with insurance companies, which often refuse to cover necessary care. But this particular fight was not actually about putting the interests of patients against those of rapacious corporations. Anthem’s policy would not have … Read More
December 6, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – The cryptic inscriptions scrawled on bullets found at the fatal shooting of a UnitedHealth Group executive aren’t just clues of possible motivation left by an assassin. They are also a variation of an angry rallying cry … Read More
December 6, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – Patients who leave Medicare plans run by private insurance companies in favor of traditional Medicare end up costing the government much more than typical patients, according to a new analysis by health-policy nonprofit KFF, raising the … Read More
December 5, 2024
HEC Forum (vol. 36, no. 3, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
December 4, 2024
(Axios) – Hospitals received billions of dollars in extra payments from insurers and government programs over a nine-year period by billing for higher-intensity care than what would be expected, according to a new study. Why it matters: The findings argue … Read More
December 4, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – The chief executive of UnitedHealth’s insurance arm was fatally shot outside a hotel in New York City Wednesday in a targeted attack, police said. A manhunt is under way for a suspect who was lying in … Read More
December 4, 2024
Christian Bioethics (vol. 30, no. 3, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
December 2, 2024
(CBS News) – Can artificial intelligence be so transformative as to solve one of the U.S. economy’s biggest problems: its skyrocketing fiscal deficit? According to three economists at the Brookings Institution, the answer is yes — AI could prove a … Read More
November 28, 2024
The New England Journal of Medicine (vol. 391, no. 19, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
November 26, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – Middlemen negotiate widely different prices for prescriptions, depending on your Medicare insurance plan The cost of prescription drugs in the U.S. isn’t like the tabs for other products. The price for a single medicine can range … Read More
November 25, 2024
(New York Times) – Medical care can be wearying and time-consuming, especially for seniors. Researchers are beginning to quantify the burdens. Analyzing data from traditional Medicare for 2019, her team reported that beneficiaries over 65 averaged about 17 contact days … Read More
