Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: Breakthrough Cancer Drugs; Wellness Programs; Medical Tests
STAT: For Cancer Patients, Breakthrough Drugs Are Saving Lives But Wrenching Souls
The growing ability of medical science to pull patients back from the brink of death is a credit to targeted therapies, in which doctors search a person’s tumor for a genetic mutation that controls the disease, and deliver a drug to counteract the mutation. In many cases, the results have been nothing short of extraordinary. Some breast cancer patients treated with a drug called Herceptin, for instance, have been living cancer-free for more than a decade. But more typically, the effects of the drugs wear off after six or nine months. For patients like [Linnea] Olson and others, the therapies have led to emotional exhaustion from facing death over and over again: repeatedly saying goodbye to loved ones, making preparations for the end of their lives, and dealing with uncertainty. (Bob Tedeschi, 11/4)
The Wall Street Journal: Benefits Of Bleach: A Hospital Adopts A Grandmother’s Preferred Germ Killer
As the infection-control czar of the Mount Sinai Health System in New York, Brian Koll often turns to federal and state health authorities, as well as researchers and colleagues, for the latest on controlling antibiotic-resistant germs. Dr. Koll has an additional resource in his quest to eradicate superbugs in his seven-hospital system: his grandmother Dora. Although she has been dead 28 years, Dr. Koll says he relies on her advice every day. (Lucette Lagnado, 11/2)
Governing: Can Combined Care Help The Most Vulnerable (And Expensive) Patients?
Dennis Heaphy has been a quadriplegic for more than 30 years. But life has recently improved for the 53-year-old Boston resident. That’s because Heaphy was among the first enrollees in an ambitious experiment in Massachusetts that seeks to better coordinate health services for “dual eligibles,” those residents who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid coverage. After signing up for the program in 2013, Heaphy received a care assessment, resulting in a new bed, a new mattress and a wheelchair that now enables him to take his rat terrier, Vinnie, outside for daily walks. Heaphy also gets massages and acupuncture, which help with his breathing. In November 2014, he had surgery to remove a bone infection, which under previous insurance plans would have required him to recuperate in a nursing facility. Under the demonstration insurance plan, however, health aides visited him daily while he recovered from the surgery in his own home. (Bara Vaida, 11/1)
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Common Medical Tests Escape Scrutiny But Often Fall Short
A growing number of medical tests are considered so foolproof they can be done by anyone — no training required. You've certainly had one. Maybe you suspected you had strep throat, got your glucose levels checked or needed blood thinners monitored. These tests and thousands of others have been deemed so simple and accurate they are essentially waived from oversight. The problem is, waived tests are often done incorrectly. (Ellen Gabler, 10/31)
KQED: How Overtreatment In Health Care Harms Us All
[A]t the same time that so many are underserved [in health care], many more are overserved. This is a hard concept for many Americans to wrap their minds around, the notion that they might be “overtreated.” It’s against this backdrop that I spoke with Shannon Brownlee at Berkeley Uncharted, the annual ideas festival. Brownlee literally wrote the book on the topic with Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making us Sicker and Poorer. Let’s be clear about what overtreatment is not: it’s not rationing. Rationing is denying care that people need to make them better. Overtreatment is about “getting care you don’t need and that can harm you,” Brownlee told the audience. (Lisa Aliferis, 11/3)
The New Yorker: The Health-Care Industry’s Relationship Problems
As consumers, we’re accustomed to making informed choices about what food to eat, what car to drive, what school to attend. But health insurance is a striking exception. Only one in seven Americans understands the basic components of a health-insurance plan, according to a study published a few years ago in the Journal of Health Economics. That means most of us are signing up without knowing what we’re getting or what it’s worth. Part one of three. (Rena Xu, 10/28)
NPR: Wellness Programs Add Financial Advice To Improve Employee Health
About half of all U.S. employers now offer financial wellness programs, although how they define them varies. Many companies have long offered lectures on topics like retirement. But increasingly, say analysts tracking the trend, employers are tailoring their programs to the worker — more like a personal trainer who works on your budget rather than your waistline. Most large companies are expanding their financial wellness programs this year, says Rob Austin, director of retirement research at consulting firm Aon Hewitt. And employers realize one-on-one counseling is a far more effective way to reach people and address their particular concerns. (Yuki Noguchi, 11/3)
The Atlantic: In Search Of A Safe Painkiller For Kids
Recognizing pain in children is one problem; managing it is another. With only 12 percent of clinical drug trials in the United States incorporating pediatric testing, doctors simply don’t know how to safely prescribe most medications to children, much less risky narcotics—which is why, when the FDA approved the use of OxyContin for children this past August, the news rocked the pediatric-pain world. For the first time, the agency was sanctioning an extended-release opioid pill for children as young as 11 years old. On the one hand, a proven effective painkiller would finally be available for suffering children—but on the other hand, recent history suggests that the decision may harm some of the kids it’s meant to help. (Nathalia Holt, 11/2)
And a video clip is worth your time -
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver: Medicaid Gap
The election in 2016 decides our new president, but the one this year could determine whether many Americans will have healthcare. (11/1)
