Hospitals Dial 911

(NEWSER) - Everybody's thinking small on health care reform, writes David Goldhill in the Atlantic. Our system is so abysmal—the headline on his lengthy piece is "How American Health Care Killed My Father"—that it needs a radical restructuring, and that should start with insurance. Let's just stop buying it, or all but. Everyone should be required to have catastrophic insurance to cover bills above, say, $50,000. For everything else, the system should be pay-as-you-go. More»

Aussie docs save tourist's life with alcohol drip

(NEWSER) - Doctors have long recommended a glass of red wine for a healthy heart; but vodka apparently can also do a body good. After running out of medicinal alcohol, doctors in an Australian hospital set up a vodka drip as an antidote to save the life of a poisoned Italian tourist, reports the BBC. More»

'Patients are harassed mercilessly,' one hospital employee says

(NEWSER) - One of the country's biggest medical debt collectors has reached a new low: sending employees into hospital emergency rooms to "encourage" patients to pay past medical debts before receiving treatment. The Minnesota attorney general is investigating Accretive Health's practices; its debt collectors are allegedly instructed to all but pose as hospital employees, use scripts to demand payment, and in some cases even discourage patients from getting care. Debt collectors have also approached patients after surgery or in the labor and delivery department. More»

Poorly trained workers don't know how to clean them: Center for Public Integrity

(NEWSER) - A disturbing and dangerous trend is growing in hospitals, according to a report from the Center of Public Integrity : the use of dirty instruments leading to serious infections. The problem is showing up with "alarming regularity" and could be linked to the difficulty in cleaning modern surgical tools and the overloaded, low-paid workers responsible for sterilizing them. Only New Jersey requires that such workers be certified. More»

...and some of its policy advice echoed ObamaCare

(NEWSER) - More consulting trouble for Newt. Since 2003, a Gingrich-founded think tank has pulled in at least $37 million from the health-care industry—and has called for an insurance mandate reminiscent of President Obama’s. Wellpoint, Blue Cross Blue Shield, AstraZeneca, and other members of the Center for Health Transformation paid as much as $200,000 in yearly dues; in exchange, they got “direct Newt interaction,” or at least so promised the think tank's promotional materials, the Washington Post reports. Gingrich ran the center until he left this year for the campaign trail. More»