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A new study showing the cost of malpractice at more than $55 billion a year to the U.S. health care system has Illinois medical-care providers once again calling for tort reform.
A comprehensive analysis by researchers at Harvard University figures the annual overall cost of medical liability to be $55.6 billion, or 2.4 percent of total health care spending, according to an article published in the September issue of the journal Health Affairs. Get the full story »
Strained by rising health care costs and the sour economy, U.S. employers are pressing workers to shoulder the added burden alone as employees pay higher insurance premiums and more out-of-pocket expenses for their medical care.
The average employer-provided family health plan now costs workers nearly $4,000 a year, up 14 percent from last year, according to a survey by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust.
That is the largest annual increase since the survey began in 1999 and a marked change from previous years when employers generally split the cost of rising premiums with their employees.
Government safety officials have not found a connection between a new kind of Pampers diapers and the severe skin reactions reported by some parents’ groups.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission said Thursday that it has reviewed 4,700 complaints but found no specific cause linking Pampers diapers with new Dry Max technology to diaper rash. Get the full story »
Dr. Larry Jameson
Dr. Larry Jameson, dean of the Northwestern Medical School, has been named executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and dean of the university’s medical school, Penn confirmed Thursday.
The appointment is effective July 1, 2011. Get the full story »
The prescription diet drug sibutramine, sold under the brand name Meridia, should be taken off the market because it raises the risk of heart attacks and strokes in some patients, the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine said Wednesday.
Those risks, published in January on a government clinical-trials website and now in full in the journal, outweigh the modest benefits of the medication, said Dr. Gregory D. Curfman, the journal’s executive editor and lead author of an editorial that accompanied the study. Get the full story »
Target will open five retail health clinics in the area next week. (Phil Velasquez/ Tribune)
Target Corp., renewing its push into retail medicine, will open five clinics in Chicago area stores, giving a boost to a form of health care delivery that has seen slower growth amid the economic downturn.
Like its rivals, Target’s clinics will be open seven days a week with no appointment needed. They treat patients for routine illnesses and injuries such as ear and sinus infections, skin treatments and certain vaccinations. Get the full story »
The execution room in a Texas prison. (AP)
An anesthesia drug sold by Hospira Inc. that is used by several states to execute prisoners on death row may not be available until early next year due to supply issues.
The drug, sodium thiopental, is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug administration for use in lethal injections, so it is not sold by Hospira for such uses. But like other prescriptions, physicians are known to provide drugs to patients in off-label form, and the product is known to be used as part of a cocktail of prescriptions used to put inmates to death.
USA Today reported last week that the shortage of several anesthesia drugs may delay executions in at least two states. Federal agencies and some hospitals have also reported that elective surgeries are also being delayed because of the shortage of such products. Get the full story »
Northwestern Memorial Hospital has completed the purchase of the former Lakeside Veterans Affairs hospital site at 333 E. Huron St. Northwestern had previously bought most of the Streeterville property, picking up the remaining 30 percent last month. Neither terms nor planned uses for the parcel were disclosed.
More than 1,000 Illinois residents have submitted applications for a new federally funded health insurance program for people with medical problems. Enrollment opened Friday. Illinois Department of Insurance Director Michael McRaith calls it an “enthusiastic response.”
Enrollees will pay monthly premiums ranging from about $110 to $650. There’s also a $2,000 annual deductible and 80 percent-20 percent coinsurance. Get the full story »
Medtronic Inc. posted a surprising decline in quarterly sales and cut its forecast due to weak demand for its medical devices and pressure on prices, sending its shares down nearly 12 percent to a 15-month low.
The world’s No. 1 stand-alone medical device maker, a bellwether, reported quarterly profit in line with expectations, but weak sales and outlook weighed on the shares of rivals such as cardiovascular device companies Boston Scientific Corp. and St. Jude Medical and orthopedic device makers Stryker Corp. and Zimmer Holdings. Get the full story »
Food and Drug Administration officials said Monday that there is no evidence a massive outbreak of salmonella in eggs has spread beyond two Iowa farms, though a team of investigators is still trying to figure out what caused it.
FDA officials said they do not expect the number of eggs recalled — now at 550 million– to grow. Get the full story »
Pfizer Inc. said its cancer treatment Sutent failed to meet its endpoint of improving overall survival for late-stage lung cancer in a late-stage trial, though it did improve progression-free survival.
Sutent, also known as sunitinib, has been one of Pfizer’s more successful drugs to launch in recent years. Approved for kidney cancer and certain gastrointestinal tumors, Sutent had $964 million in sales last year, but studies of the drug for other indications haven’t been home runs. Get the full story »
Hospira CEO Chris Begley. (Hospira)
Hospira Inc. on Friday said Chief Executive Christopher Begley will retire after more than six years in the top job but remain active in the management and operation of the Lake Forest-based maker of generic drugs and hospital products.
Begley, 58, is the only CEO Hospira has had since it spun off from Abbott Laboratories in 2004 into its own publicly traded company. He will remain CEO until a successor is named and then take on the position of “executive chairman,” which Begley described in a conference call with analysts as a chairman who stays on as an employee “and plays a greater role in the company than a non-executive chair.” Get the full story »
A majority of federal health advisers say a best-selling antidepressant from Eli Lilly & Co. appears effective in treating back pain, but not arthritis.
The Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to broaden approval of Cymbalta to treat chronic pain, which would expand sales of a drug already used by 15 million U.S. patients. Get the full story »
