[Forbes]- Patients may think they’re going to a high quality hospital when in fact they’re not, according to an analysis of Medicare data appearing in USA Today by reporters Steve Sternberg and Christopher Schnaars. The USA Today website also contains an interactive graphic with a user-friendly interface to help readers compare hospital death rates and [...]

[NYT] WASHINGTON — The Obama administration issued new standards on Monday that require health insurance plans to cover all government-approved contraceptives for women, without co-payments or other charges.
The standards, which also guarantee free coverage of other preventive services for women, follow recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences and grew out of the new health [...]

[Tampabay]-State Rep. Richard Corcoran recalled a day last year when a doctor recommended an MRI test for his wife’s back pain.
When they asked how much it would cost, “nobody knew,” Corcoran said. “No one would tell me.”
They called around, and found that the price of an MRI varied from $350 to $1,200.
That experience was a [...]

[NYT] CHICAGO (AP) — Should parents of extremely obese children lose custody for not controlling their kids’ weight? A provocative commentary in one of the nation’s most distinguished medical journals argues yes, and its authors are joining a quiet chorus of advocates who say the government should be allowed to intervene in extreme cases.
It has [...]

[The Economist] DRUG smugglers can expect harsh penalties nearly everywhere—if the drugs in question are heroin or cocaine. Those who smuggle counterfeit medicines, by contrast, have often faced lax enforcement and light punishment. Some governments deem drug-counterfeiting a trivial offence, little more than a common irritant. After all, whose spam filter does not groan with ads [...]

[NYT] When poor people are given medical insurance, they not only find regular doctors and see doctors more often but they also feel better, are less depressed and are better able to maintain financial stability, according to a new, large-scale study that provides the first rigorously controlled assessment of the impact of Medicaid.
While the findings may [...]

[NYT] Poverty is often cited as contributing to poor health. Now, in an unusual approach, researchers have calculated how many people poverty kills and presented their findings, along with an argument that social factors can cause death the same way that behavior like smoking cigarettes does.
In an article published online for the June 16 issue [...]

[Huffington Post]- I am a psychiatrist who has treated patients for over 35 years, run all varieties of psychiatric services and worked in city and state government. But I still cannot bear to read or hear a story of a fatal outcome for a person with a serious mental illness who dies from neglect or [...]

[FirstWord]- The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) publicly listed for the first time the prices it pays individual drug manufacturers for vaccines. UNICEF spokesperson Joan Howe stated that the agency made the decision “in the hopes it will lead to a more competitive market and lower prices, especially for newer vaccines.”
The agency, which spent $757 [...]

[USA Today]- An estimated 15,000 Medicare patients die each month in part because of care they receive in the hospital, says a government study released today.
The study is the first of its kind aimed at understanding “adverse events” in hospitals — essentially, any medical care that causes harm to a patient, according to the Department [...]