An alarming 62 percent of medications purchased through online pharmacies are fake or substandard, according to a comprehensive report  from the European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicines. The report - ''The Counterfeiting Superhighway'' - provides an in-depth analysis of more than 100 online pharmacies. It looked at common ...

New York Medicaid program has announced it will not pay for what it terms 14 ''never events.'' I recently wrote a blog discussing the fact that Medicare, a major healthcare payer, will no longer pay hospitals for the cost of care deriving from medical mistakes or nosocomial infections. State Medicaid programs have been hit with lowered federal ...

The Bush administration has said the U.S. should have a national electronic health record system (EHR) by the year 2014. This discussion regarding the need for electronic medical records goes back several years, but was really focused in this administration when the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) created a federal advisory board ...

Earlier this month, the House passed H.R. 493, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, by a vote of 414 to 1. The legislation aims to prevent insurance companies and employers from discriminating against employees based on their genetic information. The act is designed to offer protection and encouragement to those hoping to discover more ...

In recent years we have heard a lot about evidence-based medicine (EBM). Many physicians practice medicine out of habit; doing what is familiar or what they have been taught. Evidence-based medicine, however, is based on doing what the research shows is most efficacious; despite popular or conventional wisdom. In reality, EBM has been ...

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has decided to reimburse for self-administered, take-at-home sleep studies to qualify patients for CPAP therapy. Private insurers likely will follow Medicare's lead. The final national determination, announced March 13, comes with a string attached. Medicare will limit initial coverage of CPAP for ...

Minnesota just became the third state nationwide to consider a campaign for scent-free schools. Rep. Karen Clark proposed educating students about how their Burberry, Marc Jacobs and Axe contribute to classmates' health problems, including asthma.(Clark, along with lawmakers in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, considered then dropped all-out ...

Last month, HHS secretary Michael Leavitt (or Mike, as he goes by in his blog) posted a comment about the urgent state of Medicare, which accounts for 56 percent of the HHS budget. Left as is, Medicare is just 11 years from going broke, Mike pointed out. And that's not the only issue facing the nation's healthcare system, as I'm sure you are ...

It was roughly one year ago this week that I was surrounded with some of the hardest working, most passionate, and dedicated respiratory therapists this country has to offer.  Unified by the common goal of advocating for the profession and the millions of patients around the country who suffer from pulmonary disease, 115 respiratory ...

In the wake of the glam and glitter of the Screen Actors Guild Awards, here's one more film to put on your list of ''must sees.'' Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., but studies have shown physicians don't feel equipped to counsel patients to stop smoking. Surveys of U.S. medical schools revealed most medical ...