U.S. Wastes More Than Half of Health Spending

clipped from blogs.wsj.com Health care isn’t exactly known for its efficiency, but a new analysis from PricewaterhouseCoopers puts the value of the waste sloshing around in the system at a whopping $1.2 trillion a year. That’s right. Trillion–with a T. The findings of the firm’s Health Research Institute suggest that up to that much “wasteful spending” could be going on, more than half the $2.2 trillion spent on health care in this country. including ineffective use of information technology ($81-$88 billion), claims processing, ($21-$210 billion) and defensive medicine ($210 billion). Medical errors cost $17 billion and badly-managed diabetes is tied to $22 billion. the analysis adds to a growing pile of other research (including the granddaddy of the genre, the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care) focused on unnecessary health-care expenditures.

Forecast: Eight hurricanes this season; four major ones

clipped from blogs.usatoday.com William Gray, a leading hurricane forecaster, says he expects to see eight Atlantic hurricanes, including four major ones, during the coming season, according to the Associated Press.

Rich, Not Poor, Are Crowding Emergency Rooms

clipped from blogs.wsj.com Yes, ERs are getting busier. But it’s not because of poor people or the uninsured, according to this analysis in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. The study is based on national surveys conducted between 1996 and 2004. During that time, overall visits to the ER increased by 26% — but a disproportionate share of the growth came from those whose incomes put them at more than four times the poverty level, and who typically get their care at a doctor’s office. The percentage of uninsured ER patients remained flat, at roughly 15%. The researchers did the study because the conventional wisdom didn’t seem to match the on-the-ground experience of ER docs. Instead, they saw a rise in ER traffic across the demographic spectrum, said Jonathan A. Showstack a study author based UCSF’s Institute for Health Policy Studies.

Obama: $1 Million in a Minute

clipped from www.businessweek.com The latest salvo in the Presidential hopeful's Web campaign is a site designed to process a million dollars in 60 seconds AnObamaMinute.com calls for pledgers (who can pre-register) to register a donation within 60 seconds, at 1pm on Apr. 21. Analysts say the site further underscores the engagement and enthusiasm that has buoyed Obama's campaign. "Obama is already the greatest fund-raising success in American history," says Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. "This is another wrinkle, another innovation that confirms the Internet's potential."

"Give Me 5" Campaign to Help Women Identify Strokes

I was surprised to learn this, "Women especially need to know the warning signs, because they account for almost 70 percent of the deaths from stroke,"

clipped from www.aan.com Help your patients recognize the five signs of stroke The "Give Me 5" uses easy-to-remember words to help identify the five signs of stroke. The key words are: Walk—is their balance off? Talk—is their speech slurred or face droopy? Reach—is one side weak or numb? See—is their vision all or partly lost? Feel—is their headache severe? campaign coincides with new research released in February showing a tripling in the rate of strokes among middle-aged women This surge of strokes in middle-aged women in a short period is very alarming, visit www.giveme5forstroke.org to obtain more information "Women especially need to know the warning signs, because they account for almost 70 percent of the deaths from stroke," Actress Morgan Fairchild cared for her mother, whose first stroke occurred in 1997. Visit www.giveme5forstroke.org/healthcare for tools and resources for physicians from all three organizations. Visit the AAN's Press Room at www.aan.com/go/pressroom to download the press release.

Economic Cleansing

clipped from bp1.blogger.com clipped from angrybear.blogspot.com The unemployment rate rose from 4.8 to 5.1 percent in March, and nonfarm payroll employment continued to trend down (-80,000) clipped from corner.nationalreview.com An Economic Cleansing   [Larry Kudlow] Recessions are part of capitalism. They happen every so often. We’ve had two in the last 25 years. And it looks like we are entering a third one after today’s jobs-loss report. A lot of Keynesian economists expect the tax rebates will promote recovery Recessions are therapeutic. They cleanse excess from the economy. Recessions are curative: They restore balance and create the foundation for the next recovery Despite the housing and credit problem and the sub-prime virus, banks are still lending to businesses. So we don’t have a genuine credit crunch across the board. That is very good. domestic corporate profits are down 20 percent from their peaks of late 2006. Since profits are the mother’s milk of stocks, businesses, and the economy, we will need to see profit improvement before the recovery-turn can be called.

Odds: Tenn. lottery drawings keep coming up sevens

clipped from blogs.usatoday.com We think you'll agree that this is an odds story. For three days in a row, the same exact numbers came up in Tennessee's Cash 3 lottery drawing. •  On Thursday, the winning number was 0-7-7. •  On Friday, the winning number was 7-0-7. •  On Saturday, the winning number was 0-7-7. Last month, the Cash 4 drawing produced the following combinations: 1-3-7-2, 1-7-2-3, and 2-3-7-1. “In the Cash 3 Lottery, the probability is less than less than 1 in 10,000 that one would see the same three numbers in various orders for three of the last four winning numbers,” Bruce Cooil, a professor at Vanderbilt’s Owen School of Management, tells our corporate siblings at The Tennessean. State officials tell the paper that independent auditors have checked the lottery's systems. They didn't find any problems.