Hospital tally approaches $1 trillion
U.S. hospitals charged $873 billion in 2005 — a nearly 90 percent increase from the $462 billion charged in 1997 — according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The inflation-adjusted...
View ArticleKeeping men healthy
Statistically speaking, men will die six years sooner than women. We have higher death rates for the 15 leading causes of death. Here are some stats from the National Center for Health Statistics: In...
View ArticleChecking on those who give check-ups
If you’re interested in keeping tabs on your doctor, HealthGrades now offers a notification service. The Web site, www.healthgrades.com, is best known for its hospital ratings. But given the...
View ArticleThe cost to retire
Is retirement going to be a luxury for thirty- and forty- something workers? I increasingly think it will be, and a new estimate from investment giant Fidelity does nothing to dispel that. A...
View ArticleUnintended consequences of insuring the uninsured
In the things-to-consider-for-the-sake-of-considering-them category, take a gander at this story from the May 27 edition of The Boston Globe: After healthcare reform was made law in Massachusetts in...
View ArticlePresidential debates: Submit your own health care question
In case you watched the first presidential debate tonight and found yourself saying, “I have a question!” — you have a chance to ask that question. WebMD has teamed up with the nonpartisan Commission...
View ArticleMedicaid expansion: What’s the rest of the country doing?
So far, leaders from about 13 states, including Oklahoma’s Gov. Mary Fallin, have said their states will not expand Medicaid. Medicaid expansion is one of the key elements of the Affordable Care Act,...
View ArticleThank God for Mississippi … or Oklahoma?
There’s a phrase that is sometimes uttered among Oklahoma’s public health leaders: “Thank God for Mississippi.” Because if it weren’t for Mississippi — and generally, West Virginia and Louisiana —...
View ArticleMedicaid expansion: A visual aid
Like many people, I’m a visual learner. And because of that, I can get bored quickly when you start spouting out tons of numbers. So, here’s a visual aid of what Medicaid expansion would look like in...
View ArticleDomo arigato, Dr. Roboto — Maybe
Hospitals across Oklahoma City have invested in a da Vinci surgical robot, a highly marketed robot that can be used to perform a variety of surgeries. I’ve interviewed several doctors who use the...
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