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Date	Fairness.com Resource	Read it at:
Sep 08, 2009	ER nurse sees patients normally treated by primary care QUOTE: Deborah Franklin runs Express Care, a division of the emergency department. The unit runs from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week, with space for up to six patients at a time. They treat patients who would normally be seen in a primary-care office, with conditions such as sprains, dental pains, rashes or back pain.	USA TODAY
Aug 28, 2009	Design For Corruption--Why US Healthcare is Failing QUOTE: The US has designed a corrupt political culture that undermines our meritocracy and makes a joke of the “public good.” Health care is the most glaring example.	BusinessWeek
Aug 09, 2009	Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin QUOTE: Whether because exercise makes us hungry or because we want to reward ourselves, many people eat more — and eat more junk food, like doughnuts — after going to the gym.	Time Magazine
Jul 21, 2009	Hospitals Tally Their Avoidable Mistakes QUOTE: It used to be that if a doctor, nurse or technician was responsible for injuring you, your insurance company was billed for the action that caused the injury as well as what might be needed to treat it. Maryland health regulators estimate that insurance companies paid $522 million last year to cover preventable complications in hospitals, which occurred in 55,000 of the state's 800,000 inpatient cases. Now, following the lead of Medicare, some other public and private insurers are starting to refuse payment -- for example, they won't pay for treatment of urinary tract infections caused by a catheter.	Washington Post
Jul 16, 2009	Amendment on Needle Exchange Program Worries AIDS Activists QUOTE: AIDS activists are concerned that a proposed amendment to the District's federal appropriation for 2010 would drastically reduce public funding for needle exchange programs and take away a weapon in the fight against HIV and AIDS.	Washington Post
Jun 16, 2009	Study Finds Possible Link Between Childhood Deaths and Stimulants for ADHD QUOTE: Children taking stimulant drugs such as Ritalin to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder are several times as likely to suffer sudden, unexplained death as children who are not taking such drugs....In a press briefing called on short notice yesterday, FDA officials said that given the seriousness of ADHD and the rarity of sudden death -- which strikes fewer than 1 in 10,000 children -- the benefits of the drugs outweigh their risks.	Washington Post
Jul 23, 2008	Drug Companies Get Healthy, but at Whose Expense? QUOTE: As if the idea of a $4,800 tab wasn't bad enough, when the Foltzes submitted their claim, they found out the company that made the drug, Questcor Pharmaceuticals, had just recently jacked up the price—to $23,000 per vial, or $69,000 for a three-vial treatment—and the insurance company wasn't going to pay. And all the while, unbeknownst to anyone at that time, an alternative, for $15, existed.	Wired
Jul 17, 2008	Advocating a Treatment, but Denied Access to It QUOTE: In a lawsuit filed in federal court on Wednesday, the mother, Cheri Gunvalson, is suing the company for access to an experimental drug that she says could help her 16-year-old son in his battle with a rare but devastating disease, Duchenne muscular dystrophy. While the mother claims that executives repeatedly assured her that her son would get the drug, the company denies ever making such promises and says the drug is not ready for widespread use.	New York Times
Jul 17, 2008	Don't become the victim of a surgical error QUOTE: But experts tell me my husband was right on. Mistakes do happen, no matter how great the surgeon, and it behooves you to help them get it right. Witness these headlines: Minnesota doctors remove the healthy kidney of a cancer patient while leaving the diseased one behind; California doctors remove the appendix of the wrong patient; one of the most experienced surgeons in a Boston, Massachusetts, hospital operates on the wrong side of a patient. All of these mistakes happened in the past year.	CNN (Cable News Network)
Jul 10, 2008	Doctors' Group Plans Apology For Racism QUOTE: The country's largest medical association is set to issue a formal apology today for its historical antipathy toward African American doctors, expressing regret for a litany of transgressions, including barring black physicians from its ranks for decades and remaining silent during battles on landmark legislation to end racial discrimination.	Washington Post
Jul 09, 2008	Should Doctors Lecture Patients About Their Weight? (Well) QUOTE: Is obesity a problem? Sure it is. But we need to get off of our self-righteous pulpits. Obese people should not be made into a group of outcasts. The “them” mentality and the finger-wagging are no more than insecure people trying to feel better by putting down others.	New York Times
Jul 09, 2008	Abuses Are Found in Online Sales of Medication QUOTE: A large majority of 365 Internet sites that advertise or sell controlled medications by mail are offering to supply the drugs without a proper prescription, according to a new study. The online trade is stoking the rising abuse of addictive and dangerous prescription drugs, the authors and federal officials say.	New York Times
Jul 07, 2008	Challenges of $600-a-Session Patients (Age of Riches) QUOTE: More than a dozen therapists who are respected by their peers in the counseling of extremely wealthy patients said in interviews that, as with the real estate mogul, it can be hard to resist the temptation to sycophantically adopt their point of view. In some cases, the patients treat their therapists as but another member of their entourage of servants. Some therapists also cited a heightened difficulty with frustration and setbacks for people used to getting what they wanted. And they are resistant to opening up, to showing vulnerability.	New York Times
Jul 06, 2008	10-year battle highlights Lyme disease debate QUOTE: One IDSA critic, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, conducted an antitrust investigation of the guideline process, saying the panel ignored or minimized other medical opinions regarding chronic Lyme disease. Blumenthal said the process was tainted by conflict of interest because members of the panel consulted for insurance companies and at least one had a patent for a Lyme disease treatment.	CNN (Cable News Network)
Jul 04, 2008	Some Seek Guidelines to Reflect Vitamin D's Benefits QUOTE: A flurry of recent research indicating that Vitamin D may have a dizzying array of health benefits has reignited an intense debate over whether federal guidelines for the "sunshine vitamin" are outdated, leaving millions unnecessarily vulnerable to cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other ailments.	Washington Post
Jul 03, 2008	E. Coli Illnesses Prompt Beef Recall QUOTE: The company, Nebraska Beef Ltd. of Omaha, recalled the beef produced since May after some of its products, sold by the Kroger Company with sell-by dates of May 21 to July 5, was linked to reports of illnesses in Ohio and Michigan, the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said on Tuesday. In addition to Michigan, Nebraska Beef reported some of the contaminated products were distributed in Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania. Other beef products were reportedly sent to Colorado and Texas for further processing, although it was not immediately clear whether any contaminated beef was sold in the other states.	New York Times
Jul 03, 2008	Catholic Aid for Abortion Creates Stir in Virginia QUOTE: A spokesman for the United States Department of Health and Human Services said that in April the department asked its inspector general to investigate whether the charity or the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops had violated state and federal laws. The conference receives $7.6 million a year in federal money, and Commonwealth Catholic Charities is a subcontractor of the bishops’ conference, the spokesman said. Federal law forbids the use of federal money to pay for abortions, with exceptions for rape, incest or threats to the life of the pregnant woman. Virginia law requires parental consent for an abortion for a girl under 18.	New York Times
Jul 01, 2008	Lying About Your Vegetables (Well) QUOTE: But when it comes to fruits and vegetables, it appears people lie in the other direction — vowing that they consume far more than they really do. The finding, reported in the current Nutrition Journal, suggests the data the health community has collected on fruit and vegetable consumption are tainted by “approval bias.” We know we are expected to eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day, so that’s what we say when we are asked, and we may even really believe it to be true.	New York Times
Jul 01, 2008	Tape shows woman dying on waiting room floor QUOTE: A 49-year-old woman collapsed and died on the floor of a waiting room at a Brooklyn psychiatric hospital and lay there for more than an hour as employees ignored her, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union, which on Tuesday released surveillance camera video of the incident.	CNN (Cable News Network)
Jun 30, 2008	Black Lawmakers Seek Restrictions on Menthol Cigarettes QUOTE: The 43-member caucus is taking aim at a provision in the bill that would ban candy-, fruit- and spice-flavored cigarettes but that specifically exempts menthol. In recent weeks the exemption has become the focus of controversy because menthol brands are heavily used by black smokers, who develop a large share of smoking-related cancers and other health risks.	New York Times
Jun 25, 2008	City Questions 9/11 Workers’ Claims of Illness QUOTE: The first detailed review of the medical records of nearly 10,000 ground zero workers who are suing New York City and its contractors suggests that many are not as sick as their lawyers have claimed, attorneys for the city say. The city’s review, based on medical records submitted in federal court by the workers and their lawyers, found that as many as 30 percent of the workers reported nothing more than common symptoms like runny nose or cough. Their records, according to the review, did not indicate that doctors had ever diagnosed a specific disease.	New York Times
Jun 23, 2008	DNA Testing Company Stops Direct-to-Consumer Sales in California QUOTE: A genetic testing company has stopped direct-to-consumer sales in California as a result of receiving a cease-and-desist letter from the state's health department. HairDX, which offers a genetic test that claims to predict clients' risk of hair loss, has decided, on advice of legal counsel, to require California (and New York) residents to order their tests through a doctor.	Wired
Jun 22, 2008	Agency Sees Theft Risk for ID Card in Medicare QUOTE: Social Security officials, concerned about the risk of identity theft, are calling for immediate action to remove Social Security numbers from the Medicare cards used by millions of Americans. But Medicare officials have resisted the proposal, saying it would be costly and impractical.	New York Times
Jun 12, 2008	Online medical records offer convenience, may limit privacy QUOTE: Patients can input their records themselves or have them added by the few doctors' offices and other medical facilities that keep compatible electronic records online. Because the field is so new, standards and legislation still are under development. And privacy advocates worry about sensitive records falling into the wrong hands.	USA TODAY
Jun 10, 2008	Doctors Miss Cultural Needs, Study Says QUOTE: The lead author of the study said in an interview that he attributed the differences less to overt racism than to a systemic failure to tailor treatments to patients’ cultural norms. The problem, said the author, Dr. Thomas D. Sequist, an assistant professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School, may be that physicians do not discriminate in the way they counsel patients.	New York Times
Jun 07, 2008	Child Experts Fail to Reveal Full Drug Pay QUOTE: By failing to report income, the psychiatrist, Dr. Joseph Biederman, and a colleague in the psychiatry department at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Timothy E. Wilens, may have violated federal and university research rules designed to police potential conflicts of interest, according to Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa. Some of their research is financed by government grants.	New York Times
Jun 05, 2008	A City Where Hospitals Are as Ill as the Patients QUOTE: “We have an all-out crisis here,” said Carol Meyer, the director of governmental relations for the Los Angeles County Health Services Department. “In terms of lack of access to care, emergency room overcrowding and total underfunding of the health care system.”	New York Times
Jun 03, 2008	Nearby Firing Ranges Complicate Soldiers' Recovery From Stress QUOTE: Like many of the wounded soldiers living in the newly built "warrior transition" barracks here, the soft-spoken 25-year-old suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. But even as Strickland and his comrades struggle with nightmares, anxiety and flashbacks from their wartime experiences, the sounds of gunfire have followed them here, just outside their windows.	Washington Post
May 26, 2008	$1.85 Fee to See a Doctor? Some Say It’s Too Much QUOTE: Countries rich and poor struggle with how best to provide affordable health care to their citizens without breaking the bank. In places like the Czech Republic, there is a sense of betrayal, because the state long took care of them, but also a justified fear for those left behind in the recent years of growth and change.	New York Times
May 07, 2008	Identity thieves prey on patients' medical records QUOTE: Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, an advocacy group, says "sophisticated crime rings" often can make more money by stealing medical identities than by going after individuals' bank accounts or credit cards. "If you steal someone's medical identity, then multiply that by 100 or 1,000" other thefts "and do fake billings, you can make hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars," Dixon says.	USA TODAY
May 02, 2008	Congress Passes Bill to Bar Bias Based on Genes QUOTE: On the House floor on Thursday, Democrats and Republicans alike cited anecdotes and polls illustrating that people feel they should not be penalized because they happened to be born at higher risk for a given disease.	New York Times
Apr 21, 2008	How air pollution hurts your kids' lungs QUOTE: [Dr. Bill] Sears called the long-term effect of air pollution on a developing child devastating. "Children do not grow as well because they do not breathe as well. The brain really needs a lot of oxygen. They don't think as well. They don't learn as well."	CNN (Cable News Network)
Apr 17, 2008	Warning on Storage of Health Records QUOTE: In an article in The New England Journal of Medicine, two leading researchers warn that the entry of big companies like Microsoft and Google into the field of personal health records could drastically alter the practice of clinical research and raise new challenges to the privacy of patient records.	New York Times
Apr 17, 2008	Are There Too Many Women Doctors? As an MD shortage looms, female physicians and their flexible hours are taking some of the blame QUOTE: McKinstry argues that "society still expects women rather than men to reduce work commitments to look after children and not to return to full-time work until the children are older." He laments the unfairness of it all but concludes that "in the absence of a profound change in our society in terms of responsibility for childcare, we need to take a balanced approach to recruitment."	BusinessWeek
Apr 15, 2008	Ghostwriters Used in Vioxx Studies, Article Says QUOTE: The drug maker Merck drafted dozens of research studies for a best-selling drug, then lined up prestigious doctors to put their names on the reports before publication, according to an article to be published Wednesday in a leading medical journal.	New York Times
Apr 15, 2008	Citing Ethics, Some Doctors Are Rejecting Industry Pay QUOTE: With little fanfare, a small number of prominent academic scientists have made a decision that was until recently all but unheard of. They decided to stop accepting payments from food, drug and medical device companies.	New York Times
Apr 05, 2008	Health Database Was Set Up to Ignore ‘Abortion’ QUOTE: Johns Hopkins University said Friday that it had programmed its computers to ignore the word “abortion” in searches of a large, publicly financed database of information on reproductive health after federal officials raised questions about two articles in the database. The dean of the Public Health School lifted the restrictions after learning of them.	New York Times
Mar 27, 2008	The Rights of the Mentally Ill: High Court Weighs Self-Representation QUOTE: The federal government and 19 states have joined Indiana in urging the court to find that government should be able to set a higher standard for whether a defendant may represent himself than simply whether he has been judged competent to stand trial. Indiana Solicitor General Thomas M. Fisher told the court that states have an interest in ensuring that trials are orderly processes, fair to both prosecution and defendant, rather than incoherent proceedings "descending into a farce."	Washington Post
Mar 24, 2008	Rising Health Costs Cut Into Wages: Higher Fees Squeeze Employers, Workers QUOTE: The struggle to control health costs is viewed as crucial to improving wages and living standards for working Americans. Employers are paying more for health care and other benefits, leaving less money for pay increases. Benefits now devour 30.2 percent of employers' compensation costs, with the remaining money going to wages, the Labor Department reported this month..."The way health-care costs have soared is unbelievable," said [a representative] of the Service Employees International Union. "There are people out here making decisions about whether to keep their lights on or buy a prescription."	Washington Post
Mar 22, 2008	A Third of Patients On Transplant List Are Not Eligible QUOTE: Although the need for organs far outpaces the supply, critics say the large number of inactive patients on the list may signal that potential recipients are languishing in limbo too long and that including them could mislead potential donors, recipients and policymakers about the magnitude of the need.	Washington Post
Mar 21, 2008	Practicing Patients QUOTE: Of course, turning patients’ experiences into usable data raises a host of questions for medicine. When patients take the reins of their own treatment, what role do doctors play? What’s to keep patients from misinterpreting the streams of data and finding false hope — and what’s stopping them from embarking on unproven and even risky treatments or dosages? And what happens if the real-world information at PatientsLikeMe contradicts the clinically proved protocols of medical science?	New York Times
Mar 20, 2008	Heparin Discovery May Point to Chinese Counterfeiting QUOTE: Federal drug regulators, in announcing Wednesday that the mystery contaminant in heparin was an inexpensive, unapproved ingredient altered to mimic the real thing, moved closer to concluding that Americans might be the latest victims of lethal Chinese drug counterfeiting.	New York Times
Mar 20, 2008	Great Web sites when aging parents need help (Empowered Patient) QUOTE: But these days, more and more people are using the Internet to find a caregiver instead of, or along with, traditional methods of finding care, such as asking friends and family. Here, from caregiving experts, are Web sites that link you to caregivers, plus sites that offer other services.	CNN (Cable News Network)
Mar 19, 2008	Dentist Pleads Guilty to Stealing and Selling Body Parts QUOTE: The dentist...appeared in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, pleading guilty to numerous charges of enterprise corruption, reckless endangerment and body stealing. In exchange for admitting that he was the ringleader of the harvesting operation — which sold hundreds, perhaps thousands, of bone fragments and bits of flesh to tissue processors around the country...	New York Times
Mar 17, 2008	News Analysis: Tainted Drugs Put Focus on the F.D.A. QUOTE: The Institute of Medicine, the Government Accountability Office and the F.D.A.’s own Science Board have all issued reports saying poor management and scientific inadequacies make the agency incapable of protecting the country against unsafe drugs, medical devices and food...Congress, though, may finally heed the calls...and allocate far more money [to inspect overseas drug plants].	New York Times
Mar 06, 2008	In Trial, Alaska Says Lilly Concealed Risks of a Schizophrenia Drug QUOTE: ...memorandums from Lilly executives showed that the company knew of Zyprexa’s dangers soon after the drug was introduced in 1996. But Lilly deliberately played down the side effects, [the plantiff's lawyer] said, so that sales of Zyprexa would not be hurt.	New York Times
Mar 06, 2008	Companies cash in on checking your DNA for disease QUOTE: The tests raise a host of ethical and practical questions: Why should people be tested to see whether they're at risk for a disease they can't do anything about? What will they do with their results? What safeguards are in place to protect their privacy?	USA TODAY
Feb 26, 2008	Pfizer to End Lipitor Ads by Jarvik QUOTE: ...the campaign had come under scrutiny from a Congressional committee that is examining consumer drug advertising and has asked whether the ads misrepresented Dr. Jarvik and his credentials. Although he has a medical degree, Dr. Jarvik is not a cardiologist and is not licensed to practice medicine.	New York Times
Feb 18, 2008	A Rip-Off by Health Insurers? QUOTE: Have health insurers been systematically cheating patients and doctors of fair reimbursement for medical services? That is the disturbing possibility raised by an investigation of the industry’s arcane procedures for calculating “reasonable and customary” rates.	New York Times
Feb 03, 2008	Pregnancy Notification Policy Alarms Some Health Experts QUOTE: A revised regulation that directs Howard County school officials to notify parents when students reveal they are pregnant has drawn criticism from health experts who say it violates a young woman's right to privacy and jeopardizes health care.	Washington Post

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