Polypectomy

The Kaiser Family Foundation, working with the American Cancer Society and the National Colorectal Cancer Round Table, today released results of its investigation into the problem of patients being billed unexpectedly for costs of colonoscopies initiated at routine screening tests. Fight Colorectal Cancer was one of the organizations that contributed to the report.

One way the new federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) aims to reduce medical spending is to improve cost-effective screening that prevents or detects diseases before they become complicated and expensive to treat.

But consumer complaints reveal that, for screening colonoscopies in particular, consumers are getting unexpected bills when insurers decide their colonoscopies were no longer “screening” procedures. Instead of providing full coverage required by the ACA federal law with no cost-sharing, patients may be charged either copayments or deductibles. Read the rest of this entry »

How many more lives could we save if we simply delivered, consistently, the things that work?

That was the challenge that Dr. Arthur Kellerman laid down to people attending the AACR Science of Cancer Health Disparities conference in Miami on September 30.

Dr. Kellerman, an emergency room physician, told a sobering story of his patient Diane, who arrived in the emergency room in pain.  Asked to describe what hurt, she pointed to her right breast.  When her gown was lifted, doctors and nurses could see a huge cancer that had broken through her skin.  Uninsured, she had tried to treat it with over-the-counter salves. She died two months later.

He said that, like Diane, 1000 Americans die every week because they don’t get health care that meets medical standards. Read the rest of this entry »

Former Senator Tom Daschle

Former Senator Tom Daschle, President Elect Obama’s pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services, had a chance to sit down with his ex-colleagues on Thursday. Daschle moved one step closer to the new president’s cabinet after completing his first Senate confirmation hearing. Read the rest of this entry »

Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) announced he will be stepping down from the Senate Judiciary Committee in the 111th Congress to focus on health care reform. “As chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, I expect to lead a very full agenda in the next Congress, including working with [President-elect] Obama to guarantee affordable health care, at long last, for every American,“Kennedy said. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, Senate Finance Committee Chairman, Max Baucus (D-Montana), unveiled his “Call to Action” for healthcare reform in 2009. Read the rest of this entry »