| Novel plan helps hospital eliminate pricey tests
SEATTLE -- Virginia Mason Medical Center has made unusually aggressive moves in the past two years to cut health-care costs. Consulting with the big insurer Aetna Inc. along with Starbucks Corp. and several other big local employers, the hospital revamped how it treated some expensive ailments, cutting down high-tech tests and high-end specialists. But a troublesome pattern emerged: The more cost-effective it became, the bigger financial hit the medical center took. "Everyone gained but Virginia Mason," says its chief of medicine, Robert Mecklenburg. A novel solution, crafted with the help of the big employers, ultimately let Virginia Mason share in some of the savings it created -- by paying the medical center more for some cheaper treatments. It offers a lesson in dealing with one of the most confounding elements in America's health-care crisis: a perverse system of payments that rewards doctors and hospitals not for how well they treat patients, but for how much they treat them.
Cold medicine risky for babies, toddlers
ATLANTA, Ga. -- More than 1,500 toddlers and babies wound up in emergency rooms over a two-year period and three died because of bad reactions to cold or cough medicine, federal health officials reported Thursday.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned parents not to give common over-the-counter cold remedies to children under 2 years old without consulting a doctor.The deaths of three infants 6 months or younger in 2005 led to an investigation that showed the children all had high levels of the nasal decongestant pseudoephedrine, up to 14 times the amount recommended for children ages 2 to 12. The study found 1,519 ER cases from 2004 and 2005 involving young children and cold medicine.The CDC said it's not known how much cold or cough medicine can cause illness or death in children under 2 years old, but there are no approved dosing recommendations by the U.S.
Heart disease: leading cause of death among women
Many women today do not recognize heart disease as being the leading problem and cause of death among women. In fact, if asked, most women would name cancer as the greatest health problem facing women and the leading cause of death. Yet, the American Heart Association estimates that one in two women will eventually die of heart disease or stroke, compared with one in 25 who will eventually die of breast cancer. Unfortunately, many women are uncertain of specific aspects of heart disease and most don't understand the risk from this serious health threat."Cardiovascular disease includes diseases of the heart and blood vessels. Heart and blood vessel problems develop over time and occur when arteries that supply the heart or brain with blood slowly become clogged from a buildup of cells, fat and cholesterol," said Dr.
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