All Topics

• Residents in Midwest still with no power

  Linda Snyder | December 18, 2007 12:15 PM | 0 CommentsDenver, CO

  A week after the huge ice storm that hit the Midwest, more than 88,000 homes and businesses in Oklahoma are still without power.Temperatures have been falling into the teens overnight this week, leaving people not only in the dark, but fighting the rigid coldness. Some residents in Oklahoma have spent money on hotels, thinking their power would be restored in only a couple of days. Others have...

• Another Attempt by Merck to make cholesterol drug over-the-counter

  Linda Snyder | December 14, 2007 1:31 PM | 0 CommentsDenver, CO

  Pharmaceutical company, Merck & Co., has recently made a 3rd attempt to make the cholesterol lowering drug, Mevacor, available to consumers over-the-counter. Since 2000, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has rejected the attempts due to possibly too many of the wrong people using Mevacor and risking unnecessary side effects.Merck & Co. defended their case by arguing that only 6 million of...

• UnitedHealth Group to make improvements

  Linda Snyder | December 11, 2007 3:52 PM | 0 CommentsDenver, CO

  The nation's second largest health insurer, UnitedHealth, recently admitted to customer service mistakes."We understand relationships, and we recognize that this a health system that needs to work for everyone, not just for us," stated David S. Wichmann, who is charge of the UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s individual and employer markets.315,000 customers were lost this year due to poor customer...

• Half of Doctors in U.S. Report Medical Errors

  Linda Snyder | December 07, 2007 3:28 PM | 0 CommentsDenver, CO

  Recently, researchers found that only half of all U.S. doctors report medical mistakes or unethical colleagues. Only 46 percent of physicians surveyed stated that they knew of a serious medical error and didn't report it. The U.S. Institute of Medicine surveyed more than 1,600 physicians in 2003 and 2004; only 31 percents had undergone a competency review in the past three years. About 98,000...

• Report Shows 40 Million in U.S. Can't Afford Health Care

  Linda Snyder | December 04, 2007 11:45 AM | 0 CommentsDenver, CO

  A federal report released on Monday, December 3rd, states that more than 40 million people in the United States can not afford health care. As a result, these people go without their medication, dental and visual treatments.Nearly 15 million adults did not obtain eyeglasses, 25 million did not get dental care, 19 million did not get needed prescribed medicine, and 15 million did not get needed...

• 2007 Colorado Hospital Ratings Released

  Linda Snyder | November 29, 2007 1:23 PM | 0 CommentsDenver, CO

  On November 28th, Colorado Governor, Bill Ritter and the Colorado Hospital Association recently released the 2007 Colorado Hospital Report Card.The report card gives consumers the ability to choose a hospital based on both the quality and the patient's needs. The House Bill 2006-1278 was passed in early 2007, which made detailed reports on Colorado hospitals available to the public online. All...

• Longer Stays in Hospice Cause Financial Problems

  Linda Snyder | November 27, 2007 11:47 AM | 0 CommentsDenver, CO

  Numerous hospice providers nationwide are facing financial problems due to their patients living longer than expected. You would assume this would obviously be a positive development, yet the effects on hospices' aren't.Over the last eight years, the federal government has had to demand that hospices exceeding reimbursement limits repay hundreds of millions of dollars to Medicare.A 2006 report...

• Insurance Companies Profited on Hurricane Katrina

  Linda Snyder | November 19, 2007 3:46 PM | 0 CommentsDenver, CO

  The American Association for Justice recently released a report on insurance companies and the analysis of how they handled Hurricane Katrina. It's been over two years since the catastrophic Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. Hurricane Katrina caused more than $135 billion in damages and left many people homeless and unemployed while insurance companies collected more than $40 billion the...

• Merck Takes Responsibility For Vioxx Through $4.85 Billion Settlement(2)

  Linda Snyder | November 14, 2007 12:17 PM | 0 CommentsDenver, CO

  It's been since 2004 that Merck & Co., one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, has taken the pain medication Vioxx off of the shelves. Finally, on November 9th, Merck settled the numerous Vioxx lawsuits with agreeing to pay $4.85 billion. It appears that the Vioxx manufacturer finally recognized, after obtaining mixed results in the early Vioxx cases it forced to trial, that a...

• Crocs & Escalators May Not Be Such A Great Idea

  April Armani | September 18, 2007 10:59 AM | 0 CommentsDenver, CO

  Escalators and Crocs may spell trouble for the funky resin shoe wearers. Injuries have been reported in Japan and Virginia when those wearing the Crocs, especially little kids, are getting their feeties caught in the sides of escalators. While no reports of injuries have been made in Colorado, the reports elsewhere serve as a reminder that those wearing Crocs need to be careful when riding...