Riding in Pickup Beds

We have the same concern in Iowa…From the Honolulu Star-Bulletin:
While island motorists buckle up more than those in any other state, Hawaii is one of several states that allow passengers to ride unrestrained in the bed of pickup trucks.
Everyone from state lawmakers to national highway safety experts is questioning the rationale of having a seat [...]

Adults Ambivalent About Higher Payments to High Quality Providers

A Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive Health-Care Poll shows that many U.S. adults believe it is fair to assess healthcare quality, but they are ambivalent and confused about whether or not payments to doctors and hospitals should be linked to quality metrics.
Half of all adults believe there are fair and reliable ways to measure [...]

Changes in Medicare Fiscal Intermediaries

From CMS:
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is implementing significant changes to the Medicare fee-for-service program’s administrative structure. This Medicare Contracting Reform (MCR) will:
Integrate and simplify the administration of Medicare Parts A and B with primary A/B MACs which will process both Part A and Part B claims for the fee-for-service benefit;
Make contracting [...]

Emergency Physicians Warn That Risky Drinking Can Increase Your Risk of an ER Visit

From an ACEP press release:
As part of Alcohol Awareness Month in April, the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) and the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) have launched a campaign to educate occasional drinkers about how much is too much alcohol consumption and why it may put them at a higher risk of a trip to [...]

Percentage of Uninsured Americans Rising

From Yahoo News, via Symtym:
The percentage of working-age Americans with moderate to middle incomes who lacked health insurance for at least part of the year rose to 41 percent in 2005, a dramatic increase from the 28 percent in 2001 without coverage, a study released on Wednesday found.
Moreover, more than half of the uninsured adults [...]

Drive-in Option Not Available

From the Marshalltown (IA) Times-Republican:
A Marshalltown man was arrested Monday after running into doors at the Marshalltown Medical & Surgical Center, then leading police on a chase through part of the city and county.
Nathaniel James Kopel, 22, of 403 N. Second Ave., ran his car into doors at both the OB-GYN center on the east [...]

Change the lights from red to green…

We had these on the ambulances, fire trucks and police cars in Ames, Iowa. From CNN.com:
A man who said he bought a device that allowed him to change stop lights from red to green received a $50 ticket for suspicion of interfering with a traffic signal.
Jason Niccum of Longmont, Colorado, said the device, which he [...]

Air Medical Scam

From JEMS:
OREM, Utah — If a stranger calls wanting your credit card number in exchange for the dispatch of a medical helicopter to help a loved one in distress — be skeptical.
Orem police are warning residents about a scam by individuals posing as operators of Life Flight, Intermountain Healthcare’s medevac unit.
According to police [...]

12 Nails to the Head: Picture

Blogged yesterday, picture today, courtesy of the Mumbai Times:

Docs seek access to Rx tracking

From the Boston Herald:
Pill-hungry “doctor shoppers” who gin the system to score multiple narcotics prescriptions are being tracked by regulators via mapping technology, but frustrated physicians and pharmacists on the front lines of the addiction battle say they are being pointlessly denied the vital information.
“I would like to know exactly who it is who [...]