Newest Medical Technology Promotes Indiscriminant Spending

Increasing use of the scans, formally known as CT angiograms, is part of a much larger trend in American medicine. A faith in innovation, often driven by financial incentives, encourages American doctors and hospitals to adopt new technologies even without proof that they work better than older techniques. Patient advocacy groups and some doctors are clamoring for such evidence. But the story of the CT angiogram is a sobering reminder of the forces that overwhelm such efforts, making it very difficult to rein in a new technology long enough to determine whether its benefits are worth its costs.

Some medical experts say the American devotion to the newest, most expensive technology is an important reason that the United States spends much more on health care than other industrialized nations — more than $2.2 trillion in 2007, an estimated $7,500 a person, about twice the average in other countries — without providing better care.

No one knows exactly how much money is spent on unnecessary care. But a Rand Corporation study estimated that one-third or more of the care that patients in this country receive could be of little value. If that is so, hundreds of billions of dollars each year are being wasted on superfluous treatments.

10 Million Baby Boomers At Risk of Developing Alzheimer's Disease

MEDSCAPE report by Susan Jeffrey

A new report released by the Alzheimer's Association includes new estimates that show the lifetime risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD) is 17% in women and 9% in men who live to age 55 years. The figures mean that 10 million of the 78 million baby boomers alive today can expect to develop AD in their lifetime; this number increases to 14 million if other dementias are included.

The new numbers outlining remaining lifetime risk at age 55 years were provided to the Alzheimer's Association by authors of the Framingham Heart Study, and the data appear in the association's report, 2008 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures, released this week.

Alzheimer's Association president and CEO Harry Johns said in a statement that the information in this report "makes it clear that the crisis cannot be ignored, not when 10 million baby boomers are at risk of developing this fatal disease. Unchecked, this disease will impose staggering consequences on families, the economy, and the nation's health and long-term care infrastructure."

The report includes information ranging from prevalence, to mortality, to costs for direct care, to indirect costs to caregivers. The document also includes a special report on remaining lifetime risk, based on data from the Framingham Heart Study, authored by Alexa Beiser, PhD, Sudha Seshadri, MD, Rhoda Au, PhD, and Philip A. Wolf, MD, from Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health, in Massachusetts.

Other data included in the report:

Currently, 5.2 million Americans of all ages have Alzheimer's disease. About 1 in 8 people older than 65 years (approximately 13%) have the disease.
Women are more likely to develop AD than men, although this is principally because they live longer on average than men.
As many as a half-million new cases will develop every year by 2010; by 2050, that number is expected to grow to 1 million.
Alzheimer's disease is among the top 10 leading causes of death for people of all ages, and number 5 for those 60 years and older. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, although mortality rates for heart disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and stroke declined between 2000 and 2005, rates for AD increased by almost 45%, the report notes. This decline in death rates in other causes of death might be expected to further increase rates of dementia as people live longer, the report points out.
Direct costs to Medicare and Medicaid for the care of people with AD and other dementias and indirect costs to businesses with employees who are caregivers for someone with AD amount to more than $148 billion annually. In 2000, total Medicare costs per beneficiary for beneficiaries with AD 65 years and older were on average 3 times higher than for other beneficiaries.
In 2007, nearly 10 million Americans 18 years and older provided 8.4 billion hours of unpaid care to people with AD (valued at $89 billion), 4 times what Medicare pays for nursing-home care for AD and other dementias.
About 250,000 children between the ages of 8 and 18 years are also providing care for loved ones with AD, and about 1 million caregivers have to provide that care from a distance of more than 2 hours away.

Bill Clinton At MUSC, Charleston, SC Dec 8th

Video of Bill Clinton visiting children at MUSC's Children's Hospital on Saturday, December 8th, 2007.

Divided We Fail: Faith Week

Divided We Fail: Faith Week

From November 17 through the 25, AARP will be reaching out to more than 200 diverse communities of faith to ask them to reflect on the importance of health care and lifetime financial security issues.

In conjunction with Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference and the National Council of Churches, Faith Week activities will reach more than 100,000 individuals across the nation in more then 50 cities.

"America's faith communities have always led our nation through times of uncertainty," said Nancy Leamond, Group Executive Officer of Social Impact at AARP. "Our churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples provide hope and inspire us to transform ourselves, our communities, and our country. They challenge us to rise above narrow self-interests and become stewards for future generations. AARP's Divided We Fail initiative is honored to be in fellowship with so many congregations to champion affordable, quality health care and long-term financial security for all."

AARP has consulted with faith and community leaders across the nation and will be working throughout the week to open a dialogue in numerous communities. Members of these communities will be able to hear the Divided We Fail message during services and will have access to materials so they can create change in their homes and communities by sharing their stories and learning what they can do to improve the health and financial longevity of their communities.

"Health care and financial security are not just buzz words for politicians and Wall Street executives" said Dr. Iva Carruthers, General Secretary of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference. "Each day individuals in our faith communities feel the effect of lacking health care or not being able to afford retirement. When voices of faith unite in the name of education and change, the result is incontestable. Divided We Fail is indeed a unique opportunity for faith communities to voice their opinions and create change."

The 'Quiet Crisis'

Known as the "quiet crisis," the number of people with health insurance who might be bankrupted by a medical crisis is growing. We have heard a lot about the 47 million without any health insurance, but we've heard less about the tens of millions of middle-class Americans who are underinsured. More than half of underinsured adults go without needed medical care. Even while scrimping on care, more than half of America's underinsured have debt due to medical expenses.

Too many Americans are locked into jobs or stopped from opening their own businesses because of worries about affording or maintaining health insurance. The threat of rising health insurance premiums and the prospect of losing coverage altogether has become a constant concern for far too many American families. In fact, nearly 9 in 10 Americans (87%) are concerned about health or medical costs going up. And 8 in 10 adults say they are dissatisfied with the "total cost of health care in this country."