Finally!
BREAKING: Maine superior court says LePage can't keep dragging his feet on Medicaid expansion, orders guv to submit the paperwork by June 11 https://t.co/HjfIbGZt0J pic.twitter.com/iIlVmLkLnD
— Alice Miranda Ollstein (@AliceOllstein) June 4, 2018
One of the many issues that individuals with diabetes face is the risk of amputation related to diabetic neuropathy. The loss of sensation in a person’s feet can cause injuries that don’t heal that then become infected. Managing one’s diabetes is important to avoiding these problems.
In recent years there have been advances in medication that help individuals manage their diabetes. What most people probably do not expect is a medication designed to control the disease being a cause of amputations.
However, the law firm of Parker Waichman, LLP has filed a lawsuit in New Jersey alleging exactly that. The lawsuit, filed against Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceuticals by two individuals, alleges that the drug makers knew that their Invokana, Invokamet, and Invokamet XR diabetes medications could lead to an increased risk of amputation of toes, feet, and legs, but concealed that risk from consumers and the medical community. As a result, the suit alleges, the two plaintiffs each lost legs below the knee.
The plaintiffs are not alone in this belief. The European Medicines Agency, the group tasked with approving drugs for sale in the European Union, issued a warning in early 2017 that use of these drugs could lead to a significant increase in the risk of amputations. The Food and Drug Administration, the US Agency tasked with approving medications for sale in the United States, issued its own warning in late 2017 following the results of two studies of individuals using these types of medications being published, which showed that using drugs like Invokana resulted in an increased risk of amputation. The FDA now requires packaging for Invokana, Invokamet, and Invokamet XR to carry what’s sometimes called a “Black Box Warning”, which is the strongest warning the FDA issues, and is only used in situations where a drug carries a serious risk of adverse or life-threatening effects.
These drugs can be difference-makers for individuals with diabetes. But anyone choosing to use these drugs should be fully aware of the possible consequences. Unfortunately, individuals who began taking these drugs prior to 2017 were deprived of what could reasonably be considered critical information; namely, that these drugs could increase their chances of amputation.
“Anyone with diabetes knows that amputation is a possible complication,” said Peter Tragos, a partner with Tragos, Sartres, and Tragos, a law firm that represents individuals in dangerous drug matters. “However, deciding to take a medication that could improve your life but that also carries with it the possibility that amputation could be more likely should be made with all the facts. Based on what we know, Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceuticals knew all the facts but kept them from the public.”
This would be a giant leap forward. Just another reason to donate to Democratic senators for November:
Two more Democratic senators are introducing a bill that would create a version of Medicare for some working-age Americans, offering yet another sign that government-run insurance will figure prominently into the Democratic Party’s health care agenda going forward.
Sens. Jeff Merkley (Ore.) and Chris Murphy (Conn.) plan on Wednesday to introduce the “Choose Medicare Act,” which would launch a new, enhanced version of traditional Medicare. It would be available both to individual consumers buying their own coverage and employers who offer coverage to employees.
It’s possible to imagine Medicare Part E, as Merkley and Murphy propose to call the new program, someday absorbing most working-age people who don’t qualify for Medicaid. If that happened, the American health care system would more closely resemble the kind of “single-payer” system that exists in some countries abroad and many progressives would prefer to have in the United States.
Of course, whether Medicare Part E would really prove as attractive as Merkley and Murphy say ― and precisely what trade-offs the full legislation would entail ― remain very much open questions.
Medicare Part E would include two features of commercial insurance that traditional Medicare, which serves seniors, does not: a limit on out-of-pocket spending and coverage of pediatric services.
This is so hard to deal with. One of my friends basically had to jailbreak her 92-year-old mother from a nursing home last year because they had her so loaded up with these drugs:
Dementia is a horrible disease. It has numerous forms – Alzheimer’s, Lewy-Body, Vascular – all of which rob the individual of their memories, their personalities, and eventually, their lives. There are medications that can slow these changes, but they must be carefully monitored to ensure the individual responds appropriately. In many cases, the medications must be discontinued because of adverse responses. Eventually, the disease robs individuals of their ability to live at home, even with regular assistance, and at that point, families are often forced to have their loved one admitted to a nursing facility.
The admission to the facility is another heartbreak for families. They must move the loved one out of a familiar space and into a new one. Many times, the individual is terribly confused by the change, which can cause them to lash out, vocally or physically, in response. Sometimes, sedation of some form is necessary to avoid harm to the individual, other residents, or employees, but the use of sedation should be the exception, not the rule.
Unfortunately, an investigation by CNN uncovered the use of sedatives and antipsychotic medications on individuals with dementia in all situations to make them more pliable and responsive to guidance or to simply make them less needy. Many times, these medications were not prescribed for the individual, or they were prescribed inappropriately. Additionally, the impact of these medications on the mental conditions of the individuals was not properly monitored or tracked. These medications could also lead to falls and injuries that would not have otherwise occurred.
This has been identified as a nationwide problem. Families across the United States have reported loved ones who were incoherent, groggy, unresponsive, injured, or killed. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a report that showed between 2014 and 2017, inspectors issued more than 7,000 violations to facilities related to improper use of antipsychotic medications. CMS also found that since 2012, the use of antipsychotic medications has decreased by 35 percent. This consistent monitoring has clearly made a difference, but the Trump Administration, at the end of 2017, ordered CMS to roll back its imposition of penalties on nursing homes that violated Medicare and Medicaid regulations. What impact this will have on the progress made on the inappropriate use of antipsychotics is anyone’s guess, but it is probably safe to say things will not continue to improve at their current rate.
“As can be seen from the CNN report, this type of improper medication has been going on for decades,” said Gordon Glover, a partner with the Glover Law Firm, which deals regularly with nursing home litigation. “Caring for an individual suffering from dementia is an incredibly challenging task, as any of these families will tell you, and when it becomes too challenging, these families rely on these facilities to provide the level of care they couldn’t. Unfortunately, some facilities have decided that they can’t provide that care either, and instead of being upfront, they chose to medicate patients to make their lives easier. These types of practices are completely unacceptable and should be challenged at every turn.”
If we had a health care system where everyone was covered for all their needs, we wouldn’t have to sue to get enough money for treatment after malpractice. Just sayin’!
Patients in New York State who experienced a missed cancer diagnosis not only had to worry about whether the missed diagnosis was discovered too late to save their lives, but also whether the missed diagnosis was found too late allow them to hold the doctor involved in the original diagnosis at fault. Now, a new law will at least ensure that the victim of a missed diagnosis is not also deprived of the opportunity to seek justice.
“One thing people who are victims of some sort of medical malpractice are not aware of, or forget about, is what is called the ‘statute of limitations’,” said John H. Fisher, a medical malpractice attorney with the law firm of John H. Fisher, P.C. “The statute of limitations defines how long after an injury someone can wait before they can no longer try and file suit. It is a red line that if crossed, may cause even the strongest claim in the world to fail.”
In New York State, the statute of limitations for missed cancer diagnoses was 2 ½ years. It is still 2 ½ years, but the difference between the old law and the new law is when the clock starts running. Under the old law, the clock starts running the day the missed diagnosis occurred. Say you went to the doctor with difficulty breathing. You had smoked earlier in your life, so the doctor diagnoses you with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, prescribes an inhaler, and does no other testing.
Three years later, you are rushed to the emergency room in severe pain. It is determined that you have lung cancer, which began several years before but that has gone untreated and spread to other parts of your body. You think back to the appointment with the doctor three years before, when you complained of shortness of breath and wonder if that was the first indicator of the lung cancer.
If it was, and the doctor three years before missed the diagnosis, the old law said that you could not file suit for medical malpractice, because more than 2 ½ years had passed since the missed diagnosis. You were barred under the statute of limitations.
“This new law says that the statute of limitations only starts running after the error is discovered, which is really fairer to the patient. The patient could not have known of the missed diagnosis until they are properly diagnosed, so this law gives them a chance to really exercise their rights as patients,” said Fisher.
This sounds like a solid, workable idea to get around the stranglehold of Big Pharma:
A nonprofit generic drug company led by some well-known U.S. hospital systems and the Department of Veterans Affairs is trying to expand the market for inexpensive medicines — fast.
The nonprofit aims to fulfill two needs. It wants to produce generic drugs that are in short supply. And it’s trying to create more competition for pricey, older off-patent drugs so that they become more affordable.
The fast-rising company could soon count one-third of all U.S. hospital operators as its members.
Seventy hospital systems have expressed interest in joining the venture since its launch about six weeks ago, said Dan Liljenquist, vice president at Intermountain Healthcare in Utah, one of the lead institutions behind the project, on Monday.
[…] The nonprofit — led by Intermountain with Ascension, SSM Health, Trinity Health and the Department of Veterans Affairs — plans to directly ship to hospitals, bypassing wholesalers and other middlemen to keep costs down. It will also publish product prices. There will be a single market price and justifications for increases driven by higher raw material costs or investments in new manufacturing, similar to how public utilities defend rate adjustments.
By Scott Teitelbaum, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Florida. Vivitrol, a non-opioid medication, is used to treat some cases of opioid dependence. Addiction specialists stress that not all patients need medication, but that many do. Continue reading “Why treating addiction with medication should be carefully considered”
If you really must have this kind of cosmetic surgery, for God’s sake, do a little research. And don’t go to a freestanding clinic that’s not in a hospital!
In April, after a year-long investigation, the Florida Board of Medicine revoked the license of a Miami doctor for seriously injuring four different patients in 2015 while performing a procedure known as the “Brazilian butt lift” and liposuction surgeries. But a judge overrode that decision and the doctor continued to practice. Two months later, on the same day the Florida Court of Appeals denied a requires from the board to stop the doctor from doing liposuctions, a 30-year female patient died in his clinic while he was performing an undisclosed procedure.
When emergency responders arrived at the Doral clinic, the doctor was performing CPR on the Illinois woman. She had stopped breathing in the middle of the procedure. She was pronounced dead a short time later at the Kendall Regional Medical Center.
During liposuction, fat is removed through a surgical incision with a metal rod. The rod is plunged in and out of the patient. The doctor advertises his specialty as the Brazilian butt lift, transferring the fat that is removed from parts of the body to the patient’s buttocks.
In May 2015, he perforated the organs of two different patients with the metal rod and caused two other patients to develop serious infections from the liposuction.
In addition to the complaints and investigation by the board, the state health department has also sought to stop the doctor from performing liposuctions. They have charged him with repeated medical malpractice. Despite the numerous restrictions and revocations of his medical license, the decisions are always overturned and he goes right back to operating.
There is also at least one malpractice suit that has been filed against the doctor. The plaintiff in that case had gone to the doctor for breast augmentation and revision surgery. Shortly after the surgery, the woman began vomiting blood and developed excruciating pain. Other complications developed and the doctor did a second surgery four months later to fix the issues. But it didn’t work.
Upon hearing of the patient’s death, Attorney Domnick said, “This goes beyond appalling. The fact that the court continues to let this man practice is unacceptable. Had they not overruled the board, this woman would still be alive.”
Man has fat cells removed, grown in lab and injected back into his leg, in groundbreaking procedure hailed by doctors as ‘science fiction’ Groundbreaking surgery to regrow part of a human bone was carried out on Tuesday at HaEmek Hospital in the northern Israeli town of Afula. Continue reading “In world first, Israeli undergoes surgery to regrow a bone”
My local community health center was how I survived for a couple of years. Yeah, it takes an entire day to do the interviews and paperwork, but it was worth it. So I’m 100% behind Sen. Warren:
I love community health centers. They do wonderful work and enjoy widespread support. But I’m worried because Republican leaders in Congress have held these centers hostage by halting federal funding while they focus on passing tax cuts for the wealthy. Continue reading “Elizabeth Warren: Congress needs to fund community health centers right away”
