Patients, politicians, and regulators may find it tough to believe, so they need sharp periodic reminders: While there are many terrific, dedicated doctors working today, there also are some truly terrible ones. And dealing with the harms of medical malpractice by the incompetent and abusive can require courage and vigilance. Perhaps a new, streamed Hollywood serial — starring the likes of Alec Baldwin, Christian Slater, AnnaSophia Robb, and Joshua Jackson — can underscore for the…

Coronavirus infections have increased in just a week by 70%, with hospitalizations increasing 36% and deaths rising by 26%. Public health officials blame the Delta variant for fueling the latest surge in the coronavirus pandemic, the New York Times reported, noting: Continue reading…

Cash is king. That truism may hold for thrifty savers and businesses and individuals buffeted by economic uncertainty. But this realistic view also may be turned on its head for poorer, uninsured patients trying to cope with bankrupting medical bills. That’s because hospitals — a leading driver of health care costs — gouge with their premium prices those who pay with cash, the Wall Street Journal reported. The newspaper, working with previously secret pricing…

Just as attorneys generals for more than a dozen states inch toward a multibillion-dollar settlement with a drug maker faulted for its big role in the start of the opioid abuse and drug overdose crisis, that health menace is taking a new, deadly turn in the region around the nation’s capital. In Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, officials report they are grappling with spiking overdose deaths, numbering in the hundreds, and blamed on…

The  Food and Drug Administration has back-tracked on a major part of its  accelerated approval of Aduhelm, a prescription medication targeted at Alzheimer’s patients. The  FDA green light for the drug also has created such consternation among medical specialists, insurers, policy experts, and politicians — including with news reports of hidden, cozy dealings between a top regulator and the medication’s maker —  that the acting agency chief has asked the independent inspector general to investigate …

The rest of the planet may be seeing what roughly half of Americans cannot: The coronavirus pandemic is far from over and it is savaging humanity in a way that is now sadly preventable. The disease’s global toll now has exceeded 4 million deaths, a number that is likely far under reported, according to the World Health Organization. The United States still has tallied a disproportionate number of virus fatalities — more than…

No matter what the carping critics may claim about the shortcomings of the civil justice system, when Big Tobacco, Big Pharma, and big organizations exploit and harm the vulnerable, lawsuits and what follows may provide a  concrete, productive way for the wronged to see remedy and recompense for injuries inflicted on them. Recent news articles provide more than a billion bits of evidence why, even in terse summaries of what has occurred in…