Consumers Council of Missouri

Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Daniel Schwarze enjoys the profit from his investment in a local radiology clinic. He describes extra income as his “pizza money.”

In some states, it would be illegal.

There are many reasons for spiraling health care costs, but some economists say a big one is pricey, perhaps unnecessary and potentially dangerous tests.

The problem has the potential to worsen, they say, when physicians who prescribe the tests profit from them.

These concerns prompted Congress to pass a federal law barring such arrangements nearly 30 years ago. But physicians are finding increasingly creative ways to get around the law, experts say.  Please click here to read the full story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Study: Medicine mix-ups hurt 1 in 15 hospitalized kids

By Lindsey Tanner of the Associated Press

Medicine mix-ups, accidental overdoses and bad drug reactions harm roughly one out of 15 hospitalized children, according to the first scientific test of a new detection method.

That number is far higher than earlier estimates and bolsters concerns already heightened by well publicized cases like the accidental drug overdose of actor Dennis Quaid’s newborn twins last November.  Please click here to read the entire Associated Press story.

Insurer Anthem to no longer pay for medical errors

By Mary Jo Feldstein of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

To give hospitals an incentive to avoid some of the most egregious medical errors, Missouri’s largest insurer no longer will pay for certain mistakes, including when a surgery is performed on a wrong body part or patient.

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield in Missouri announced the plan Wednesday as part of a national initiative by Wellpoint Inc., its parent company and the nation’s largest insurer. Wellpoint’s policy change comes on the heels of similar changes by Medicare, the government health plan for the elderly, and Aetna Inc., another of the country’s large insurers. Other insurers are considering similar changes.  Click here to read the entire article.

Money and your life

The very rich are different from you and me, and not just because they have more money. The very rich live longer than ordinary Americans. Over the past two decades, the life expectancy gap between the haves and have-mores has grown even wider.

The question is why, and what that says about our health care system and our society.  Please click here to read the entire St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial.