Category: Reader Consult: How Much Would You Pay For a Pet’s Medical Care?

MEwens
If your pooch is under the weather, how much will you spend on medical care?
We’ve spent $1,200 on an MRI for one seriously ill mutt and about $600 for minor surgery on another — plus hundreds more on regular check-ups and vaccinations. So we read every word of today’s […]

MEwens
Since signs emerged last year that Americans were using fewer medical services, the question has been when we would flock back to clinics and hospitals. The answer: not yet.
With four big insurers already done announcing earnings, there are scant signs of an uptick in what health experts call “utilization.”
UnitedHealth Group, the biggest health […]

MEwens
Consumers are usually unable to get accurate information about how much medical treatment will cost them before they receive it, a new government study has found.
Investigators from the Government Accountability Office, a watchdog agency which works for Congress, tried to get upfront estimates from a variety of hospitals in Denver for the price […]

Laura Landro
Open Enrollment: Employees enrolling in health coverage for 2012 should expect to shoulder more of the responsibility for their health costs, with higher out-of-pocket expenses, particularly higher deductibles, and at least small increases in premiums, the WSJ reports. Employers are also making less noticeable changes including requiring workers to pay more to […]

MEwens
We wince when journalists are called “content providers,” so we sympathize with a perspective piece in the current New England Journal of Medicine bemoaning “the new language of medicine.”
The two physician-authors, Pamela Hartzband and Jerome Groopman, do not wish to be called “providers,” thankyouverymuch. Nor do they want their patients to be called […]

MEwens
Mindful of concerns about health-care’s spiraling costs, the Blog was struck by some new research on what the investigators identified as wasteful practices by family doctors and general practitioners.
Not being doctors, we can’t vouch for the clinical appropriateness of the findings, but there’s no harm with triggering a discussion, right?
What did the researchers say was the No. […]

MEwens
Rising Premiums: A survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust shows that employers’ health-insurance premiums for the average family rose 9% to $15,073 this year, while premiums for single workers rose 8%, the WSJ reports. The survey estimates only about 1.5 percentage points of the 9% increase […]

MEwens
Mood Lift?: A study shows that for women, drinking two to three cups of coffee per day is associated with a 15% lower risk of developing depression during a ten-year period, the WSJ reports. Other forms of caffeine were also tied to a lower risk of depression. However, this type of study can’t […]

MEwens
Proposing Medicare Changes: The Healthcare Leadership Council, whose members include Pfizer, Aetna and Mayo Clinic executives, is expected to propose a plan it says will produce $410 billion in Medicare savings over a decade by raising the age of eligibility and offering beneficiaries federally subsidized, privately administered Medicare plans, the WSJ reports. The […]

MEwens
A note from your doctor nudging you to get your cholesterol checked. Free blood pressure tests at your local Walgreen’s. Smoking cessation programs and more reduced-sodium and trans-fat-free foods.
All are part of a just-announced public-private partnership aimed at preventing one million heart attacks and strokes through 2017. Those diseases currently cause one-third of […]