+Numbers | August 23, 2011

64 minutes

Median length of time that heart attack patients waited after arriving at the hospital to receive emergency angioplasty in 2010, down from 96 minutes in 2005. According to Medicare and Medicaid data, 91% of heart attack patients needing emergency angioplasty to open a blocked artery received the treatment within the recommended 90-minute "door-to-balloon" window in 2010. In 2005, only 44% did. What changed? The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services began reporting publicly the percentage of patients who were treated within the recommended window, and national efforts were launched to speed up treatment. [via WebMD]

+Numbers | November 18, 2010

$93,000

STEVE HORRELL/SPL/Getty Images

Per-patient cost of Provenge, a new anti-cancer vaccine that has been shown to prolong life in prostate cancer patients by four months. On Wednesday, a federal committee offered support for the treatment, which makes it likelier that Medicare will cover its cost. [via Wall Street Journal]

+Tobacco | November 10, 2010

Wealth and Health From a $1 Cigarette Tax

By Jeffrey Kluger
307_Smoking

If you’re looking for a true stinker of a campaign slogan, you couldn’t do much better than “Vote for me, I’ll raise your taxes!” (Don’t believe it? Ask Walter Mondale. It ain’t easy to lose 49 states.) But suppose you changed your bumper sticker slightly? Here’s one way: “Vote for me. I’ll raise your taxes [...]

+Health Insurance | October 1, 2010

Need Health Insurance? Click Here.

By Kate Pickert
307_Healthcare.com[1]

If you’ve ever tried to sign up for health insurance on the open market – meaning, not through work or a government program like Medicare – you know how painfully difficult it can be.

+Health Reform | September 13, 2010

Meet the Man Behind Health Care Reform

By Kate Pickert

If you’ve heard of Donald Berwick, the new chief of Medicare and Medicaid, chances are good that what you’ve heard has been pretty scary. Charges levels by Republicans critical of the new Affordable Care Act (ACA) include: He wants to create a British-style health care in the U.S.! He wants to ration care! He has [...]

+Diabetes | November 27, 2009

Diabetes expected to double, costs to triple by 2034

By Tiffany O'Callaghan

According to estimates from researchers at the University of Chicago, the total number of Americans with diabetes will double in the next 25 years, from the current 23.7 million to some 44.1 million in 2034. During that same time frame, annual costs for treating those patients are expected to soar—nearly tripling from the current $113 [...]