LETHAL PLANS: When seniors turn to suicide in long-term care
By Melissa Bailey and JoNel Aleccia When Larry Anders moved into the Bay at Burlington nursing home in late 2017, he wasn’t supposed to be there long. At 77, the stoic Wisconsin machinist had just endured the death of his wife of 51 years and a grim new diagnosis: throat
Covidien kickback scheme draws $17.4 million fine
Covidien LP, the developer and promoter of radiofrequency vein ablation, has agreed to pay $17,477,947 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by providing free or discounted practice development and market development support to physicians located in California and Florida to induce purchases of Covidien’s vein ablation
FDA evaluating stents, balloons with paclitaxel coating following JAHA evaluation
A December study in The Journal of the American Heart Association by Konstantinos Katsanos, MD, of Rion, Greece, et al, reported a higher risk of death after balloons and stents used to open vessels in the legs were coated with an anti-inflammatory chemo agent called paclitaxel. “Further investigations are urgently
INTERVENTIONAL RADIOLOGY SOCIETIES CALL FOR EXPANDED STROKE TRAINING
The Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR), the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology Society of Europe and the Interventional Radiology Society of Australasia have formed a Joint Commission committed to providing necessary stroke training to interventional radiologists in order to alleviate the shortage of physicians trained in endovascular stroke therapies. The ability for patients
MEDTRONIC GETS OK TO STUDY PATIENTS WITH BICUSPID AORTIC VALUES USING COREVALVE EVOLUT TAVR SYSTEM
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an investigational device exemption (IDE) for Medtronic to initiate a single-arm study to evaluate the CoreValve Evolut TAVR system in patients with bicuspid aortic valves who are at low risk of surgical mortality. Medtronic separately received FDA approval for revised commercial
IT’S A LITTLE-KNOWN SECRET THAT PATIENTS CAN GET THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS DIRECTLY FROM A DRUGMAKER
By Sarah Jane Tribble Kip Burgess was relieved last year when pharmaceutical giant Amgen overnighted him a $2,976 check to help pay for his go-to arthritis drug, Enbrel. The 36-year-old psychologist had run into an increasingly common problem: The copay coupon sent by Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Amgen
VOLUNTARY MACRA CODES MAY DETERMINE WHAT DOCTORS ARE PAID
New patient relationship categories and codes are one of the most important provisions of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), according to a piece in the New England Journal of Medicine. In January 2018, the billing-code modifiers, which allow clinicians to report their relationship to a patient at a

COMMENT: REDUCING THE REGULATORY BURDENS OF THE HIPAA RULES
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR), issued a Request for Information (RFI) Dec. 12 seeking input from the public on how the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Rules, especially the HIPAA Privacy Rule, could be modified to further

BOSTON SCIENTIFIC ACQUIRING BTG
Boston Scientific has reached an agreement on the terms of a recommended offer to acquire BTG plc., a United Kingdom-based company that develops and commercializes products used in minimally-invasive procedures, targeting vascular diseases and cancer, as well as acute care pharmaceuticals. Under the terms of the transaction, holders

26,000-PERSON STUDY: FISH OIL AND VITAMIN D PILLS NO GUARD AGAINST CANCER OR SERIOUS HEART TROUBLE
By Liz Szabo Kaiser Health News A widely anticipated study has concluded that neither vitamin D nor fish oil supplements prevent cancer or serious heart-related problems in healthy older people, according to research presented Nov. 10 at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions. Researchers defined serious heart problems as the