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Study: Medical Bills Underlie 60 Percent Of U.S. Bankruptcies
"Medical bills are involved in more than 60 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies, an increase of 50 percent in just six years, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday," according to Reuters. The researchers found that "more than 75 percent of these bankrupt families had health insurance but still were overwhelmed by their medical debts." Most of them were "well-educated, owned homes and had middle-class occupations," the researchers from Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School and Ohio University wrote in the American Journal of Medicine.

Massive Medicaid Fraud Exposed: PsychRights Calls On Members Of Congress For Assistance
In letters to Senators Charles Grassley and Herb Kohl, and Representatives Henry Waxman, Bart Stupak , John Dingell & Barney Frank, the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights) has exposed massive Medicaid Fraud. While working on PsychRights v. Alaska , its lawsuit to prohibit the State of Alaska from the largely ineffective and always harmful psychiatric drugging of children and youth, PsychRights "discovered that it is illegal for the vast bulk of these prescriptions to be reimbursed by Medicaid."
News of the day
Researchers Discover Key To Malaria Susceptibility In Children
A team of researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have solved the mystery of why some children are more susceptible to malaria infection and anemia. These novel findings suggest that some children who are exposed to Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum) malaria before birth become tolerant to the malaria parasites, or their soluble products. This tolerance, which persists into childhood, reduces the ability of the immune system to attack and destroy parasites and increases the susceptibility of these children to develop a malaria infection. It also increases their risk for anemia. The study, published in this week"s issue of the open access journal, PLoS Medicine, is led by Indu Malhotra, Ph.D., and Christopher King, M.D., Ph.D., professor of international health, medicine, and pathology, with their colleagues at the Center for Global Health and Diseases at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and their Kenyan colleagues at the Kenya Medical Research Institute and Division of Vector Borne Diseases.
Oncology

Lambda Legal Files Suit Against Assisted-Living Facility For Allegedly Discriminating Against HIV-Positive Resident

Lambda Legal, a group that represents HIV-positive people, on Tuesday filed a law suit against the Fox Ridge assisted-living facility in North Little Rock, Ark., for allegedly evicting a resident because he is HIV-positive, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.The Rev. Robert Franke, a retired biology and religion professor who was diagnosed with HIV in 1987, moved into Fox Ridge, which is operated by Parkstone Living Center, in February. The day after he moved into the facility, an unidentified administrator told his daughter, Sara Franke Bowling, that her "superiors" said Franke needed to be discharged from the facility "because of his HIV." Franke disclosed his HIV status on application materials before moving into the facility. The suit alleges that Parkstone violated the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Arkansas Civil Rights Act and requests a permanent injunction to prevent the facility from denying apartments or services to people living with HIV/AIDS. The suit also seeks compensatory and punitive damages and attorneys" fees and costs. The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Eisele. The facility declined to comment on the suit. Julie Munsell, a spokesperson for the state Department of Human Services, said Arkansas law allows for people who have been discharged for assisted-living facilities to remain in the facility pending a hearing if the discharge is appealed. Munsell said the department"s Long-Term Care Division received notice that Franke was appealing the discharge but that the appeal was later dismissed without a hearing. According to Munsell, facilities are not permitted to discharge residents based on medical diagnoses but that some facilities have said they do not have the capacity to provide care for certain conditions. Munsell also said that Fox Ridge is "claiming that they did not admit this client so there is no need for a hearing." Scott Schoettes, staff attorney for Lambda"s HIV Project, said that Franke was not seeking medical care from Fox Ridge, although the facility does provide medical services. "He didn"t require any services beyond which they were licensed to provide," Schoettes said. Franke"s eviction is "particularly blatant and egregious, but unfortunately, not all that uncommon," Schoettes said, adding, "This happens all across the country. We want to send a message that this kind of discrimination is not going to be tolerated" (Satter, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 5/13). Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2009 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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