Welcome to the latest edition of Investigative Roundup, our weekly roundup of the best investigative journalism on health care..
Cancer patients are denied treatment
When Barbara Quarell was diagnosed with cancer in 2022, she headed to Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where she had cared for patients for many years as a nurse. But she was denied treatment there because the hospital didn't accept her insurance. NBC News report.
The news outlet provided Memorial Hospital with the names of nine patients who were denied admission or had to pay for treatment up front. Three more patients who reported similar experiences asked that their identities not be revealed, and one more has died, the outlet reported.
Memorial Hospital was once a nonprofit community hospital owned by the city and county but is now a for-profit facility run by private equity-backed LifePoint Health. NBC News The article states, “Memorial Hospital is just one facility, but the changes there highlight a national trend of for-profit entities taking over the running of nonprofit hospitals.”
Neither Memorial nor LifePoint cited specific errors or discussed the experiences of the nine patients. NBC News A spokesman for Apollo Global Management, the private equity firm behind LifePoint, declined to comment, according to the report.
Memorial Hospital said it did not refuse treatment, but two hospital officials apologized to two patients who had spoken to the hospital. NBC newsthe media pointed out.
Quarell eventually moved more than 200 miles away to receive treatment at another facility where his insurance would cover the condition.
DIY medical testing booms
DIY medical testing is on the rise in the United States. The Washington Post report.
The Silicon Valley startup says it offers tests for a wide range of conditions, from menopause and food sensitivities to thyroid function, testosterone levels, ADHD and sexually transmitted diseases. post.
The boom is being driven by a growing network of independent labs, growing distrust of major medical institutions and increased reliance on at-home testing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to market research, the home diagnostics market generates $5 billion in annual revenue and is expected to nearly double by 2032.
While some patients have reported success, doctors are concerned that the trend could lead to problems such as misdiagnosis and delayed treatment. post report.
The FDA has taken notice, “finalizing a contentious rule” in April to hold lab-developed tests to the same standards as traditional tests, but companies are rushing ahead, peddling their products and enlisting the help of social media heavyweights to promote them.
“This is a big step forward,” said Bob Wachter, a medical doctor at the University of California, San Francisco, and an adviser to health tech startups. post While increased self-testing is a promising way to address flaws in the health care system, “there are a lot of quack drugs out there,” he said.
Opioid manufacturers tried to influence doctors
The researchers scrutinized nearly 900 contracts and published their findings in The Journal after opioid manufacturer Mallinckrodt was “court-forced to release more than 1.3 million internal documents.” BMJ.
“For those of us who study pharmaceutical influence, this trove of documents provides an unprecedented window into the inner workings of a broad marketing strategy that we call 'ghost management of medicines' – how companies not only use doctors directly to sell their drugs, but also seek to increase sales by influencing medical science and public opinion,” wrote Dr. Sergio Sismondo of Queen's University in Ontario, Canada and Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and Dr. Maud Bernisson, also of Radboud University.
“The documents outline a range of tactics to boost sales, from shaping medical terminology to designing continuing medical education (CME) courses, recruiting influential physicians and publishing articles in scientific journals,” the researchers added.
The researchers reported that there were 876 contracts for the development or distribution of medical information. In response to the FDA's requirement that opioid manufacturers educate physicians about the risks and benefits, Mallinckrodt “launched a CME program called 'Opioid Tolerance-Focused Therapeutics,'” the researchers found.
The researchers report that they also leveraged key opinion leaders. Terms used in the physician materials include “pseudo-addiction” (“The idea that patients need to take higher and higher doses, traditionally seen as developing a tolerance or dependency on a substance, is different to addiction”) and “chronicity” (“The market-friendly idea that untreated acute pain will develop into chronic pain”).
Mallinckrodt did not respond to the researchers' requests for comment.