December, 2011Medicare Allows Using Data to Rate Doctors

Choosing a specialist for a medical procedure is difficult and time-consuming, but Medicare is trying to make the process easier. The government announced last week that Medicare will allow patients to use its claims database to produce report cards on doctors and hospitals. Doctors will be identifiable by their Medicare records, but patient information will remain private. An analysis of the billing records could show how many times a doctor has performed a procedure, preventable complications that occurred during the …

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Panel Says Yaz Label Should Be Re-Written

In a 21 to 5 vote, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said that the labels on certain oral contraceptive drugs should be rewritten to reflect risks accurately. The pills in question contain the hormone drospirenone. The brand names for these products include Yaz, Yasmin, Beyaz and Sayfral. Some studies suggest that the risk is higher for venous thromboembolism (VTE) in birth control pills with drospirenone than those with another hormone called levonorgestrel, a progestin. VTE occurs when blood clots …

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