Bringing about a higher level of transparency and accountability in provincial and federal governments to help protect taxpayers from abuse
Twenty-four-year old Marica Peel says she’s spent the last six months trying to prove to the Canada Revenue Agency that she has been separated from her former partner, and the father of her son, for the past three and a half years.
But she said despite doing everything the agency has asked of her, she’s been told she still owes $4,500 — and her child benefit payments have stopped.
Read more at CBC News
When it comes to pharmaceuticals, seniors tend to be super users. Two-thirds of those in long-term care facilities take 10 or more medications, according to a 2012 Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) report.
Even among active older Canadians, pharmaceutical use is high. A poll of 5,190 CARP members in July revealed that, while 10 per cent use no prescription medications, CARP members are prescribed four medications each on average and five per cent take 10 or more.
Read more at National Post
Oh, Canada, you kind-hearted, rugged purveyors of the all-denim ensemble. Americans have a…confused relationship with our more civilized neighbors to the North (AOL keyword: healthcare).
It’s possible the volatile mix of envy, contempt, and sheer bewilderment we collectively harbor may have to do with the fact that people might choose to live in Winnipeg or Windsor over Wyoming. The proximity of our two countries only seems to create more distance. The same goes for our mostly shared language, “soorry” and “aboot” notwithstanding.
In the oughts, it wasn’t uncommon to overhear left-leaning Americans make (mostly) empty threats to jump ship if a certain barely literate, hawkish presidential candidate got elected to office (hint: he’s an amateur painter).
Read more at Business Because
The NDP is calling on Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien to open a formal investigation after the ride-hailing service Uber admitted earlier this week it covered up a hack that compromised the personal information of 57 million users and drivers last year.
A spokesperson for Therrien told Global News on Wednesday it asked Uber to explain how the hack happened and how many Canadians are affected but that the company told them it “was not able to confirm the number of impacted Canadian customers.”
Read more at Global News
Britain’s competition watchdog is accusing a Canadian drug company of making tens of millions of dollars by overcharging the British healthcare system and exploiting its patients.
Until this year, Concordia International was the U.K.’s only provider of liothyronine, a thyroid drug that’s primarily used to treat a condition caused by a deficiency of thyroid hormone. For British patients, such as Felicity Hart who had her thyroid removed in 2010, the tablets are literally a life-saver.
Read more at Global News
The overall number of prescriptions for opioids has increased over the last five years, but doctors have been giving patients fewer doses at one time, a report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information has found.
The report, released Wednesday, shows the number of opioid prescriptions rose by almost seven per cent between 2012 and 2016, while daily doses on average dropped by five per cent — to 226 million from 238 million.
Last year, 21.5 million prescriptions for the potent painkillers were dispensed, up from 20.2 million prescriptions in 2012, CIHI reported. Most were for chronic non-cancer pain relief.
Read more at CTV News
OTTAWA – Canada’s tax collectors often aren’t picking up the phone, and when they do, Canadians are being given incorrect information, a new federal audit reveals.
The examination by Canada’s Auditor General Michael Ferguson into whether the Canada Revenue Agency’s nine call centres were providing Canadian taxpayers with timely access to accurate information, found that call centre agents only answered the phone about one-third of the time.
When the callers do get through to the call centre, the audit found that agents are giving Canadians incorrect information nearly 30 per cent of the time.
Read more at CTV News
While most school districts across the country are cutting back on recess time and ramping up the Ritalin, one Texas school has kindergartners and first graders sitting still and “incredibly attentive.”
What’s their secret? Their recess time has tripled.
Instead of 20 minutes of recess per day, Eagle Mountain Elementary kindergartners and first graders now get an hour, broken up into four 15-minute breaks, in addition to lunchtime.
Their teachers say it’s totally transformed them.
Read more at Return To Now
AstraZeneca Plc is in talks to settle a Texas lawsuit claiming that the company fleeced the state’s Medicaid program by fraudulently marketing one of its top drugs, according to court filings.
Texas sued the drugmaker in 2013, saying AstraZeneca had targeted the state’s Medicaid program by urging doctors to prescribe the powerful antipsychotic Seroquel for unauthorized treatments — particularly for children — over six years.
Read more at Bloomberg
Salt Lake County officials announced Monday that the county is gearing up to sue pharmaceutical companies for damages caused by the recklessness and devastation of opioid addiction. They won’t be the first to do so, and it’s about time. In fact, there are over 100 counties across the nation gearing up to recover their costs associated with the epidemic, and many states have already filed.
Read more at The Salt Lake Tribune