Bringing about a higher level of transparency and accountability in provincial and federal governments to help protect taxpayers from abuse
The union representing nurses and long-term care workers at Ottawa’s 17 facilities says “many tragic stories” could be avoided if Ontario increased its funding.
CUPE staged a rally at the Perley and Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre on Thursday, urging support for Bill 33, a private member’s bill calling for higher levels of daily resident care, along with four hours minimum daily hands-on care.
Read more at ottawasun.com
OTTAWA—International Monetary Fund researchers say the federal government can afford to spend $8 billion annually to reduce the cost of child care spaces nationwide because the program would pay for itself.
The proposal is more than 10 times what the Liberals have promised to spend annually over the next decade on child care.
Read more at thestar.com
Canadians take great comfort in the belief that our health care system — a key part of our national identity — is world class.
But an unsettling report ranking Canada near the bottom in a comparison of health care in 11 developed nations raises questions about the quality of care we’re actually receiving. It highlights the need for improvements – particularly making sure patients have better access to doctors – that Ottawa and the provinces must make to guarantee healthcare remains a source of pride for all Canadians.
Read more at thestar.com
Taking prescription painkillers such as Percocet or Vicodin for more than a few days sharply increases your risk of getting hooked on the drugs, according to a new study just out from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Researchers at the University of Arkansas analyzed the health records of about 1.3 million adults who were prescribed opioids between 2006 and 2015.
Results showed that only about one in 20 people who took prescription painkillers for just three days were still on the drugs a year later.
Read more at clickorlando.com
An American fugitive accused of defrauding Connecticut’s Medicaid program of $4 million was arrested at Montreal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport Thursday.
Ramil Mansourov, 47, and his colleague Bharat Patel, who ran a private, family medical practice in Connecticut, were charged with writing prescriptions for such drugs as oxycodone outside the scope of legitimate medical practice, health care fraud, and money laundering. Patel remains in Connecticut, where he was arrested at his home.
Read more at montrealgazette.com
Federal officials are working to eliminate any fraud or mistakes from the government’s largest seniors benefits program through a massive review of payments and testing a new way to catch problems before they get into the system.
Government officials are in the midst of a large-scale, national review of existing old age security recipients with investigators contacting seniors to go over details like marital status, unreported departures from Canada or unreported deaths.
Read more at cbc.ca
WASHINGTON — More than 400 people have been charged with taking part in health care fraud and opioid scams that totalled $1.3 billion in false billing, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Thursday.
Sessions called the collective action the “largest health care fraud takedown operation in American history” and said it indicates that some doctors, nurses and pharmacists “have chosen to violate their oaths and put greed ahead of their patients.”
Among those charged are six Michigan doctors accused of a scheme to prescribe unnecessary opioids. A Florida rehab facility is alleged to have recruited addicts with gift cards and visits to strip clubs, leading to $58 million in false treatments and tests.
Read more at thespec.com
Mental health’ is a phrase everybody uses without thinking. Yet when we subject it to critical analysis, we can see just how slippery a term it really is. It is a term that reduces and reifies human experience to simple categories of good and ill health.
Before criticising the idea of mental health, it’s important to state that to do so is not to diminish or denigrate the mental distress that many people do indeed experience. My aim, rather, is to show how the use of the category of mental health actually detracts from the real suffering of people.
Read more at spiked-online.com
AUSTIN – Two Austin psychologists and a Cedar Park patient recruiter have been indicted in part of what is now being called the largest health care fraud enforcement action in Department of Justice history.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, M.D., announced the record-breaking health care fraud enforcement action by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force on Thursday.
Read more at kvue.com
In the 15 months he has been Manitoba’s health minister, Kelvin Goertzen has demonstrated a clear and profound disdain for sacred cows.
The past 90 days alone, Goertzen unveiled plans to close and repurpose three Winnipeg hospital emergency rooms, shutter two dozen rural Emergency Medical Services stations, and cut tens of millions of dollars in operating funds from regional health authorities.
Read more at winnipegfreepress.com