Canadian Healthcare Archives - Monitor Telegram

Mobile health unit to be investigated

November 15, 2017

The region could potentially establish a mobile health unit to address the current opioid crisis faced by local communities.

Regional council endorsed a plan at its latest meeting to have the health and social services departments investigate “the costs of operating the proposed unit, which would potentially be staffed with outreach, addiction, counselling, medical and health professionals operating in partnership with local health and social service agencies”, with a report to be brought back for 2018 budget deliberations.

Health Canada ‘gutting’ law to detect dangerous medicines, with possible deadly consequences, advocates warn

September 27, 2017

After Vanessa’s Law successfully navigated Parliament and became the law of the land, then Conservative MP Terence Young felt a sense of relief, able to breathe believing he’d finally won his 14-year battle.

Parliament had passed, without a single dissenting vote, a government bill that had started as his own; a bill to protect patients from potentially dangerous prescription drugs – to protect Canadians from suffering the agony his family suffered when his daughter, 15-year-old Vanessa, died of a heart attack after taking a prescribed drug.

But now, almost three years later, Young’s battle continues as a handful of measures he says are critical to the bill’s efficacy have yet to be enacted.

Red more at Global News

Big Business Starting to Look at Canada’s Newest Industry

September 21, 2017

Twenty years ago, it was vilified as a ‘gateway drug’. Now, cannabis has grown into a big business, with the potential to become even bigger as laws are scheduled to change to reflect shifting social attitudes towards marijuana and investment picks up to take advantage of increased demand.

And make no mistake: the demand is huge. In the United States, the legal cannabis industry is worth $6.7 billion, according to Bloomberg. Actively watching the industry include: Altria Group (NYSE: MO), Insys Therapeutics (NASDAQ: INSY), GW Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: GWPH), Teva Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: TEVA), MedReleaf Corp (OTC: MEDFF) (TSX: LEAF.TO)

Former RCMP Officer Comments on Healthcare Fraud

August 10, 2017

There are a few people in this country concerned about misuse of healthcare funds even though our governments apparently aren’t.

One such individual is a former RCMP officer by the name of John Robert Lyons. Per his profile on LinkedIn, he was a peace officer with the RCMP for 27 years and prior to his retirement from public service was a fraud risk consultant with the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

He, with a partner from the United States, now operates The ATRiM Group LLC, a company which provides “services assisting the health care sector deliver counter-fraud training and strategies based in crime prevention science.”

Lyons provided the Monitor Telegram with a copy of a paper he has published on healthcare fraud in Canada. So we are providing it here for our readers.

[pdf-embedder url=”https://https://monitortelegram.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/HCSWhilePaper28final29.pdf” title=”_HCS+While+Paper+final”]

Federal government looks to shore up seniors benefits program to prevent fraud, mistakes

July 17, 2017

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.

We need better value for our health care dollars

June 4, 2017

Health care costs the public sector about $160 billion a year in Canada, a higher per capita cost than most industrialized nations. Yet Canadians are not markedly healthier, nor do we receive better care.

The Commonwealth Fund has ranked Canada 10th out of 11 developed nations for the efficiency of our healthcare system (only the United States was worse). We came at or close to the bottom in access to care, timeliness of care and overall quality of care, and didn’t rank in the top three in any of the metrics reviewed.

Maybe our health care system isn’t as great as we like to think it is. How can Canadian health care move to the front of the pack?

It’s not just Americans who need to worry about health-care costs: Pape

May 12, 2017

Last week, I spent four days in hospital for a surgical procedure (don’t worry, nothing life-threatening). When I was discharged, I was presented with a bill for $1,055. That covered semi-private accommodation (the hospital had no facilities that qualified as “wards”) and some recommended post-op massage therapy. None of the expenses were covered by OHIP.

I have a family member who suffers from a rare and debilitating disease. His specialists have prescribed a very rare drug, which costs about $3,000 a month. It is not covered by OHIP.

A friend of mine has a very serious eye condition. He requires monthly shots just to maintain the limited vision he has left, at a cost of $1,500. Since he is under age 65, he has to pay for these out of his own pocket. OHIP doesn’t cover it.

Our Sick Health Care System

May 6, 2017

One way or another, we will have socialized medicine in this country. Politicians have raised and nurtured generations of people that expect something for nothing in exchange for votes. We have imported, legally and illegally, millions of uneducated, unskilled workers that can’t afford a band-aid. We have millions of students ‘graduating’ high school that can’t read, thus, unable to get a good job with health insurance.

We have a health care system where the middle class is strapped with not only their health care bills, but the bills of the people who did not pay. We have a health care system that cannot or will not control its costs of care while the number of people able to afford it dwindles. We have a system where an MRI costs $6,000 in one hospital, $4500 in another hospital and $250 in another hospital if you can pay cash.

Financial hurdles halt lawsuit against Canada’s health-care system

April 28, 2017

The constitutional challenge of Canada’s public health-care system has adjourned until September, with the plaintiffs arguing they have run out of money for the case and accusing the British Columbia government of stall tactics.

But the province offered no apologies for “vigorously” defending the public system and said the plaintiffs have not been sufficiently organized, accusing them of abuse of process.

The adjournment further delays a landmark case that began more than seven months ago, to significant attention, but which has since slowed to a crawl.

The matter, which is being heard in B.C. Supreme Court, had been expected to take six months but the plaintiffs are only halfway through their case and the province has not yet begun its submission.

Patients resort to paying consultants to help navigate Canada’s Byzantine health-care system

April 17, 2017

Andrée Colella had been in and out of hospital for months with bladder and bone infections when her husband, Tom, broke down and asked for help from an unconventional source: a private health-care advocate.

For $90 an hour, Jana Bartley, a former obstetrics nurse and legal nurse consultant, took charge of the family’s case.