Posts by Crandall & Pera Law, LLC

The state of Ohio ranks 44th nationwide when it comes to the quality of long-term services, including home care, support for family caregivers, and nursing homes, according to a new report.  The AARP, The Commonwealth Fund and The SCAN Foundation evaluated how every state fares in 26 indicators in five main areas that measure long-term…

The organ transplant policy for pediatric patients is getting permanently tweaked thanks to a family’s successful fight to get a lung transplant for their dying 10-year-old daughter last spring, according to ABC News.  The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which is under contract with the federal government to allocate organs, voted to allow children to…

For the first time, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has recommended a specific brand of flu vaccine for kids aged 2 to 8 – the needle-free vaccine – according to NBC News. The ACIP advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which can decide whether to take or leave the advice. ACIP members…

New 3-D technologies may be able to improve the accuracy of breast cancer scans and resolve some of the controversy around screening, according to NBC News. It has been argued that mammography could be doing more harm than good because of the many false positives that send women for biopsies of lesions that often turn…

The results of two new medical studies may mean significant changes for how patients are monitored and treated following a stroke, according to The New York Times.   More than a half-million Americans every year have an ischemic stroke, the most common form, and at least a quarter of these cases have no apparent underlying cause.…

As the negligent care of Veterans Affairs health facilities continues to be exposed nationwide, a local health center in Kentucky is finding that it is not in the clear either, according to The Courier-Journal.   Patricia Mahaun, a 26-year veteran of the Air Force, waited six months before she finally saw a doctor at the Louisville…

Following allegations about treatment delays and falsified records at Veterans Affairs health centers nationwide, more veterans will now be allowed to obtain health care at private hospitals and clinics, according to NBC News.  The Obama administration issued this directive after both parties pressed for policy change in order to improve the treatment of veterans. There…

As the trend of hospital systems buying health insurance companies continues, reports show that patients may not be receiving the benefits they are promised, according to The New York Times. The St. Louis-based Ascension Health, the country’s largest nonprofit hospital system, is currently in talks to acquire an unnamed insurance company that operates in 18…

A new lawsuit brought against five pharmaceutical companies alleges that deceptive marketing campaigns enacted by these drug companies are to blame for the current epidemic of prescription painkiller abuse, according to Businessweek. Two counties in California are suing the drug companies for turning drugs that were once narrowly prescribed for short-term acute pain into commonplace…

With the steady rise of both surgical errors and prescription drug addictions nationwide, more and more patients are seeking non-mainstream medical options for health problems such as chronic low back pain, according to The Courier-Journal. The National center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine suggests many options to treat low back pain, the most popular of…