PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Disabled patients who can't afford their meds come to the ER more

2013-05-29
(Press-News.org) WASHINGTON — Disabled Medicare patients under the age of 65 who don't take their prescription medications because of cost concerns are more likely to have at least one emergency department visit during a one-year period. The results of a new study are published online today in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("The Relationship Between Emergency Department Use and Cost-Related Medication Nonadherence Among Medicare Beneficiaries").

"Poverty and disability increase the risk that patients don't take their medicine because of the cost, which can lead to avoidable hospitalizations," said lead study author Janice Blanchard, MD, PhD, of the Department of Emergency Medicine at George Washington University in Washington D.C. "As with many other social problems, the emergency department is where these patients end up. It also has the potential to help these patients get their medications affordably so they stay out of the hospital."

Of 7,177 respondents to a survey of Medicare beneficiaries, 7.5 percent reported mild cost-related non-adherence (CRN) and 8.2 percent reported severe CRN. Mild CRN was defined as skipping or taking smaller doses of prescribed medications or delaying filling prescriptions to make medicine last longer. Severe CRN was defined as not filling prescriptions at all because of cost.

Medicare patients reporting severe CRN were more likely than those without CRN to have at least one emergency department visit and they also had a higher number of ER visits within the year. Approximately 38.3 percent of patients with severe CRN had at least one emergency department visit, while only 27.5 percent of patients without CRN visited the ER. Of disabled Medicare patients, those with severe CRN were more likely to have at least one ER visit as compared to disabled Medicare patients without CRN, disabled Medicare patients with mild CRN and elderly Medicare patients in all CRN categories.

High rate of non-adherence have been estimated to cost $100 billion a year in avoidable hospitalizations.

"Disabled Medicare patients are a high risk population," said Dr. Blanchard. "Specific policies that aim to help these patients take their medications as needed may be developed in the emergency departments these patients turn to in their hour of need. We may be able to connect them with lower-cost medications or federal and state programs designed to provide prescription assistance."

INFORMATION:

Annals of Emergency Medicine is the peer-reviewed scientific journal for the American College of Emergency Physicians, the national medical society representing emergency medicine. ACEP is committed to advancing emergency care through continuing education, research, and public education. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, ACEP has 53 chapters representing each state, as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. A Government Services Chapter represents emergency physicians employed by military branches and other government agencies. For more information, visit http://www.acep.org.

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Women donate less to charity than men in some contexts

2013-05-29
Given the chance, women are more likely than men to dodge an opportunity to donate to charity, a group of economists have found. The issue of which gender is more generous has been debated for years. A new field experiment conducted by scholars at the University of Chicago and University of California, Berkeley shows that when it's easy to avoid making a donation, such as not responding to a door-to-door solicitor, women are less likely than men to give. The results of the study are published in the article, "The Importance of Being Marginal: Gender Differences in Generosity," ...

Changing gut bacteria through diet affects brain function, UCLA study shows

2013-05-29
UCLA researchers now have the first evidence that bacteria ingested in food can affect brain function in humans. In an early proof-of-concept study of healthy women, they found that women who regularly consumed beneficial bacteria known as probiotics through yogurt showed altered brain function, both while in a resting state and in response to an emotion-recognition task. The study, conducted by scientists with UCLA's Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer Family Center for Neurobiology of Stress and the Ahmanson–Lovelace Brain Mapping Center at UCLA, appears in the June edition ...

Penn-led research maps historic sea-level change on the New Jersey coastline

2013-05-29
Hurricane Sandy caught the public and policymakers off guard when it hit the United States' Atlantic Coast last fall. Because much of the storm's devastation was wrought by flooding in the aftermath, researchers have been paying attention to how climate change and sea-level rise may have played a role in the disaster and how those factors may impact the shoreline in the future. A new study led by the University of Pennsylvania's Benjamin P. Horton, an associate professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science, relied upon fossil records of marshland to reconstruct ...

OHSU scientists advance understanding of brain receptor; may help fight neurological disorders

2013-05-29
PORTLAND, Ore. — For several years, the pharmaceutical industry has tried to develop drugs that target a specific neurotransmitter receptor in the brain, the NMDA receptor. This receptor is present on almost every neuron in the human brain and is involved in learning and memory. NMDA receptors also have been implicated in several neurological and psychiatric conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia and depression. But drug companies have had little success developing clinically effective drugs that target this receptor. Now, researchers ...

Immigration status affects educational achievement

2013-05-29
Mexican American mothers' formal immigration status affects the educational achievement of their children and even their grandchildren, according to a study written by Penn State and University of California, Irvine, sociologists and released by the US2010 Project at Brown University. Based on a large-scale survey of second-generation Mexican young adults in Los Angeles, the study finds that those whose mothers were authorized immigrants or U.S. citizens averaged more than two years more schooling than those whose mothers entered the country illegally. The researchers ...

Older Texans embracing divorce in greater numbers

2013-05-29
Older Texans embracing divorce in greater numbers Article provided by Law Office of Nancy H. Boler Visit us at http://www.bolerlaw.com According to a study entitled, "The Gray Divorce Revolution," divorce among older adults in the United States has doubled since the new millennium began. This is at a higher rate than predicted and the new trend, referred to as gray divorce, is expected to continue increasing. In Texas, legal professionals are seeing a rise in the number of older people going through divorce as well. Experts in law and psychology offer ...

North Carolina home heating fire injures one

2013-05-29
North Carolina home heating fire injures one Article provided by Warren & Kallianos - Injury Lawyers Visit us at http://www.burninjurieslaw.com In a recent frightening incident, a High Point, North Carolina man was injured in a boarding house fire. The fire, which apparently affected only the man's unit in the building, was reported to the fire department around 2:30 A.M. A fire department spokesperson stated that flammable materials were ignited by a space heater, starting the fire that caused the injuries. Home heating fires happen all too often According ...

Altaaqa Global Installs 24MW Temporary Power Plant in Oman

2013-05-29
Altaaqa Global CAT Rental Power, a leading global power solutions provider, recently designed and installed a 24MW temporary power plant in the Sultanate of Oman. To meet electricity demands throughout the summer, the 24MW temporary rental power plant will supply power to the electricity grid at a time when there is a significant increase in the use of temperature control equipment, such as air conditioning and district cooling. Supporting the existing generating capacity of Oman, the interim power plant will ensure peak performance during the hottest months of the ...

Mt. Pleasant Elementary, Caravel Academy Win "Great Schools, Clean Streams" Pledge Drive

2013-05-29
Mt. Pleasant Elementary School takes the top spot in the public and charter schools category in New Castle County's "Great Schools Clean Streams" campaign. Caravel Academy took the top spot in the private schools category. The New Castle Department of Special Services sponsored the pledge drive between April 8 and April 19 to encourage residents to prevent water pollution by disposing of used cooking oil and grease properly. Learn More: http://www.GreatSchoolsCleanStreams.org "We want to thank all the parents, teachers, and school officials who helped ...

Froggy Wireless Continues Free Activations and Ports

2013-05-29
Froggy Wireless will continue to do free activations and port requests through the month of April. With school letting out, college getting underway, we want to help the family communicate with each other. Cellular phones are becoming more and more popular and the prices are going higher and higher. Take the power back and only pay what you want to pay. Activations are as easy as filling out the form located here: http://froggywireless.com/activate.html. All activations are done by a real person for accuracy. Port requests are just as easy and can be done by filling ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

New strategies to enhance chiral optical signals unveiled

Cambridge research uncovers powerful virtual reality treatment for speech anxiety

2025 Gut Microbiota for Health World Summit to spotlight groundbreaking research

International survey finds that support for climate interventions is tied to being hopeful and worried about climate change

Cambridge scientist launches free VR platform that eliminates the fear of public speaking

Open-Source AI matches top proprietary model in solving tough medical cases

Good fences make good neighbors (with carnivores)

NRG Oncology trial supports radiotherapy alone following radical hysterectomy should remain the standard of care for early-stage, intermediate-risk cervical cancer

Introducing our new cohort of AGA Future Leaders

Sharks are dying at alarming rates, mostly due to fishing. Retention bans may help

Engineering excellence: Engineers with ONR ties elected to renowned scientific academy

New CRISPR-based diagnostic test detects pathogens in blood without amplification

Immunotherapy may boost KRAS-targeted therapy in pancreatic cancer

Growing solar: Optimizing agrivoltaic systems for crops and clean energy

Scientists discover how to reactivate cancer’s molecular “kill switch”

YouTube influencers: gaming’s best friend or worst enemy?

uOttawa scientists use light to unlock secret of atoms

NJIT mathematician to help map Earth's last frontier with Navy grant

NASA atmospheric wave-studying mission releases data from first 3,000 orbits

‘Microlightning’ in water droplets may have sparked life on Earth

Smoke from wildland-urban interface fires more deadly than remote wildfires

What’s your body really worth? New AI model reveals your true biological age from 5 drops of blood

Protein accidentally lassos itself, helping explain unusual refolding behavior

With bird flu in raw milk, many in U.S. still do not know risks of consuming it

University of Minnesota research team awarded $3.8 million grant to develop cell therapy to combat Alzheimer’s disease

UConn uncovers new clue on what is leading to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and ALS

Resuscitation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest – it’s how quickly it is done, rather than who does it

A closer look at biomolecular ‘silly putty’

Oxytocin system of breastfeeding affected in mothers with postnatal depression

Liquid metal-enabled synergetic cooling and charging: a leap forward for electric vehicles

[Press-News.org] Disabled patients who can't afford their meds come to the ER more