January, 2017

How to fight back when an insurer denies your healthcare claim

By drwong
January 22, 2017

Experts say you shouldn't take no for an answer. Many denied insurance claims are reversed on appeal. (Getty Images) David Lazarus January 17, 2017 Los Angeles Times   Insurance companies are playing the odds, patient advocates say. They’re counting on people not having the stamina to challenge every denied claim, even when there’s a valid...   read more


Healthcare insurance hell: If at first your claim is denied, try, try again

By drwong
January 16, 2017

David Lazarus January 13, 2017 Los Angeles Times   One focus of the planned repeal of Obamacare is maintaining coverage for people with preexisting conditions. Republican lawmakers say the current law’s safeguards won’t change, but they have yet to explain how they’ll accomplish this without also keeping the mandate that everyone buy insurance. What isn’t...   read more


Experts have only a hazy idea of marijuana's myriad health effects, and federal laws are to blame

By drwong
January 16, 2017

Melissa Healy Jan. 12, 2017 Los Angeles Times   More than 22 million Americans use some form of marijuana each month, and it’s now approved for medicinal or recreational use in 28 states plus the District of Columbia. Nationwide, legal sales of the drug reached an estimated $7.1 billion last year. Yet for all its ubiquity, a comprehensive...   read more


Kitty Dukakis, a Beneficiary of Electroshock Therapy, Emerges as Its Evangelist

By drwong
January 1, 2017

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE DEC. 31, 2016 New York Times BROOKLINE, Mass. — When Michael Dukakis lost the presidential election in 1988, his wife, Kitty, felt as if she had been squashed in a compactor, all the air forced out of her. Her even-keeled husband went back to work as governor of Massachusetts; she started...   read more


Doctors Say Parents Shouldn't Smoke Pot Around Kids

By drwong
January 1, 2017

December 19, 2016 4:40 AM ET Heard on NPR Morning Edition Jane Greenhalgh Audio Link to article With more states legalizing recreational marijuana, parents are facing the question of whether they should smoke pot around their children. "I have never smoked and would never smoke around my child," says one mother who lives in San...   read more


Neighbors Treating Neighbors For Depression And Alcoholism

By drwong
January 1, 2017

December 15, 20164:22 PM ET Heard on NPR Morning Edition Joanne Silberner Audio Link to article It's a problem around the world: People who need mental health care don't get it. A new kind of treatment strategy in India — delivered by nonprofessionals — offers a potential solution. And it's one that could be adopted...   read more