Journalist Merrill Goozner raises questions about Medicare's decision to expand the number of seniors who can get expensive heart-shocking devices (implantable cardioverter-defibrillators or ICDs). He points to device industry "fingerprints...all over the study" that led to the Medicare expansion of benefits -- which could mean $3 - 5 billion dollars more in taxpayer burden. But he also raises concerns about the questionable benefit found in the trials and about signs of risk from misfiring of the heart-shockers.
Goozner also questions the "quiet" news coverage of this decision. Goozner's work itself is a fine piece of journalism.
Posted by schwitz at January 23, 2005 02:02 PM