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Daily Rounds: Lucrative Care For Disabled; Healthier Middle-Schoolers; Scary Neurosurgeon; Ancient Orthopedics

For Executives at Group Homes, Generous Pay and Little Oversight - NYTimes.com "The rise of the Levy brothers, from scruffy bearded social workers in the 1970s to millionaires with homes in the Hamptons, Sutton Place and Palm Beach Gardens, reveals much about New York’s system for caring for the developmentally disabled — those with conditions like cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and autism. state spends, by far, more than any other caring for this population: $10 billion this year, and roughly 20 cents of every dollar spent nationally. More than half of that money goes to private providers like the Levys, with little oversight of their spending." (nytimes.com)

Nutrition, exercise lessons for girls pay off, Boston researchers find - The Boston Globe "Weaving nutrition and exercise lessons into middle-school classrooms can reduce eating disorders among girls and ultimately save medical costs, a study by Boston researchers concludes. The researchers analyzed data from an earlier study at 10 Massachusetts middle schools, including five that adopted an obesity prevention program called Planet Health, and five that did not."(boston.com)

As St. Luke's reaped millions, surgeon racked up complaints | Duluth News Tribune | Duluth, Minnesota "Despite numerous malpractice suits and warnings from their own doctors and staff that Stefan Konasiewicz posed a risk to patients, St. Luke’s hospital continued to allow the neurosurgeon to practice. One possible reason: Konasiewicz, who worked at St. Luke’s from 1997 to 2008, produced significant revenues for the hospital by performing more neurosurgeries than his peers in Duluth. And during Konasiewicz’s time at St. Luke’s, the hospital went from the red to the black, financial records obtained by the News Tribune show." "(duluthnewstribune.com)

Yoga Therapy May Help Prevent and Treat Orthopedic Problems - NYTimes.com "With the costs of medical care spiraling out of control and an ever-growing shortage of doctors to treat an aging population, it pays to know about methods of prevention and treatment for orthopedic problems that are low-cost and rely almost entirely on self-care. As certain methods of alternative medicine are shown to have real value, some mainstream doctors who “think outside the box” have begun to incorporate them into their practices." (nytimes.com)

Highly paid prison doctor cleared to see patients - latimes.com "Jeffrey Rohlfing, a prison doctor who was paid more than $777,000 in 2010 despite not having treated a patient for six years because of alleged incompetence, was cleared to start examining inmates again Monday. "He has been granted privileges to see patients," said Nancy Kincaid, spokeswoman for the federal receiver overseeing California's troubled prison health system. "In a non-emergency setting," she added. Rohlfing has not treated an inmate since fellow prison doctors revoked his clinical privileges in 2005 after finding his care for two patients who showed signs of heart trouble to be "significantly substandard." Although neither patient died or suffered lasting harm, Rohlfing was placed on paid leave for 18 months, then fired in 2007." (latimesblogs.latimes.com)

This program aired on August 2, 2011. The audio for this program is not available.

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