Daily Rounds: Choosy Patients Grade Hospitals For Money; Autism Or Asperger's; Pox-Laden Lollipops; Jackson Doc On Suicide Watch

Patients’ Grades to Affect Hospitals’ Medicare Reimbursements - NYTimes.com "Winning praise from patients has become a pressing — and often elusive — obsession for NYU and for hospitals nationwide. In the coming months, Medicare will start taking patient satisfaction into account when reimbursing hospitals. Disgruntled patients will mean reduced revenue, a frightening prospect for hospitals already facing empty beds because of the recession and pressure from insurers to hold down costs. Medicare’s new rule, mandated in the Affordable Care Act, pits hospitals against one another in a competition to best satisfy patients; those with the best scores will receive more money."

Autism or Asperger's? It might depend on your doctor | Reuters "The findings confirm what we've long believed based on our clinical experience, that trying to carve up a continuous spectrum into discrete categories is very difficult," said Dr. Bryan King, director of the Seattle Children's Autism Center." (Reuters)

What Not To Buy Online: Lollipops Laced With Chickenpox : Shots - Health Blog : NPR "This caution comes after a woman in Nashville, Tenn., advertised lollipops contaminated with the varicella virus on Facebook. The tainted pops were intended for parents who want to expose their children to the disease. A Nashville TV station spotted the woman's posts, in which she also offered to ship spit and cotton swabs, all for a mere $50, payable through PayPal. The woman, Wendy Werkit, told WSMV reporter Kimberly Curth that she had shipped lollipops that had been sucked on by her children, "so that other peoples' kids can get chickenpox." (npr.org)

Conrad Murray placed on suicide watch at jail - latimes.com (latimesblogs.latimes.com) "Dr. Conrad Murray was placed on suicide watch at the L.A. County Jail on Monday, hours after he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Michael Jackson's death and being taken into custody...The cardiologist, who had once told patients that working for Jackson was "the opportunity of a lifetime," faces a maximum sentence of four years in prison."