Daily Rounds: Arsenic In Chicken; Hospital Infections Under Wraps; Obama's Court Remarks In Court, And More

Arsenic In Our Chicken? (The New York Times) — 'Let’s hope you’re not reading this column while munching on a chicken sandwich. That’s because my topic today is a pair of new scientific studies suggesting that poultry on factory farms are routinely fed caffeine, active ingredients of Tylenol and Benadryl, banned antibiotics and even arsenic. “We were kind of floored,” said Keeve E. Nachman, a co-author of both studies and a scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Center for a Livable Future. “It’s unbelievable what we found.”'

Seniors Ration Spending On Drugs As Costs Rise In Weak Economy (Bloomberg) — "U.S. senior citizens are filling fewer prescriptions for drugs as out-of-pocket costs rise in a weak economy, undercutting a record level of new product introductions by drug companies, industry researchers said. Dispensed prescriptions to patients 65 and older declined 3.1 percent in 2011, compared with a 2.7 percent dip in 2010, according to a study released today by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics in Parsippany, New Jersey. For all age groups, prescriptions fell 1.1 percent last year."

Lack of National Reporting Mandate for Hospital Infections Hurts Consumers (Forbes) — 'Hospitals across the country are using near-total discretion in the way they disclose infections that occur as a result of surgeries, cause over 8,000 deaths annually in the U.S., and cost an additional $10 billion per year to the healthcare system, a new study underscoring the need for public reporting standards has found. The report, published in the Journal for Healthcare Quality, and authored by researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, shows that only 21 states currently have legislation that requires monitoring and public reporting for surgical site infections.

To Court, Administration Admits What It Can't Deny (The New York Times) — 'The Obama administration stipulated the incontestable to a disgruntled federal court on Thursday, formally declaring that “the power of the courts to review the constitutionality of legislation is beyond dispute.” Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., bowing to an unusual demand of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, made official the backpedaling of the past few days over remarks by President Obama about the Supreme Court’s coming ruling on the constitutionality of his health care overhaul. Mr. Obama said on Monday that it “would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step” for the court to overturn the law.'