CLINICAL NEWS
Third Time’s the Charm –
or Not
Med School Mania
20,343
These numbers may calm fears about the projected physician shortage, with enrollment since 2002 up by 23.4
percent.
x3
Number of students who enrolled in U.S. medical schools
for the first time in 2014 – an all-time high – indicating
that interest in medicine continues to grow.
The total number of applicants to medical school rose by
2,610
3.1
%
2002
to a record
49,480
Hospitals were fined by Medicare for
having too many potentially avoidable readmissions in its third round of readmissions penalties. This is a record number
of penalties being dealt out – Medicare
added 433 more hospitals to the previous
year’s list. The costs of fines will likely
break records, too: It is estimated that
the fines will total about $428 million
over the year, with 39 hospitals receiving
the largest penalty allowed.
2014
Next stop: increasing federal support for residency training.
Source: Kaiser Health News, October 2, 2014.
Source: Association of American Medical Colleges
A Hard Pill to Swallow
536,629
$
The annual price tag for the most expensive drug in the United States in 2013. According to
FiercePharma research, patients and insurers spent a minimum of $205,000 on the world’s five
most expensive dr Y