JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association
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Case Reports Historical Article
A 50-year-old woman addicted to heroin: review of treatment of heroin addiction.
Heroin addiction is a complicated medical and psychiatric issue, with well-established as well as newer modes of treatment. The case of Ms W, a 50-year-old woman with a long history of opiate addiction who has been treated successfully with methadone for 9 years and who now would like to consider newer alternatives, illustrates the complex issues of heroin addiction. The treatment of heroin addiction as a chronic disease is reviewed, including social, medical, and cultural issues and pharmacologic treatment with methadone and the more experimental medication options of buprenorphine and naltrexone.
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Comparative Study
Association between the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 and patient wait times and travel distance for chemotherapy.
The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) altered reimbursements for outpatient chemotherapy drugs and drug administration services. Anecdotal reports suggest that these adjustments may have negatively affected access to chemotherapy for Medicare beneficiaries. ⋯ There have not been major changes in travel distance and patient wait times for chemotherapy in the Medicare population since 2003, the year before MMA-related changes in reimbursement.