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September 2015 Newsletter
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Greetings!   Our latest story on hospital infections, which rated more than 3,000 hospitals, caught the attention of Florida Governor Rick Scott. He cited our new hospital ratings in his call to create a commission to review the state's hospital system. The story attracted significant coverage in digital, radio, TV, and print media. The attention, which has continued through the month since its release, includes dozens of interviews with Doris Peter, Director of the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center. Early highlights included reports in the Seattle Times, Las Vegas Sun, Louisville Courier-Journal, Buffalo News, Detroit News, Cleveland Plain Dealer, New York Post and Politico.
The story also resonated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which sent an alert to almost 113,000 people linking to our health editor Teresa Carr's guest post on the CDC's Safe Healthcare blog. Our outreach coordination with CDC also led to the agency linking to our full article and ratings. The story also received praise from the American Nurses Association, which "commends Consumer Reports for evaluating hospitals' effectiveness in preventing potentially deadly infections that can be transmitted in a hospital, such as MRSA and C. diff." Our related bilingual Twitter chats using #AdiosSuperBacterias were very successful. The one-hour chats had more than 900 participants with 4,200 tweets reaching 4.8 million people. In August, we have reached millions of consumers with important information and messages about hospital safety and the crisis of antibiotic resistance. We thank our partners and friends for continuing to work with us to raise awareness of these issues, and we urge you to keep the conversation going in your communities and in social media (with hashtag #SlamSuperbugs). Tara Montgomery Senior Director, Health Impact
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Rising drug prices take alarming toll
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One-third of Americans were hit with surprise prescription drug price increases in the past year, according to a new Consumer Reports poll. On average consumers paid $39 above the usual cost for their prescription. One in 10 consumers paid a whopping $100 or more out-of-pocket. Equally troubling are the potentially dangerous risks 40 percent of patients took to save money, including skipping doses, splitting pills without a doctor's permission, and even taking expired drugs. To help address the problem of rising drug costs, Consumer Reports suggests a savings checklist that consumers can use to lower their spending on medications. If you've experienced higher prices on your medications, we encourage you to Share Your Story. You can also check out the free Best Drugs for Less guide. It's available as a PDF and as a mobile-friendly site in English and Spanish.
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Contest seeks stories about health costs
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Costs of Care, a clinician-led non-profit organization, has launched a national story contest -- The Best Care, The Lowest Cost: One Idea at a Time. It invites patients, clinicians and hospital administrators to share real stories of successes and failures in pursuit of affordable healthcare. Supported by leading organizations representing patients, clinicians, administrators and technology, the contest will collect stories from individuals or small teams, in writing or via video. The entry deadline is Sept. 28, 2015. Tara Montgomery of Consumer Reports is among the judges.
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Knowing that you're a fan of Consumer Reports Health, we'd like to invite you to make a charitable contribution. Your contribution will help us remain a leading voice in championing consumers' access to high-quality health care. We hope you'll find it's a cause worthy of your support.
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© 2015. All Rights Reserved.
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