Georgia Health News: Solution To Senior Care Crisis [T]he national average spent on a patient's inpatient care during the last two years of their life is $25,860; and the average number of days they spent in the hospital is 23.6 days. At Gundersen, the average number of days in the hospital is 13.5, and the total spent during their last two years of life is $18,359. Despite these lower costs and less use of hospital services in La Crosse, the median age at death is 80 ??“ no different than if thousands more dollars were spent on the patient (Bernard Hammes and Nancy Desmond, 11/21).

The New York Times: A Reasonable Decision On Avastin The Food and Drug Administration's withdrawal of its approval for Avastin to treat advanced breast cancer is causing understandable anguish and anger among women who believe the drug has saved or prolonged their lives. But the agency followed the scientific evidence, which showed the drug was not as effective as it first seemed, and that its severe side effects outweighed its benefits for a vast majority of patients (11/21).

This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.