This year brought on the predictable (was the ICD-10 delay really all that surprising?) as well as the mostly unpredictable (Ebola in America). But almost no one could have foreseen the following—slightly to egregiously unexpected—healthcare news that happened in 2014. Take a look, and let us know if we missed any!
1. That Ebola Halloween house.
We’d like to tell you that this is a joke, but sadly, an Ebola house of horrors actually existed. Texan James Faulk decided to decorate the exterior of his apartment with yellow tape and hazardous waste bins for Halloween. Although neighbors asked him to take down the decor, Faulk told KGNS News in Laredo that his neighbors just didn't appreciate his sense of humor. “Ebola is scary, and it scared me and it scared everybody," Faulk told KGNS News. "We're making light of it, but in the end, I hope everybody's going to get a laugh out of it and have a good day."
2. ...And those Ebola Halloween Hazmat suits.
The fact that Ebola hit US soil for Halloween was a spooky coincidence. But while ghouls and goblins are scary in the fun sort of way, making light of a deadly disease by peddling Halloween costumes is just tacky. Even tackier? The product description that went with this $79.99 Ebola Containment Suit Costume: "You are sure to be prepared if any outbreak happens at your Halloween party. This will literally be the most "viral" costume of the year."
3. Hospital pricing got even weirder.
Sometimes, reality defies logic, like the idea that a procedure you'd get in Hospital A would cost four times as much as one received at Hospital B just down the street.The Washington Post reported in June that new data shows hospital pricing keeps changing arbitrarily. For example, the average price for treating chest pain grew about 10% between 2011 and 2012, the largest increase of any Medicare diagnoses, while average prices for other procedures barely ticked up. See the map published by the Post for insight into how hospitals' listed prices increased as much as roughly $7,000 to $13,000 in the course of a year.
4. The Supreme Court taking on King v. Burrell.
On Nov. 7, the US Supreme Court made a surprise announcement that it would hear King v. Burwell, which is centered on whether language in the Affordable Care Act allows consumers to receive insurance premium subsidies in states that don't have their own health exchanges and instead rely on healthcare.gov. If the highest court, which is scheduled to begin oral arguments in early 2015, rules that subsidies are illegal in those states, the insurance mandate could unravel. (Which is surprising considering a Supreme Court decision upheld Obamacare in 2012, just a little more than two years ago.)
5. Those missing brains in Texas.
News caught our eye that some 200 brains kept at a University of Texas, San Antonio, research center had suddenly disappeared. The news was of particular interest because it was believed that one of the brains belonged to Charles Whitman, who climbed a tower on the Austin campus and killed 16 people in a deadly sniper attack. Whitman, a former Marine, was killed by police after his 1966 massacre. However, the mystery was solved pretty quickly before this case got too mind-boggling: A preliminary investigation revealed that UT environmental health and safety officials disposed of multiple brain specimens in approximately 2002 in accordance with protocols concerning biological waste.
6. Those pacemakers that made a man seem dead.
In one of the most miraculous but strange pieces of news to come across our desks this year, a 78-year-old man from Lexington, Miss., woke up inside a body bag. Walter Williams was rushed from Porter and Sons Funeral Home to a hospital after the manager, Byron Porter, witnessed the man kicking to get out the zipped body bag. The coroner believes the man's pacemaker is to blame because it stopped for a brief period, and then started up again, according to reports.
7. The physician data breach that happened at gunpoint.
Everyone knows that encrypting and password-shielding your devices is par for the course. But that wasn't quite enough in the case of a physician from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who was held up at gunpoint on Sept. 24 and forced to disclose the pass codes and encryption keys to his laptop and cell phone. To comply with HIPAA, the organization was forced to notify patients that their medical data had been breached, CBS Local reported. While this kind of incident is enough to raise eyebrows because of its unlikely nature, it does remind hospitals and medical practice that there is no 100% foolproof way to protect data.