By Luke Salkeld and Hannah Roberts A cash-strapped NHS hospital paid £2,557 a day for an interim boss, it emerged yesterday. For working just 97 days during his ten-month stint in charge, Derek Smith earned a staggering £248,041. The 61-year-old also claimed just under £20,000 in expenses to cover travel, food and subsistence during that time, in which he worked an average of three or four days a week. His daily rate is significantly more than a nurse would expect to earn in an entire month. Dorset County Hospital, which is £5.1million in the red, also hired three other interim directors to...

Smoking does more than hurt your health; it does a number on your wallet, as well. A pack of cigarettes now costs more than $5 on average—with some states tacking on additional taxes that raise the price even more. In New York City, local taxes have pushed the cost of a pack to about $10. Even if you don’t smoke yourself, cigarettes may affect your finances: Between 1997 and 2001, smoking was responsible for $167 billion in annual health-care costs and lost productivity in the U.S. alone. Sure, quitting can also be costly, depending on which route you take. But once you kick your daily...

By Daily Mail Reporter Health chiefs have wasted £26million paying a private firm for operations that never took place. The NHS signed a £70million contract with South African company Netcare to carry out 9,000 operations a year at the Greater Manchester Surgical Centre in Trafford. However, fewer than two thirds of the operations ever took place. But under the terms of the deal with Netcare – which ended last month – the NHS had to pay for the lot. The amount of money wasted is enough to pay the salaries of 1,000 nurses for a year. Paul Mainwaring, from Greater Manchester patients’...

So says Lancashire man According to the last Bastion of Truth in modern times the Lancashire Evening Post, Lancashire parents needn’t worry about their kids binge drinking or dabbling with drugs, because many are already under the spell of a far more terrifying beast: computer games. One schoolboy came forward to The Evening Post to spin his tale of woe – he admitted that his games addiction completely took over his life, he got rid of his mates, neglected school, played truant and only ate junk food. He went on gaming sessions that would last up to 48 hours. Naysayers need only look...

In graphics: Eurozone in crisis One of the main causes of the currency crisis in the eurozone is that virtually all countries involved have breached their own self-imposed rules. Under the convergence criteria adopted as part of economic and monetary union, government debt must not exceed 60% of GDP at the end of the fiscal year. Likewise, the annual government deficit must not exceed 3% of GDP. However, as the maps show, only two of the 16 eurozone countries – Luxembourg and Finland – have managed to stick to both rules. Overall, Greece is the worst offender, with debt at 115.1% of...

Jean Chatzky In just two weeks, the health insurance subsidy that was included in last year’s economic stimulus plan will start to expire. The subsidy of a federal program known as Cobra allows workers to continue their employer’s health insurance after leaving their job. The subsidy, which covers 65% of a laid-off worker’s Cobra payments, was key in helping people keep their insurance during the recession. In fact, a new federal study found that about a third of eligible, unemployed workers took advantage of the help. Those who became eligible between September 2008 and March 2009 will...

WASHINGTON — Health insurance companies are lobbying federal and state officials in an effort to ward off strict regulation of premiums and profits under the new health care law. The effort is, in some ways, a continuation of the battle over health care that consumed Congress last year. Insurance lobbyists are trying to shape regulations that will define “unreasonable” premium increases and require them to pay rebates to consumers if the companies do not spend enough on patient care. For their part, consumer groups say they worry that their legislative victories could be undone or undercut...

By Julianne Pepitone, staff reporter NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The federal government unveiled details this week about how people up to age 26 can get covered by their parents’ health insurance policies, as part of the health care reform law. Consumers now have details about how one of the law’s most-buzzed about provisions will actually work — and how much it will cost them. Expanding health coverage to twentysomethings is welcome relief for an age group that accounts for the majority of uninsured Americans. Roughly 30% of young adults up to age 26 have no health insurance...

By MIKE STOBBE ATLANTA — The cost of treating cancer in the United States nearly doubled over the past two decades, but expensive cancer drugs may not be the main reason why, according to a surprising new study. The study confounds conventional wisdom in several respects. The soaring price of new cancer treatments has received widespread attention, but the researchers conclude that rising costs were mainly driven by the growing number of cancer patients. The study also finds cancer accounts for only 5 percent of total U.S. medical costs, and that has not changed in the last few decades. “I...

(Reuters) – Democrats from three House of Representatives committees are urging top health insurance executives to immediately end the practice of dropping patients after they get sick, months ahead of the deadline under new healthcare reforms. Although the law passed last month gives companies six months to comply, the lawmakers called on WellPoint, UnitedHealth, Humana, Aetna and other insurers to ban such actions — known as rescissions — except in cases of fraud or intentional misrepresentation. Read more…