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Illicit drug usage increases among Americans: SAMHSA survey

The use of illicit drugs among Americans increased between 2008 and 2009 according to a national survey conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) shows the overall rate of current illicit drug use in the United States rose from 8.0 percent of the population aged 12 and older in 2008 to 8.7 percent in 2009. This rise in overall drug use was driven in large part by increases in marijuana use.

17 Sep 2010

NIH to implement ScriptPro pharmacy automation systems

ScriptPro has been awarded a contract to provide pharmacy automation systems to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD.

17 Sep 2010

Ways and Means leaders introduce fraud prevention efforts

The Hill: Leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee have offered a bipartisan bill to allow the Department of Health and Human Services to exclude corporate executives from Medicare if their companies were convicted of fraud. "The bill, introduced by Reps. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) and Wally Herger (R-Calif.), would also give the HHS Office of the Inspector General the ability to exclude parent companies that may be committing fraud through shell companies."

17 Sep 2010

Advocacy For Patients files free insurance appeals for consumers with chronic illness

Advocacy for Patients with Chronic Illness, Inc., one of the only organizations in America that files free insurance appeals for consumers with chronic illness nationwide - today filed comments with the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Labor, and Internal Revenue Service both complimenting the Agencies for "the thoughtful approach taken by the Agencies in formulating these complex rules," and suggesting numerous improvements that should be made.

16 Sep 2010

Forest Pharmaceuticals to pay $300 million as penalty for criminal actions

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), working in close coordination with the U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ), today announced that Forest Pharmaceuticals, Inc. entered into a plea agreement in which the company accepted responsibility for criminal actions including distribution of an unapproved new drug, distribution of a misbranded drug, and obstruction of an FDA inspection.

16 Sep 2010

HHS awards funds to states for improving child welfare programs

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today awarded $39 million to 38 states and Puerto Rico for increasing the number of children adopted from foster care. States use the funds from this adoption incentive award to improve their child welfare programs.

16 Sep 2010

HHS awards grant to develop patient-centered outcomes research

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Assistant Secretary for Health, Howard K. Koh, MD, MPH, today announced the award of more than $14 million to develop, implement, and test strategies to increase the adoption and dissemination of interventions based on patient-centered outcomes research among racial and ethnic minority populations.

16 Sep 2010

Researchers to examine effects of environmental influences on health, development of children in the U.S.

Residents of Durham County, N.C., are encouraged to take part in the largest ever long-term study of children's health and development undertaken in the United States.

16 Sep 2010

Medicare confronts issues with prescription drug program and medical equipment purchases

Carper wrote to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on July 29 and requested the agency establish a process to ensure valid identification numbers on reimbursed prescriptions under the Part D program.

16 Sep 2010

NIH awards grants to map human brain's connections in high resolution

The National Institutes of Health today awarded grants totaling $40 million to map the human brain's connections in high resolution. Better understanding of such connectivity promises improved diagnosis and treatment of brain disorders.

16 Sep 2010

Organizations issue five-point plan to accelerate research, discovery of effective prostate cancer treatments

With $3 billion spent on the over-treatment of prostate cancer each year, new discoveries are prompting the prostate cancer community to Advance on Washington the week of September 13 - 18. This initiative calls for renewed commitments to finding answers that will enable physicians to cure more and over-treat less. The nation's leading prostate cancer organizations today issued a five point plan, targeted to policymakers, to accelerate research and discovery of effective prostate cancer treatments.

15 Sep 2010

HHS awards $31 million as part of 'Communities Putting Prevention to Work' program

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced $31 million for awards to ten communities in eight states and one award to a state health department to support public health efforts to reduce obesity and smoking, increase physical activity and improve nutrition.

15 Sep 2010

K-V secures $20 million loan from U.S. Healthcare

K-V Pharmaceutical Company announced today that it has entered into an agreement with U.S. Healthcare I, L.L.C. and U.S. Healthcare II, L.L.C. for a $20 million loan secured by assets of the Company. K-V will utilize the proceeds of the loan for working capital and general operating purposes.

15 Sep 2010

AAPCHO launches campaign to raise chronic hepatitis B awareness

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Minority Health, the Hepatitis B Foundation and the Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations (AAPCHO) today launched a new campaign to raise awareness of the epidemic of chronic hepatitis B among Americans of Asian and Pacific Islander heritage.

15 Sep 2010

Kansas Governor to head nursing home group after leaving office in January

Kansas City Star: "Parkinson, a Democrat, will be president and CEO of the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living, a non-profit, Washington-based trade and lobbying organization representing 11,000 nursing homes and assisted living centers." Before becoming lieutenant governor, Parkinson used to run a chain of long-term care facilities. He assumed the governor's job after Kathleen Sebelius left that post to become secretary of health and human services under President Barack Obama (Klepper, 9/13).

15 Sep 2010

Berwick breaks silence, calling on insurers to join pursuit of 'shared goals'

In his first big speech as President Barack Obama's top Medicare official Donald Berwick Monday called on insurers to join in a "full partnership" with his agency to achieve a health system with lower costs that doesn't withhold care from anyone or risk harming patients, The Associated Press/Washington Post report. The remarks were delivered to a conference hosted by America's Health Insurance Plans. "The choice of the insurance lobby for his speech was unusual since the administration continues to trade verbal potshots with the industry" (Alonso-Zaldivar, 9/13).

15 Sep 2010

White House supports effort to scale back small business provision of health law

"Facing a backlash from small businesses over a new tax-reporting requirement in the healthcare law the president signed in March, the Obama administration is embracing the first change to the landmark legislation," the Los Angeles Times reports. "In a letter to Senate leaders, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner urged the Senate to back a proposal to scale back the new reporting mandate.

15 Sep 2010

AIDS activists protest to decry Obama administration's dismal record on AIDS

52 AIDS activists from the groups Housing Works, AIDS Action in Mississippi (AAIM) and AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) interrupted a speech by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius with a spirited protest to decry the Obama administration's dismal record on AIDS during an appearance by the Secretary at the United States Conference on AIDS (USCA) on Monday in Orlando.

14 Sep 2010

SAMHSA to unveil results of 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) will unveil the results of the latest (2009) National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) at a press conference on Thursday, September 16. The annual survey is the largest of its kind, and is the government's primary vehicle for determining how many persons are abusing illegal drugs, pharmaceuticals, alcohol and tobacco.

14 Sep 2010

Gladstone Institute elects for 2010 recipient of Avant-Garde Award for HIV/AIDS Research

The National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health, announced today that Dr. Eric M. Verdin of the J. David Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, Calif., has been selected as the 2010 recipient of the NIDA Avant-Garde Award for HIV/AIDS Research for his proposal to study the mechanisms of latent HIV infection.

14 Sep 2010