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Senators away for holiday continue health debate at home

Senators away for the Thanksgiving holiday are continuing the health care reform debate with constituents and are facing far less vitriol than during the August recess.

25 Nov 2009

Massachusetts lawsuit on part-timers and health care, Utahns satisfied with insurance

News outlets report on a health care lawsuit in Massachusetts, a tobacco tax in Colorado and health plan ratings in Utah.

25 Nov 2009

Gestion Univalor, Cognitive Sensing to commercialize Prof. Jocelyn Faubert's four products

Cutting-edge technologies are about to enter the marketplace, thanks to a new partnership between Gestion Univalor, Limited Partnership (Univalor) and Cognitive Sensing Inc. (CSI), a privately owned technology company based in Montreal.

25 Nov 2009

Today's opinions and editorials

You would be hard pressed to find any health policy expert who isn't disappointed that cost containment has fallen off the health care "reform" express (Robert Laszewski, 11/25).

25 Nov 2009

HPA-specific shRNA holds potential as a novel therapeutic strategy for gastric cancer

Previous studies have indicated that the heparanase (HPA) is correlated with histopathological parameters and poor prognosis of gastric cancers. Although their efficiencies in inhibiting the expression of HPA, the traditional HPA inhibitors may produce nonspecific and undesirable effects. In recent years, genetic approaches targeting HPA have been regarded as a promising alternative.

25 Nov 2009

Lobbyists – including some surprise players – keep the heat on health legislation

Washington groups have lobbied Congress and the public in nearly every imaginable direction on health reform. But those groups include a few that you may not have guessed would have an interest.

25 Nov 2009

Experts call for greater crackdown on Medicare fraud

Efforts to crack down on Medicare fraud heat up while some experts say more should be done.

25 Nov 2009

Data miners can inform drug companies of doctors' prescribing habits

The Baltimore Sun reports: "[P]harmaceutical companies that make … prescription drugs are also looking over the doctor's shoulder, keeping track of how many prescriptions for whose drugs the individual physician is writing."

25 Nov 2009

Novel way to fight UTIs: Research into Alzheimer's disease

Research into Alzheimer's disease seems an unlikely approach to yield a better way to fight urinary tract infections (UTIs), but that's what scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and elsewhere recently reported.

25 Nov 2009

Health reform financing ideas watered down, questions remain on premiums, taxes

The New York Times reports that while the Senate health bill "includes nearly every big idea that health economists and medical researchers have for slowing cost growth — as well as for improving the patchwork quality of American health care, ... many of the ideas, like the rule on Medicare reimbursement, have been at least partly neutered. A provision to punish hospitals for infecting their patients, for example, would cut payments for the related treatments by a mere 1 percent.

25 Nov 2009

Health companies' momentum may cut right through reform savings

Health companies have done better than the rest of corporate America during the past decade, MarketWatch/Seattle Times reports. While profits at the S&P 500 companies declined slightly over 10 years, "[d]ata compiled by MarketWatch show that the 52 health-care companies in the index are about to close out the decade with average profits that nearly tripled."

25 Nov 2009

Medtronic's strong earnings reassure defibrillator industry

Medical technology company Medtronic's stocks surged 5 percent Tuesday in the wake of strong earnings reports, while rivals on implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD) market saw similar gains in the neighborhood of 4 percent, Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal reports. ICDs monitor patient's hearts and shock them when they fall out of beat. The market for the devices was believed to be in a slowdown lately.

25 Nov 2009

7 tips on cutting medical bills

Research into medical billing has revealed that it is possible to drastically and immediately cut medical expenses not covered by medical insurance plans. www.BestHealthcareRates.com, a knowledgeable leader in the online medical insurance field, has collected the 7 best tips to help individuals pay off medical bills quicker by first reducing them to more manageable levels.

25 Nov 2009

Fact checks examine various health care reform claims

The Christian Science Monitor reports on four key issues - a public option, raising taxes and cutting costs, individual mandates and abortion - that may become points of major differences when expected debate begins Nov. 30 on the Senate bill. The Monitor examines how each issue is covered in both the House and the Senate bills (Chaddock, 11/24).

25 Nov 2009

Senate Health Committee likely to hold hearing on new mammogram guidelines

Roll Call reports that 22 senators have written the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee asking its leaders to hold hearings on controversial new mammogram guidelines. "The letter came less than a week after the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended looser guidelines for breast cancer screenings. The task force suggested that women wait until they turn 50 to begin screening and then undergo one mammogram every two years instead of every year."

25 Nov 2009

Medical fees surprise patients, bankruptcy plagues others

High medical fees often catch patients off-guard while many plagued by medical debt file for bankruptcy.

25 Nov 2009

Emerging trends that drive the U.S. market for trauma fixation devices

According to Millennium Research Group (MRG), the global authority on medical technology market intelligence, the nearly $3 billion US market for trauma fixation devices will continue to see rapid growth over the next five years despite the recent economic slowdown. MRG's US Markets for Trauma Devices 2010 report finds that this market will remain highly dynamic over the next five years, with competitors introducing specialized devices in previously underserved segments of the trauma fixation market, fueling market growth.

25 Nov 2009

A two-door clinic segregates patients based on how they pay

A radiology clinic in Manhattan's Upper East Side has two doors, an example of a new, two-tiered medical practice model favored by some doctors, MSNBC reports. One door opens to a crowded waiting room while the other opens into a small private room with four chairs and little or no waiting line.

25 Nov 2009

KHN column: Don't rationalize busting the budget -- start over

In this Kaiser Health News column, Robert Laszewski writes about concerns that the reform measures being considered on Capitol Health do not slow the growth of health care costs.

25 Nov 2009

Senators push for COBRA benefit extension

CongressDaily: "Democratic senators are aiming to pass legislation to extend subsidies to help the unemployed and underemployed afford healthcare coverage before federal funding expires at the end of this year, Sen. Robert Casey Jr., D-Pa., said today. Casey said he expects the Senate to move to the bill following the healthcare bill, which could be difficult depending on how rancorous the debate becomes" (11/24).

25 Nov 2009