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St. Joseph Hoag Health, CHOC Children's to jointly form accountable care organization

St. Joseph Hoag Health and CHOC Children's announced this morning that they will form an accountable care organization (ACO), bringing together outstanding health care providers throughout Orange County.

4 Aug 2014

Updated guidelines for prostate cancer survivorship care published in Journal of Men's Health

Many of the more than 2.5 million men in the U.S. who have received treatment for prostate cancer deal with the often disabling side effects of surgery and radiation and hormonal therapies.

4 Aug 2014

Newly insured get schooling on how to use coverage

Health law advocates who had focused on enrolling people in insurance now are teaching them how to use their often-complicated policies. Meanwhile, a Hartford physician explains why he won't take Obamacare plans and thousands of inmates in a Cook County jail sign up for insurance.

4 Aug 2014

PCI agrees to acquire Penn Pharma

Packaging Coordinators, Inc. is pleased to announce it has finalized its agreement to acquire Penn Pharmaceutical Services Limited (Penn Pharma).

4 Aug 2014

Health insurer to stop covering uterine procedure

Highmark Inc., which sells plans in Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia, will stop covering power morcellation, a technique often used in hysterectomies, after the Food and Drug Administration advised doctors against it because it may spread cancer.

4 Aug 2014

Henry Schein net sales increase 9.3% to $2.6 billion in Q2 2014

Henry Schein, Inc., the world's largest provider of health care products and services to office-based dental, animal health and medical practitioners, today reported record financial results for the quarter ended June 28, 2014.

4 Aug 2014

First Edition: August 4, 2014

Today's headlines include a variety of health policy stories reflecting developments on the state level.

4 Aug 2014

Clinical trial to look for genetic information in cancer patients

Sanford Health is working to enroll approximately 50 adult patients whose cancer has progressed after the first line of treatment or who have rare cancers without standard treatment options in a clinical trial to look for genetic information that could help customize treatment options.

4 Aug 2014

FSMB takes effort to educate physicians on safe prescribing of opioid analgesics

The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) announced today that the nation's state medical boards have kicked off a multi-state effort to educate health care professionals on the safe and responsible prescribing of extended-release (ER) and long-acting (LA) opioid analgesics for patients with chronic pain.

4 Aug 2014

Consumption of resistant starch may help reduce colorectal cancer risk linked with high red meat diet

Consumption of a type of starch that acts like fiber may help reduce colorectal cancer risk associated with a high red meat diet, according to a study published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

4 Aug 2014

State highlights: Time of turmoil for Georgia hospitals; Oregon Medicaid takes aim at expensive heptatitis C drug

A selection of health policy stories from Gerogia, Wisconsin, Texas, Oregon, Florida, Michigan, Massachusetts, Connecticut and North Carolina.

4 Aug 2014

Research: 'Telephone triage' systems do not reduce overall practice workload

Demand for general practice appointments is rising rapidly, and in an attempt to deal with this, many practices have introduced systems of telephone triage.

4 Aug 2014

LGBT individuals who want to conceive child often face physiological and legal challenges

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals who want to conceive a child may face the same problems as some of their heterosexual and cisgendered peers, such as reduced fertility, but in addition they often face additional physiological and legal challenges to become parents.

4 Aug 2014

Research roundup: The effect of expensive cancer therapies; missed hospital handovers; children's mental health needs

Medicare uses more than a dozen different payment systems to set payment rates for the medical items and services the program covers for beneficiaries.

4 Aug 2014

ACA provides opportunities to increase availability of CR programs in workplace

Through financial incentives and an emphasis on proven health outcomes, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) provides opportunities to increase the availability of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs—including offering CR as part of worksite health programs (WHPs), according to an article in the August Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM).

4 Aug 2014