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Viewpoints: GOP could fix broken health law; crisis tests whether government is capable of offering benefits through complex system; Rubio's cynical attack

Republicans are the only ones who can fix President Obama's broken promise now. The problem is simply stated. Millions will be losing their individual insurance policies that they were promised they could keep. ... What can be done is Congress creating a new option in the form of a national health insurance charter under which insurers could design new low-cost policies free of mandated benefits imposed by ObamaCare (Holman W. Jenkins Jr. 11/19).

21 Nov 2013

Smoking influences survival of nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients

Survivors of nasopharyngeal carcinoma who are former or current smokers are more likely to have their disease progress, relapse, or spread, and are more likely to die of their disease, compared with survivors of nasopharyngeal carcinoma who have never smoked, according to a study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

21 Nov 2013

Koch-funded group uses health law to target 3 Democrats

A political group backed by Charles and David Koch will target three of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats up for election next year by focusing on their support of the health care law, according to The New York Times. Meanwhile, Democrats are assessing whether President Barack Obama's proposed fix allowing canceled policies to be extended provides cover for vulnerable lawmakers.

21 Nov 2013

Loyola nurses eliminate risk of pressure ulcers in infants born prematurely

Infants born prematurely are at a significantly increased risk for pressure ulcers, yet nurses at Loyola University Health System have been able to eliminate this threat for patients in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit.

21 Nov 2013

Vaccinating kids against rotavirus may also reduce risk of seizures

A new study suggests an additional-and somewhat surprising-potential benefit of vaccinating children against rotavirus, a common cause of diarrhea and vomiting. Besides protecting kids from intestinal illness caused by rotavirus, immunization may also reduce the risk of related seizures, according to findings published in Clinical Infectious Diseases and available online.

21 Nov 2013

Zale Lipshy University Hospital receives 2013 Press Ganey Beacon of Excellence Award

Zale Lipshy University Hospital at UT Southwestern Medical Center received the 2013 Press Ganey Beacon of Excellence Award for patient satisfaction, one of only three academic medical centers in the nation and one of 26 health care facilities selected nationally to receive that distinction.

21 Nov 2013

Maine to pay $1M to 'conservative' consultant to study Medicaid expansion

Maine's health department will pay a firm led by Gary Alexander, a controversial former welfare chief, to review the state's program and the potential costs of expanding it, according to several media reports. Meanwhile, Indiana, Missouri and South Carolina continue to debate whether to opt in to the health law's broadened Medicaid eligibility.

21 Nov 2013

States split on Obama cancellations fix

Most of the state regulators allowing insurers to renew canceled plans, as proposed by President Barack Obama, are led by Republican governors who have opposed the law. Of the eight refusing to carry out the policy, six are in Democrat-led states that have embraced the law and who fear the extensions would undermine it.

21 Nov 2013

Supreme Court rejects bid to block Texas abortion law

In a 5-4 vote, the justices turned away an emergency application asking it to block a Texas law that opponents say prevents a third of the state's clinics from performing abortions. Meanwhile, Albuquerque voters defeated a proposal that would have outlawed most late-term abortions in New Mexico's largest city in the first municipal test of such a measure.

21 Nov 2013

People who consume nuts daily are 20% less likely to die

In the largest study of its kind, people who ate a daily handful of nuts were 20 percent less likely to die from any cause over a 30-year period than were those who didn't consume nuts, say scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the Harvard School of Public Health.

21 Nov 2013

Early enrollees in state exchanges skew older

More older Americans than young adults have signed up for coverage through the state marketplaces created by the health law, according to early data from four states.

21 Nov 2013

Researchers associate some insomnia symptoms with higher mortality risk in men

Insomnia, the most common sleep disorder, affects up to one-third of the population in the United States. In new findings, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital have found that some insomnia symptoms are associated with an increased risk of mortality in men.

20 Nov 2013

First Edition: November 20, 2013

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports that President Barack Obama places some of the blame for the health law's woes with Republicans, and details of comments by an Obama administration tech official that a large portion of the healthcare.gov 'back office' functions are yet to be built.

20 Nov 2013

Doctor-patient communication critical for success of patient-centered medical homes

A new trend in American health care is the patient-centered medical home. The approach revolves around a team of medical and health professionals who, working together, treat an individual, led by a primary-care physician who orchestrates the whole effort. The goal is the team knows everything about the patient, no matter how disparate the symptoms—from the earache last night to the long history of high cholesterol—and works together to treat the individual in a holistic way.

20 Nov 2013

Metal coil therapy may provide same benefits as major surgery for COPD

Brown was diagnosed with COPD and emphysema, the third leading cause of death in the United States, only behind heart disease and cancer. Right now, the only studied interventions that prolong life for patients with severe COPD are supplemental oxygen in people with low oxygen levels and lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) in appropriately selected individuals. Like most COPD patients, Brown was given medication but told there was no cure. He was 58 years old.

20 Nov 2013

Enhancing the NMDA glutamate receptor causes antidepressant-like effects

Thirteen years ago, an article in this journal first reported that the anesthetic medication, ketamine, showed evidence of producing rapid antidepressant effects in depressed patients who had not responded to prior treatments. Ketamine works by blocking one of the targets for the neurotransmitter glutamate in the brain, the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor.

20 Nov 2013

State highlights: Calif. fines three insurers for denying therapy; Colo.'s Denver Health to shed jobs; Ambulance Co. agrees to pay feds $3M over fraud allegations

California officials said three of the state's largest health insurers illegally denied speech and occupational therapy to patients, and regulators fined one of the companies, Health Net Inc., $300,000 for repeated violations. The state Department of Managed Health Care said Monday that it ordered Health Net, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of California to stop denying medically necessary therapy in cases of developmental disabilities, autism and other medical conditions.

20 Nov 2013

Senate gives final approval to bill tightening control over drug-compounding pharmacies

The Senate gave final approval to a bill Monday that gives federal regulators greater oversight of compounding pharmacies like the ones responsible for a deadly meningitis outbreak last year. The President is expected to sign the bill.

20 Nov 2013

Health law's supporters and opponents working hard to woe young adults

Enrolling young people in the marketplaces is vital to making those exchanges work and some critics are trying to keep those health people off the exchanges.

20 Nov 2013

Adverse events linked with HPV vaccine appear to be related with media coverage

The number of adverse events associated with the HPV vaccine reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) appeared to be related to media coverage and online controversy about the vaccine, finds a study in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

20 Nov 2013