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Viewpoints: The battle over one woman's medical story; why Mass. didn't see a wave of cancellations; politicians' love of anecdotes

Edie Littlefield Sundby may not have thought she'd ignite a national debate when the stage-4 cancer survivor asked us to publish her Monday op-ed on losing her oncologist due to the Affordable Care Act. But she certainly has, and it's important to understand why. Mrs. Sundby and millions like her must be denied their medical choices if ObamaCare is going to work as its liberal planners intend (11/6).

8 Nov 2013

Top IT official for Healthcare.Gov resigns

Tony Trenkle, the federal official responsible for Healthcare.gov's launch and security, is moving to the private sector. CBS News reports that Trenkle was supposed to sign off on the site's security before launch but didn't.

8 Nov 2013

Humana offers perspective on how botched Healthcare.gov rollout has affected insurance industry

In a Wednesday call with investors, the company's chief operating officer said Humana assumes that, because of the website problems, the government will extend the open enrollment period beyond its current March 31 cutoff. The insurer also scaled back its estimates of how many people will sign up for new coverage options.

8 Nov 2013

State highlights: Officials seek public watchdog for health system money

Republicans cite their 2.5-point defeat in the Virginia governor's race as proof that Ken Cuccinelli would have reversed his fortunes if he'd hammered earlier and longer on Obamacare, an issue the attorney general said tightened the contest in its final days (Davis and McCormick, 11/7).

8 Nov 2013

Sebelius says Healthcare.gov fixes coming, rejects calls for delay

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sought to reassure lawmakers in a Senate Finance Committee hearing Wednesday that fixes -- hundreds of them -- are being made to Healthcare.gov, but rejected calls to delay the law or shut the website down.

8 Nov 2013

Longer looks: Bad behavior treatment; end of life decisions

Every week reporter Ankita Rao selects interesting reading from around the Web.

8 Nov 2013

For some republicans, support for Medicaid expansion draws new adversaries

The Los Angeles Times examines the political backlash in Ohio to GOP lawmakers who supported the Medicaid expansion. Meanwhile, CQ HealthBeat reports on efforts to phase-in the electronic data system that will send states information about people who appear to be eligible for Medicaid who have tried to sign up for coverage through healthcare.gov.

8 Nov 2013

Michael Kors gifts $3M to Weill Cornell Medical College to support immunology research

Award-winning fashion designer Michael Kors has dedicated his career to designing luxury American sportswear. Now, with a $3 million gift to Weill Cornell Medical College, one of America's most recognized faces in fashion is seeking to significantly help advance human health.

8 Nov 2013

Some union health plans could get break from health law's reinsurance fee

Language included in a Health and Human Services regulation released last week indicated that some self-insured, self-administered plans would not have to pay this fee in 2015 or 2016. It is not entirely clear, however, which plans would qualify for this exemption.

8 Nov 2013

Obama in Texas: While defending health law, he went on offense about Medicaid expansion

President Barack Obama continued to lament the problems plaguing the federal online insurance marketplace, but he also scolded the Texas government for its resistance to the health law's Medicaid expansion, which, he said, left more than a million of the state's people uninsured.

8 Nov 2013

Online skin cancer detection training course improves physicians skill levels

Primary care physicians who took an online training course about skin cancer detection significantly improved their skill to properly diagnose and manage benign and malignant lesions, according to a national study from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

8 Nov 2013

Researchers able to regrow bone, hair, soft tissues and cartilage in mouse model

Young animals are known to repair their tissues effortlessly, but can this capacity be recaptured in adults? A new study from researchers at the Stem Cell Program at Boston Children's Hospital suggests that it can. By reactivating a dormant gene called Lin28a, which is active in embryonic stem cells, researchers were able to regrow hair and repair cartilage, bone, skin and other soft tissues in a mouse model.

8 Nov 2013

Senate Dems go to White House to assess health law political fallout

The group of 16 met with President Barack Obama for about two hours, focusing on the floundering Healthcare.gov website and the possibility of backlash in next year's elections. Some lawmakers also pressed the administration to extend the health law's open enrollment period.

8 Nov 2013

Levels of BPA in components of dialysis machines may be toxic to patients' immune cells

Levels of bisphenol A (BPA) in components of dialysis machines may be toxic to the immune cells circulating in kidney failure patients' blood, according to a study that will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2013 November 5-10 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA.

8 Nov 2013

Who gets what under Obamacare, and who is left out

News stories look at who wins and who loses under the health law. Elsewhere, Obamacare message sparring gets personal.

8 Nov 2013

Pregnant women who receive allergy shots may decrease baby's chance of developing allergies

Expecting mothers who suffer from allergies may want to consider another vaccination in addition to the flu shot and Tdap. A study being presented at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) found pregnant women who receive allergy shots, also known as immunotherapy, during pregnancy may decrease their baby's chance of developing allergies.

8 Nov 2013

Reports of insurance policy cancellations spread

At least half of the 14 million people who shop in the individual insurance market can expect to receive a cancellation letter ahead of next year. A review by "Road to Reform" found that hundreds of thousands of cancellation letters had already been sent in states like Oregon, Florida and Georgia. And about 1 million of consumers affected are in California. One key PR challenge: The cancellation letters are piling up at a much faster rate than Americans are able to sign up for new coverage (Diamond, 11/6).

8 Nov 2013

UTHealth to host intensive two-week course on critical care

An intensive two-week course on critical care will be hosted by the Department of Emergency Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Medical School.

8 Nov 2013

New coverage gaps, cost issues spur health law worries

News outlets look at the nuts and bolts of the health law's implementation, including a worry that coverage gaps will persist for some vulnerable people, as well as how the government pays for insurance subsidies and why some premium costs increase under the health law.

8 Nov 2013

Study investigates association between preterm birth and later retinal detachment

Children born extremely prematurely have up to a 19 times greater risk of retinal detachment later in life than peers born at term, according to a Swedish study published this month in Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

8 Nov 2013

Health Care News and Research

Viewpoints: The battle over one woman's medical story; why Mass. didn't see a wave of cancellations; politicians' love of anecdotes

Top IT official for Healthcare.Gov resigns

Humana offers perspective on how botched Healthcare.gov rollout has affected insurance industry

State highlights: Officials seek public watchdog for health system money

Sebelius says Healthcare.gov fixes coming, rejects calls for delay

Longer looks: Bad behavior treatment; end of life decisions

For some republicans, support for Medicaid expansion draws new adversaries

Michael Kors gifts $3M to Weill Cornell Medical College to support immunology research

Some union health plans could get break from health law's reinsurance fee

Obama in Texas: While defending health law, he went on offense about Medicaid expansion

Online skin cancer detection training course improves physicians skill levels

Researchers able to regrow bone, hair, soft tissues and cartilage in mouse model

Senate Dems go to White House to assess health law political fallout

Levels of BPA in components of dialysis machines may be toxic to patients' immune cells

Who gets what under Obamacare, and who is left out

Pregnant women who receive allergy shots may decrease baby's chance of developing allergies

Reports of insurance policy cancellations spread

UTHealth to host intensive two-week course on critical care

New coverage gaps, cost issues spur health law worries

Study investigates association between preterm birth and later retinal detachment

Event guide: 3rd Measuring Patient Engagement Summit eBook

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

Expanding access to NMR with the Fourier 80 Duo

Advancing Intracellular Delivery with LumiPore®

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