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First Edition: September 14, 2010

Among today's headlines, Berwick talks, health reform politics continue and coverage of the run up to Sept. 23 - the day several health overhaul provisions take effect - is in full swing.

14 Sep 2010

Role of health centers in national health reform

A new issue brief from The Kaiser Family Foundation's Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, co-authored by Commission staff and researchers at the George Washington University's Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative, examines the role of health centers in national health reform and the issues that will affect health center expansion to meet the growing need for primary health care.

14 Sep 2010

Queensland health staff threaten to strike

According to a union some Queensland Health professionals are ready to strike over a government wage offer. The Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union (LHMWU) and Queensland Public Sector Union (QPSU) (that includes radiographers, scientists and pharmacists) started this campaign across Queensland on Monday. They are protesting even on radio and print ads for a 2.5 per cent rise a year, over three years.

13 Sep 2010

Minister for Indigenous Health reinstated

As Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced her ministry this weekend, surprises came forth. Australian Medical Association and Aboriginal medical groups initially were dismayed when she decided to axe the Indigenous Health portfolio. Federal Labor MP Warren Snowdon was moved into Veterans' Affairs initially from where he was reinstated to his earlier position as Indigenous Health Minister. He assured that this reinstatement is not in response to the reaction from Indigenous and rural health groups.

13 Sep 2010

Hearing scheduled this week for closely watched health law challenge in Florida

Lawmakers and others are closely watching a lawsuit brought in Florida by a pair of conservative Washington, D.C., lawyers that challenges the health reform law as bearing a possibility of what the future will bring for the overhaul. The Wall Street Journal reports that the suit, "filed in Florida by David Rivkin and Lee Casey, is one of a handful of challenges lodged against the law in recent months.

13 Sep 2010

Lawmakers, Axelrod push and pull on what health reform means to campaigns

Politico: Senior White House adviser David Axelrod said Sunday that he thinks voters will eventually warm to health care reform. He made his comments on NBC's "Meet the Press."

13 Sep 2010

As overhaul unfolds, interest in at least one change spreads across aisle

At least one aspect of the GOP's health overhaul repeal push has become bipartisan: Objections to a provision requiring businesses that file 1099 tax forms to provide line-item detail of any purchases of $600 or more in a given year, The New York Times reports. Democrats, including Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, are saying they, too, would like to change the provision.

13 Sep 2010

AultCare reports positive results from Cardiocom program

AultCare has been using patient telemonitoring for six years and has, in partnership with Cardiocom, released a white paper entitled, "AultCare Sees Positive Results from Cardiocom Program."

13 Sep 2010

Today's Opinions: Prevention and small business; Views on medical inflation and health reform; Sebelius letter examined

In this anemic economy, small businesses need all the help they can get, and the Prevention and Public Health Fund provides the best medicine (Dr. Georges Benjamin and Larry Cohen, 9/13).

13 Sep 2010

Keais Records Service launches new online portal

Keais Records Service, established in 1975 as the first litigation support company specializing in records retrieval services, is celebrating its milestone thirty-fifth anniversary by launching a new web site and further enhancing its electronic capabilities to serve the litigation discovery needs of major law firms, insurance companies, corporations and TPAs.

13 Sep 2010

First Edition: September 13, 2010

In this morning's news, many in Congress are pushing for repeal of a tax provision in the health law that critics say places a heavy burden on small businesses. Meanwhile, opponents of the overhaul are focused on a Florida court hearing.

13 Sep 2010

Lawmakers plot health overhaul tax provision change, other provisions under fire

Senate aides expect Republicans and Democrats to offer competing amendments to change a tax-reporting provision in the health law. "The provision requires businesses to report to the Internal Revenue Service purchases over the course of the year that exceed $600.

13 Sep 2010

Research Roundup: Shifting ER visits to urgent care centers; Evaluating doctors; Medicare Advantage quality ratings

Health Affairs: Many Emergency Department Visits Could Be Managed At Urgent Care Centers And Retail Clinics - Researchers analyzed samples of patient records and found "13.7 percent of all emergency department visits could take place at a retail clinic" - 7.9 percent when hours are restricted - and "an additional 13.4 percent of emergency department visits could take place at a urgent care center—8.9 percent when hours are restricted.

10 Sep 2010

Sebelius warns insurers not to blame rate hikes on health overhaul

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Thursday said insurers who blame their rate increases on the new health overhaul could be excluded from health insurance exchanges and the 30 million new customers they promise, The Associated Press reports. "'There will be zero tolerance for this type of misinformation and unjustified rate increases,' … Sebelius said in a letter to the insurance lobby.

10 Sep 2010

Doctor works to measure outcomes of provider care

Forbes profiles "the most powerful doctor you never heard of," a Yale cardiologist who does "outcomes research" in which he measures "how well doctors are doing in the real world, outside of controlled trials--what they are doing right, what they are doing wrong and what they are forgetting to do entirely."

10 Sep 2010

NACHC Conference to discuss primary care foundation in America under Affordable Care Act

Former Health and Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt will address a national conference of Community, Migrant and Homeless Health Center representatives scheduled to convene this week. The 2010 Community Health Institute (CHI) and EXPO, hosted by the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), will take place in Dallas, TX, September 10-14th.

10 Sep 2010

First Edition: September 10, 2010

In this morning's news, the Obama administration takes a hard line against insurers -- warning them not to blame the new health law for their rate hikes.

10 Sep 2010

KHN column: Don't discount the value of an agent, they discount your insurance

In this column for Kaiser Health News, Janet Trautwein, CEO of the National Association of Health Underwriters, notes: "Insurance agents have made for popular punching bags in recent weeks.

10 Sep 2010

Today's OpEds: Medicare's long-term liabilities; Reforming and funding native health care; Frustrations surrounding stem cell research

Under ObamaCare it will get much worse. Hospitals also will shut down or stop serving Medicare patients. … Everyone should know by now that Medicare suffers dramatic long-term deficits and unfunded liabilities, and is in need of fundamental, structural reforms. But effectively refusing to pay the doctors and hospitals that provide the medical care the program promises to seniors is no way to solve that problem (Peter Ferrara and Larry Hunter, 9/9).

10 Sep 2010

Democrats, Republicans take health reform, midterm battle to the airwaves

The group "Revere America" is running a multi-million dollar television ad campaign aimed at defeating Democrats who voted for the health overhaul. The ad campaign was announced by former Gov. George E. Pataki of New York, a Republican who is now serving as chairman of Revere America.

10 Sep 2010