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Viewpoints: Time to confirm Tavenner; 'Self-defeating' GOP plan for prevention fund; Parents need insurance too

The Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to hold a long-overdue vote on Tuesday on President Obama's nominee to lead the embattled agency responsible for overseeing Medicare, Medicaid and the implementation of health care reforms.

24 Apr 2013

State roundup: S.F. looks into allegations of patient dumping

San Francisco will investigate allegations that Nevada has bused hundreds of indigent people with mental illnesses out of state, including to the Northern California city.

24 Apr 2013

Study finds health care spending will rebound when economy picks up

The analysis by The Kaiser Family Foundation says the slowdown in health spending over the past several years was largely driven by the economic malaise.

24 Apr 2013

U.S. on the verge of potentially devastating epidemic of untreatable gonorrhea

Gonorrhea has long been one of the most commonly-reported sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in the U.S. and, unfortunately, with rising antimicrobial resistance, it has also become one of the most frightening for public health.

24 Apr 2013

Some Boston Marathon bomb victims will face insurance coverage limits

ayments for prosthetics, rehabilitation and a range of other treatments may fall outside some insurance limits and could continue long into the future.

24 Apr 2013

Researchers examine impact of Allies Against Asthma initiative on health care use

Children living in areas where there was wide-ranging and active support for improving outcomes for their chronic asthma were hospitalized less and made fewer visits to the emergency room, when compared with those in other communities.

24 Apr 2013

UAB research shows ACE unit lowers costs, readmission rates for geriatric patient

It costs less to care for a geriatric patient hospitalized in a specialized Acute Care for Elders unit than it does for patients hospitalized in a more usual care setting, according to new research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

24 Apr 2013

Proposal would require insurers to report health law taxes

The measure's sponsor, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, bills it as a way to educate consumers about how the health law's benefits are funded.

24 Apr 2013

Next stage of health law triggers concern, confusion

News outlets report on the confusion that continues to surround the health law, especially as key provisions are about to take effect. Meanwhile, officials and activists strategize about how to educate consumers about their options.

24 Apr 2013

Home-based health education about diseases most effective, finds study

In the first study of its kind, lay health workers increased screening rates for hepatitis B virus (HBV) and knowledge about the disease among a group of Asian Americans, known as the Hmong, UC Davis researchers have found.

24 Apr 2013

Hospitals send immigrant patients to their home countries to curb costs

In interviews with immigrants, their families, attorneys and advocates, The Associated Press reviewed the obscure process known formally as "medical repatriation," which allows hospitals to put patients on chartered international flights, often while they are still unconscious.

24 Apr 2013

Competition key ingredient to success of state health exchanges

Stateline reports that even some of the strongest health exchange enthusiasts are concerned that some states will still only have limited insurance choices for consumers.

24 Apr 2013

Adult day care centers tally big Medicaid costs

Not a wheelchair or walker was in sight at these so-called social adult day care centers. Yet the cost of attendance was indirectly being paid by Medicaid, under Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's sweeping redesign of $2 billion in spending on long-term care meant for the impaired elderly and those with disabilities.

24 Apr 2013

Social media helping spur conversation surrounding global newborn health

Writing in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, Jennifer James, founder of Mom Bloggers for Social Good, discusses how social media is advancing the conversation surrounding global newborn health.

23 Apr 2013

$Fracture liaison systems help reduce burden of fragility fractures$

Fracture liaison systems help reduce burden of fragility fractures

Fragility fractures due to osteoporosis are a major cause of disability or premature death in older adults. Those at highest risk are patients who have already suffered one fragility fracture; they are at twice the risk of suffering a future fracture compared to others who have not fractured.

23 Apr 2013

1 in 4 teens misused or abused a prescription drug at least once in their lifetime

New, nationally projectable survey results released today by The Partnership at Drugfree.org and MetLife Foundation confirmed that one in four teens has misused or abused a prescription (Rx) drug at least once in their lifetime - a 33 percent increase over the past five years.

23 Apr 2013

World must be better prepared for potential pandemics

"In China an influenza virus never before seen in people had, as The Economist went to press, infected at least 82 and killed 17. Meanwhile a new type of coronavirus, the family that brought severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), is festering in the Middle East," an editorial in the magazine states.

23 Apr 2013

Study: About 42% of screened veterans with blast injuries have irregular hormone levels

Up to 20 percent of veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq have experienced at least one blast concussion. New research suggests that nearly half these veterans may have a problem so under-recognized that even military physicians may fail to look for it.

23 Apr 2013

Senate immigration bill could boost healthcare workforce

News outlets report that the plan could make it easier for foreign-born doctors to come to the United States while reducing the dependence of newly legal immigrants on emergency rooms.

23 Apr 2013

First Edition: April 23, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about immigrant patients' health care as well as the coverage limits that some victims of the Boston Marathon bombings might face.

23 Apr 2013