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Petaluma Health Center earns NCQA level 3 PCMH recognition

Today, the California Primary Care Association (CPCA) announced that one of its members, the Petaluma Health Center, has received Level 3 Recognition from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) for its implementation of the Patient Centered Health Home (PCHH) model of care.

12 Feb 2013

Tips on avoiding a Valentine's Day Headache

February 14 is right around the corner, and no one wants to spend Valentine's day, or the day after, with a severe headache and some of its accompaniments – nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light and sound. And you certainly don't want your gift to be the culprit in producing a headache.

12 Feb 2013

Viewpoints: Contraceptive debate may hinge on 'conscience of a corporation;' Rep. Cantor's insights on Medicare; Sebelius and holder on fraud

Today, our departments released a report showing that the Obama Administration's historic efforts to go after criminals who steal from Medicare and Medicaid are paying off, especially in hotspots like Houston. The report shows that last year, we recovered a record $4.2 billion from those who prey on our health care system. In total, our efforts returned $14.9 billion over the last four years, more than double what was returned in the previous four years.

11 Feb 2013

Parenteral nutrition safety: an interview with Dr. Phil Ayers, A.S.P.E.N PN Safety Task Force Chair and Dr. Peggi Guenter, Director of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (A.S.P.E.N.)

Parenteral nutrition is intravenous nutrition for patients who are unable to eat or be tube fed. It is used with more than 300,000 patients per year - a quarter of whom are children and newborns.

11 Feb 2013

Nine polio workers killed in northern Nigeria

"Nine female polio vaccinators have been killed in two shootings at health centers in northern Nigeria, police have told the BBC," the news agency reports. "In the first attack in Kano the polio vaccinators were shot dead by gunmen who drove up on a motor tricycle," and "[t]hirty minutes later gunmen targeted a clinic outside Kano city as the vaccinators prepared to start work," BBC News writes.

11 Feb 2013

IHME report examines global health funding

"Global health funding barely grew last year," according to a report released Wednesday by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, a research unit at the University of Washington in Seattle, Bloomberg reports.

11 Feb 2013

Pelosi again rejects proposal to change Medicare

House Democratic leader, in television interview discussing scheduled budget cuts and the national economy, says she hasn't seen evidence that raising the Medicare eligibility age will save money. Republican Rep. Cantor, on a different Sunday morning program, says the government has to find a way to cut spending.

11 Feb 2013

FDA hears concerns on new narcotic pain pill rules

Survivors of those who died from opioid overdoses urge changes in the drugs' labels, but some patients express concerns that they might have trouble getting the drugs.

11 Feb 2013

Study identifies 12 important postoperative complication signs in colorectal surgical patients

Colorectal surgical patients are often discharged from the hospital with vague guidance on how to recognize complications, but researchers at the Michael DeBakey Veterans Administration (VA) Medical Center and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, aim to change that scenario.

11 Feb 2013

Bishops reject HHS plan for contraception coverage

The Catholic leaders say the compromise doesn't offer enough safeguards for religious institutions, and that they will continue to fight the administration on the mandate.

11 Feb 2013

Bipartisan duo introduces Medicare 'doc fix' bill in House

The effort, by Reps. Schwartz and Heck, would change the system known as the sustainable growth rate for Medicare physician payments.

10 Feb 2013

Trust in markets essential to creating more food-secure world

"Far too often we are seeing national governments overreact to market fluctuations to the extent that they are making pledges about and taking measures toward food self-sufficiency," Emery Koenig, executive vice president and chief risk officer of Cargill, writes in the Chicago Council on Global Affairs' "Global Food For Thought" blog.

10 Feb 2013

Senators offer plan to improve mental health coverage

The bipartisan group's plan would require community behavioral health centers to provide substance abuse treatment and 24-hour crisis care. In return, the centers could bill Medicaid for the services.

10 Feb 2013

India holds national summit on child survival, development

"[M]ore than 200 delegates ranging from policymakers and representatives of development agencies to global health practitioners and civil society members" are gathering in India this week for a national summit on the "Call to Action for Child Survival and Development," IIP Digital reports.

10 Feb 2013

Fighting NTDs has greater effect of empowering women

"As Melinda Gates captured through her blog piece by envisioning the conversation of women's role in the year 2030, I would also like to offer my voice in the spirit of conversation," Mawish Raza, a communications intern with the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), writes in the network's "End the Neglect" blog, adding, "My hope is that by 2030, women are not only given the advantage to circumvent neglected and un-neglected diseases, but that they are able to make better use of their restored health to drive their communities out of poverty and forward into progress."

10 Feb 2013

Examining the closure, revival of the Global Health Council

Writing in the Humanosphere blog, development blogger Tom Murphy discusses the closure in April 2012 of the Global Health Council [GHC] and the recreation of the organization, "with a new board, a slightly new name (Global Health Coalition) and with purportedly a new and more relevant strategy."

10 Feb 2013

Christie tries to make light of his weight but then gets serious

All it took was a late-night, nationally televised bite of a doughnut for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to set off an uncomfortable three-day conversation about his weight. A host of media questions and a warning from a former White House doctor this week represent a small sample of what could follow Mr. Christie both into a second term if he wins re-election in November and on a presidential campaign in 2016, should he choose to pursue one.

10 Feb 2013

House GOP seeks to change Medicare doctor payment formula

The chairmen of the Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce committees want a permanent change to the current system that repeatedly threatens to cut doctor payments unless Congress steps in.

10 Feb 2013

Lawmaker advances bill to create FDA Office of Wireless Health

Congressman Michael Honda (D., Calif.), who has been representing Silicon Valley in the U.S. House of Representatives for the past 12 years, recently submitted a bill asking for Congress to create and fund a new office at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which would be called the Office of Wireless Health.

10 Feb 2013

State and federal officials find way to preserve MinnesotaCare

Officials have been working to preserve -- after the federal health law takes effect -- this health insurance program for lower-income residents who lack coverage through their jobs.

10 Feb 2013