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Despite uncertainty, 2012 was good year for hospital stocks

Hospital stocks ended 2012 posting big gains despite a year that was filled with uncertainty regarding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. When the closing bell rang Dec. 31, HCA, Nashville, the largest investor-owned chain, was trading 37% higher than it was on the last trading day of 2011.

4 Jan 2013

Confusion surrounds regulation of various types of drug makers

Far from triggering a quick fix, the deaths or illnesses of 620 people in 19 states that have been linked to a Massachusetts pharmacy have only underscored confusion over how to regulate the various types of drug-makers in the United States.

4 Jan 2013

Pushing 14 years for Philippines reproductive health bill took 'courage'

Jose "Oying" Rimon, deputy director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Ben de Leon, president of the Forum for Family Planning and Development, Inc., write in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog that the many people who worked for 14 years to pass a reproductive health bill in the Philippines are "profiles in courage."

4 Jan 2013

State restrictions on abortions slow in 2012, but still second most ever

A new Guttmacher Institute report finds that the number of new abortion restrictions passed by states in 2012 was down from 2011, but that the year still saw the second most new rules on the procedure ever.

4 Jan 2013

Brazil to require reporting of HIV cases to improve treatment coverage

In "an effort to advance highly lauded efforts to combat AIDS," Brazil will require physicians to report cases of HIV, not just AIDS, to state and federal authorities, the Associated Press/Washington Post reports.

4 Jan 2013

States consider licensing dental therapists to fill cavities -- and care gap

A shortage of dentists spurred Minnesota to license dental therapists, and several other states may follow suit, USA Today reports. Meanwhile, a health plan in rural South Dakota and Minnesota is hiring Native American healers as consultants.

4 Jan 2013

New York Times examines grassroots HIV efforts aimed at gay men in China

The New York Times examines grassroots HIV/AIDS outreach and testing efforts aimed at gay men in China. The newspaper highlights "Lingnan Health Center, an organization run largely by gay volunteers," and recounts the story of Le, "a gay man who would give only his first name."

4 Jan 2013

Killing of polio workers in Pakistan is major setback for global elimination drive

"The brutal assassination of nine grassroots level health workers in Pakistan, who were involved in a door-to-door immunization campaign in an attempt to secure children from crippling polio, adds an unprecedentedly grave dimension to the ongoing carnage in Pakistan," Sania Nishtar, founder of Heartfile, Heartfile Health Financing, and the recently launched Sania Nishtar Health Fund, writes in an opinion piece in the Huffington Post U.K.'s "Impact" blog.

4 Jan 2013

Pakistan records 306 measles cases in 2012, compared with 64 in 2011, WHO reports

"Measles cases surged in Pakistan in 2012, and hundreds of children died from the disease, an international health body said Tuesday," the Associated Press/CBS News reports. "A spokeswoman for the World Health Organization, Maryam Yunus, said that 306 children died in Pakistan of measles in 2012, compared to 64 the year before," the news agency writes.

4 Jan 2013

Fiscal deal political fallout will likely shape future Medicare, entitlement spending battles

News outlets continue to analyze how the fiscal deal will set the table for future deficit debates and when some of the difficult spending issues could again take center stage.

4 Jan 2013

Thai health advocates work to protect special provisions on medicines under E.U. free trade agreement

Thailand and the European Union (E.U.) are expected to begin talks on a free trade agreement early this year, and Thai public health advocates have sent a letter to Joao Aguiar Machado, deputy director general for trade at the European Commission, "calling for the bloc to respect global trade rules' special provisions for developing countries," Inter Press Service reports.

4 Jan 2013

Viewpoints: McConnell says spending cuts are coming; Plea to Kan. governor to rethink insurance exchange

Predictably, the President is already claiming that his tax hike on the "rich" isn't enough. I have news for him: the moment that he and virtually every elected Democrat in Washington signed off on the terms of the current arrangement, it was the last word on taxes.

4 Jan 2013

Workers with low wages more likely to develop hypertension

Workers earning the lowest wages have a higher risk of hypertension than workers with the highest wages, according to new research from UC Davis.

4 Jan 2013

Hobby Lobby won't offer contraception coverage, defying health law and rulings; States face implementation battles

After losing a last-minute appeal to the Supreme Court, craft stores chain Hobby Lobby said it would defy a federal health care mandate requiring employers to provide their workers with insurance that covers emergency contraceptives.

4 Jan 2013

PSCA gene’s rs2294008 variant on T nucleotide may increase risk of bladder cancer

Patients who have inherited a specific common genetic variant develop bladder cancer tumors that strongly express a protein known as prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA), which is also expressed in many pancreatic and prostate tumors, according to research at the National Institutes of Health.

4 Jan 2013

Markey practitioner receives Lexington Cancer Foundation grant to continue JSJ program

The University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center's Jennifer Bradley has received funding from the Lexington Cancer Foundation to continue the Jin Shin Jyutsu program in 2013.

4 Jan 2013

Algorithms designed to find patients with recurrent cancer within databases do not work

In order to study the effectiveness or cost effectiveness of treatments for recurrent cancer, you first have to discover the patients in medical databases who have recurrent cancer. Generally studies do this with billing or treatment codes - certain codes should identify who does and does not have recurrent cancer. A recent study published in the journal Medical Care shows that the commonly used data determinants of recurrent cancer may be misidentifying patients and potentially leading researchers astray.

4 Jan 2013

Capsules: Fiscal deal kills future funding for health law's co-ops; Consumers may draw wrong conclusions from medical prices

Now on Kaiser Health News' blog, Phil Galewitz reports on a 'fiscal cliff' development that will impact health insurance co-ops: "The fiscal cliff deal, approved by Congress on New Year's Day, eliminates most of the more than $1.4 billion in remaining funding from the federal health law for new nonprofit, customer-owned health plans designed to compete against the major for-profit insurers."

4 Jan 2013

Roundup: Ill. to scrutinize Medicaid eligibility; 20% of Fla. nursing homes on 'watch' list; Conn.'s 'inadequate' mental health care system

Fort Pierce resident Cathi Odom recently learned that her mother's nursing home is one of 140 on the state's "Watch List." Families for Better Care, a citizen advocacy organization, found that one in five facilities in Florida are on that list for not meeting state standards, or for not making corrections quickly enough. Twelve of the homes have been on the watch list for more than 100 days. Brian Lee, executive director for Families for Better Care, says that is unacceptable.

4 Jan 2013

Longer looks: DIY abortions and the law; Helping other parents reach out to mentally ill children; Human growth hormone and Big Pharma

McCormack knew that an abortion would cost $400 to $2,000, depending on how far along she was. ... She couldn't come up with that kind of money. So she called her older sister, who owned a computer, and asked her to order abortion pills for her on the Internet.

3 Jan 2013

Health Care News and Research

Despite uncertainty, 2012 was good year for hospital stocks

Confusion surrounds regulation of various types of drug makers

Pushing 14 years for Philippines reproductive health bill took 'courage'

State restrictions on abortions slow in 2012, but still second most ever

Brazil to require reporting of HIV cases to improve treatment coverage

States consider licensing dental therapists to fill cavities -- and care gap

New York Times examines grassroots HIV efforts aimed at gay men in China

Killing of polio workers in Pakistan is major setback for global elimination drive

Pakistan records 306 measles cases in 2012, compared with 64 in 2011, WHO reports

Fiscal deal political fallout will likely shape future Medicare, entitlement spending battles

Thai health advocates work to protect special provisions on medicines under E.U. free trade agreement

Viewpoints: McConnell says spending cuts are coming; Plea to Kan. governor to rethink insurance exchange

Workers with low wages more likely to develop hypertension

Hobby Lobby won't offer contraception coverage, defying health law and rulings; States face implementation battles

PSCA gene’s rs2294008 variant on T nucleotide may increase risk of bladder cancer

Markey practitioner receives Lexington Cancer Foundation grant to continue JSJ program

Algorithms designed to find patients with recurrent cancer within databases do not work

Capsules: Fiscal deal kills future funding for health law's co-ops; Consumers may draw wrong conclusions from medical prices

Roundup: Ill. to scrutinize Medicaid eligibility; 20% of Fla. nursing homes on 'watch' list; Conn.'s 'inadequate' mental health care system

Longer looks: DIY abortions and the law; Helping other parents reach out to mentally ill children; Human growth hormone and Big Pharma

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