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HealthBridge Management issues update on third week of SEIU's strike

HealthBridge Management, which operates five Health Care Centers in Connecticut currently subject to a strike by the New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199 SEIU (the Union), today provided an update on events as the strike, which began July 3, continued into its third week.

21 Jul 2012

Washington - Site of global conference - Focuses on testing for HIV, fights stigma

Next week's global AIDS conference marks the first time it's been held in the U.S. in more than two decades.

21 Jul 2012

Recognizing how food, nutrition impact the HIV response

"Ahead of the International AIDS Conference next week in Washington, D.C., Martin Bloem, chief of Nutrition and HIV Policy at the World Food Programme, shares the impact of food and nutrition on the HIV response," in this post in the ONE Blog.

21 Jul 2012

Tool to predict and map hot spots for potential primary care shortages

Vanderbilt researchers have been selected to receive a national grant as part of a push to gauge the coming impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

21 Jul 2012

Investing in global health is in America’s best interest

"Too few people realize that the health of Americans and the health of people around the world are inextricably linked," Kevin De Cock, director of the Center for Global Health of the CDC, writes in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog.

21 Jul 2012

Obama missing 'historic opportunity' by not appearing in person at AIDS 2012

"President Barack Obama has a standing invitation to speak at the [XIX International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C., next week], and he likely would be welcomed with loud cheers given his progressive HIV/AIDS policies," journalist Jon Cohen writes in a Slate opinion piece.

21 Jul 2012

IAS releases 'road map' to find HIV cure ahead of AIDS 2012 Conference

The International AIDS Society (IAS) on Thursday in Washington, D.C., "released what they call a road map for research toward a cure for HIV -- a strategy for global teams of scientists to explore a number of intriguing leads that just might, years from now, pan out," the Associated Press reports (Neergaard, 7/20).

21 Jul 2012

FDA warns against shellfish consumption from Oyster Bay Harbor

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to eat raw or partially cooked oysters and clams (shellfish) with tags listing Oyster Bay Harbor, in Nassau County, N.Y., as the harvest area, following illnesses reported in several states caused by Vibrio parahaemolyticus bacteria.

21 Jul 2012

HHS report: Hospitals fall short in meeting error reporting requirements

The government report says the failure to report medical errors hampers providers' ability to identify and fix preventable problems. Meanwhile, new Medicare data shows hospitals are making little progress in reducing preventable readmissions.

21 Jul 2012

International HIV/AIDS funding to African nations inadequate, MSF says

"African nations are not receiving adequate international funding to fight HIV/AIDS, leaving them to face catastrophic consequences without enough medication, an independent, global medical and humanitarian organization said Thursday," the Associated Press reports.

21 Jul 2012

Guardian examines U.S. food aid program

The Guardian has analyzed "hundreds of food aid contracts awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 2010-11 to show where the money goes," the newspaper reports.

21 Jul 2012

U.S. travel restrictions on sex workers inhibit effective HIV/AIDS response

"[D]isappointingly, one group that will be absent [from the XIX International AIDS Conference next week] due to U.S. travel restrictions is sex workers," a Lancet editorial states.

21 Jul 2012

State roundup: Texas Medicaid fraud probes use controversial tool

When it comes to finding cost savings in the state's unwieldy Medicaid program, the Health and Human Services Commission's Office of Inspector General gets high marks. … But OIG's dollar-recovery strategy -- which includes an increased reliance on a rule that allows investigators to freeze financing for any health provider accused of overbilling -- has enraged doctors, dentists and other providers who treat Medicaid patients.

21 Jul 2012

When checks and balances in the pharmaceutical marketplace fall short

The Washington Post explores how a trio of very expensive anemia drugs became "superstars" in the marketplace. Also, The Wall Street Journal tracks the process by which certain fake cancer drugs found their way into the United States.

21 Jul 2012

Domestic PEPFAR program would increase coordination, improve AIDS response in U.S.

"Urban America continues to suffer high rates of HIV despite successes of antiretroviral treatment that can suppress the virus, decrease transmission, prevent progression to AIDS, and lower death rates," Gregory Pappas, senior deputy director of the Washington, D.C., Department of Health's HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD and TB Administration (HAHSTA), writes in a Washington Blade opinion piece.

21 Jul 2012

Research roundup: Gastric bypass costs, paying for psychotherapy

Health Expenditures Among High-Risk Patients After Gastric Bypass and Matched Controls -- A few studies have shown that bariatric surgery can help reduce health care spending by obese patients, particularly those with conditions such as diabetes. This latest study looked at 847 patients who received bariatric surgery through the Veterans Affairs medical system. Inpatient and outpatient spending both before and after surgery were compared to 847 obese patients who did not have the operation.

21 Jul 2012

HHS issues final rule on essential health benefits data collection

Meanwhile, new research from the Center for Studying Health System Change indicates that more small businesses may be self-insuring -- a step that will reduce their participation in the health law's insurance exchanges.

21 Jul 2012

Details emerge regarding personalities involved in FDA flap

An FDA scientist whose complaints about the agency's approval process for medical devices led to a controversial email monitoring program had filed lawsuits against two hospitals where he worked and also sued a dozen medical-device companies.

21 Jul 2012

In Florida, Obama attacks Romney on Medicare plan

Drawing on traditional Democratic campaign themes, President Barack Obama criticized GOP plans to transform Medicare into a "voucher program" and to repeal the 2010 health law.

21 Jul 2012

AIDS 2012 could focus spotlight on efforts against HIV/AIDS in U.S., GlobalPost reports

Noting that Washington, D.C., has an adult HIV prevalence rate higher than some southern African countries that receive PEPFAR funding, GlobalPost writes that the International AIDS Conference, to be held in the U.S. for the first time in 22 years starting Sunday, has highlighted "that America is nowhere close to an AIDS-free generation at home."

21 Jul 2012