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Implementing guidelines can improve hospitals' communication during patient care transitions

What happens when you are hospitalized, but your outpatient doctor does not know? Or when you arrive at the office for follow-up care, but your doctor does not have the right information about your hospital stay? Missing or incomplete communication from hospitals to outpatient primary care physicians (PCPs) can contribute to poor experiences and lead to hospital readmissions.

3 Sep 2014

State highlights: Mass. health care costs grow smaller 2.3 percent; new rules in Calif. for inmates with mental illness

Two years ago, Massachusetts set what was considered an ambitious goal: The state would not let that persistent monster, rising health care costs, increase faster than the economy as a whole.

3 Sep 2014

Viewpoints: Medicaid expansion spreading; 'GOP's woman problem;' praising Medicare

The latest jerry-built effort to destroy health care reform could be defeated in the full federal appeals court in the District of Columbia. In July, a three-judge panel of that court - taking a ridiculously crabbed view of a section in the law - ruled 2-to-1 that tax-credit subsidies are allowed only for those buying insurance on a health exchange "established by the state."

3 Sep 2014

Exchange roundup: Mnsure bogs down; Maryland consumers drop coverage

Marketplace developments across the country, including in Minnesota, Maryland, Georgia and California.

3 Sep 2014

Bypassing politics, insurers pay for end of life talks

These doctor-patient conversations had been labeled "death panels" by opponents of the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, in a bid to reduce backlogs, Medicare offers a deal to hospitals to pay 68 percent of short-term stay medical claims that were rejected by outside auditors.

3 Sep 2014

First Edition: September 2, 2014

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including an analysis of care at small military hospitals and a look at the $8 billion in health law taxes that come due Sept. 30.

2 Sep 2014

Commercial health care spending up from higher medical service costs

Recent growth in health care spending for commercially insured individuals is due primarily to increases in prices for medical services, rather than increased use, according to a new study led by researchers at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, published in the August issue of the American Journal of Managed Care.

30 Aug 2014

State highlights: States seek health care autonomy; L.A. nursing home audit; promoting overdose-reversal drug

Kansas, Missouri and seven other states have signed on to a movement that would wrest regulation of most of the nation's health care insurance systems from the federal government.

30 Aug 2014

Pennsylvania's Corbett becomes 9th GOP governor to expand Medicaid

Gov. Tom Corbett reached a deal with the Obama administration to use federal funds to put about 500,000 low-income residents into managed care plans already used by the state. There were conflicting reports about the details of the federal waiver, but Corbett's original plan to include work incentives was not approved.

30 Aug 2014

Research roundup: Benefits of hip surgery; preventing surgical infections; assessing ACOs' predecessors

Surgical treatment of hip fractures can achieve better survival and functional outcomes than nonoperative treatment, but less is known about its economic benefits. ... We estimated the effects of surgical treatment for displaced hip fractures through a Markov cohort analysis of patients 65 years and older. ... Estimated average lifetime societal benefits per patient exceeded the direct medical costs of hip fracture surgery by $65,000 to $68,000 for displaced hip fractures. With the exception of the assumption of nursing home use, the sensitivity analyses show that surgery produces positive net societal savings (Gu, Koenig, Mather and Tongue, 8/5).

30 Aug 2014

Janssen, Bayer announce expansion of EXPLORER global cardiovascular research program for XARELTO

Janssen Research & Development, LLC and its development partner, Bayer HealthCare, announced today the expansion of the EXPLORER global cardiovascular research program for XARELTO (rivaroxaban) to include additional high-risk patient populations.

29 Aug 2014

First Edition: August 29, 2014

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about the Obama administration and Pennsylvania reaching an agreement to expand Medicaid in that state.

29 Aug 2014

Viewpoints: Medicare no longer 'busting' the budget; a 'nightmare' trying to get coverage in D.C.

You're looking at the biggest story involving the federal budget and a crucial one for the future of the American economy. Every year for the last six years in a row, the Congressional Budget Office has reduced its estimate for how much the federal government will need to spend on Medicare in coming years.

29 Aug 2014

Pennsylvania, CMS agree on 'Healthy PA' Medicaid expansion plan

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released a press statement Thursday announcing that CMS and Pennsylvania officials. have agreed to expand Medicaid in Pennsylvania.

29 Aug 2014

CBO: Smaller deficits projected as Medicare and Medicaid spending declines slightly

In the Congressional Budget Office's latest forecast, reduced costs for medical services and labor have trimmed the 10-year projected cost of Medicare and Medicaid by $89 billion.

28 Aug 2014

Centene’s Missouri subsidiary earns Medicaid and Marketplace HMO accreditation by NCQA

Centene Corporation announced today that its wholly-owned Missouri subsidiary, Home State Health, has earned Medicaid and Marketplace HMO accreditation by the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

28 Aug 2014

First Edition: August 28, 2014

Today's headlines include reports about the Congressional Budget Office's latest projections regarding Medicare and Medicaid spending.

28 Aug 2014

Conn. exchange chief to tun Healthcare.gov

Federal officials tap Kevin Counihan, who helped launch Connecticut's successful online health insurance marketplace, to oversee the federal exchange, which is used by residents of three dozen states, and to prevent the problems that plagued it last fall.

28 Aug 2014

Open Payments website plagued by delays, difficulties

The site, which is supposed to make transparent payments between drugmakers and physicians, is slated to be made public by Sept. 30. But as the deadline nears, the pharmaceutical industry is pressing the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to be more transparent in explaining what's going on with the database.

28 Aug 2014

Amgen's ivabradine receives FDA priority review designation for treatment of chronic heart failure

Amgen today announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted priority review designation for ivabradine for the treatment of chronic heart failure (HF).

28 Aug 2014

Medicare News and Research

Implementing guidelines can improve hospitals' communication during patient care transitions

State highlights: Mass. health care costs grow smaller 2.3 percent; new rules in Calif. for inmates with mental illness

Viewpoints: Medicaid expansion spreading; 'GOP's woman problem;' praising Medicare

Exchange roundup: Mnsure bogs down; Maryland consumers drop coverage

Bypassing politics, insurers pay for end of life talks

First Edition: September 2, 2014

Commercial health care spending up from higher medical service costs

State highlights: States seek health care autonomy; L.A. nursing home audit; promoting overdose-reversal drug

Pennsylvania's Corbett becomes 9th GOP governor to expand Medicaid

Research roundup: Benefits of hip surgery; preventing surgical infections; assessing ACOs' predecessors

Janssen, Bayer announce expansion of EXPLORER global cardiovascular research program for XARELTO

First Edition: August 29, 2014

Viewpoints: Medicare no longer 'busting' the budget; a 'nightmare' trying to get coverage in D.C.

Pennsylvania, CMS agree on 'Healthy PA' Medicaid expansion plan

CBO: Smaller deficits projected as Medicare and Medicaid spending declines slightly

Centene’s Missouri subsidiary earns Medicaid and Marketplace HMO accreditation by NCQA

First Edition: August 28, 2014

Conn. exchange chief to tun Healthcare.gov

Open Payments website plagued by delays, difficulties

Amgen's ivabradine receives FDA priority review designation for treatment of chronic heart failure

Advancing Neuroscience Research Through Collaboration and Patient-Centered Innovation

The impact of vibration on microscopy

How Omics Technologies Are Transforming Biological Research and Drug Discovery

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