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First Edition: July 18, 2014

Today's headlines include reports from the marketplace, including UnitedHealthcare's move toward the health law's insurance marketplaces and the latest on the Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into insider trading related to a health policy change.

18 Jul 2014

Splice-switching oligonucleotide drugs alter editing of gene transcript

In splice-switching, an innovative therapeutic approach, targeted oligonucleotide drugs alter the editing of a gene transcript to produce the desired form of a protein.

18 Jul 2014

Unitedhealth, HCA see profits from Obamacare

The giant insurer saw revenue growth from its Optum unit, which helped fix the federal health insurance website and has since been hired by several states.

18 Jul 2014

New article describes about crowdsourcing and drug repurposing needs

Experimental drugs proven safe but perhaps not sufficiently effective in initial testing or against a first disease target may sit gathering dust on the shelves of pharmaceutical companies.

17 Jul 2014

Texas Medicaid rolls grow even without expansion

More than 80,000 Texans have enrolled in Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program since the rollout of the Affordable Care Act last fall, despite the state's decision not to participate in the health law's expansion of eligibility. Enrollment and marketplace developments in Colorado and Maryland are also tracked.

17 Jul 2014

First Edition: July 16, 2014

Today's headlines include reports about the Congressional Budget Office's latest estimate on federal health care spending.

16 Jul 2014

States grapple with mental illness issues; Oregon moves closer to limiting Medicaid patients' access to new hepatitis C drugs

The numbers, posted daily on the Cook County sheriff's website, would be alarming at an urgent care clinic, let alone a jail: On a Wednesday, 36 percent of all new arrivals report having a mental illness. On a Friday, it's 54 percent. But inside the razor wire framing the 96-acre compound, the faces and voices of the newly arrested confirm its accidental role as Chicago's treatment center of last resort for people with serious mental illnesses (Geller, 7/14).

16 Jul 2014

New software-based method identifies patients with newly diagnosed HIV using EMRs

A new, validated software-based method for identifying patients with newly diagnosed HIV using electronic medical records (EMRs) is described in AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

16 Jul 2014

Help wanted: CEO for hard-to-manage federal insurance website

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell is expected to name someone to oversee the operations of healthcare.gov to keep it from becoming a joke again on late night TV. Also in the news is an examination of the small business marketplaces.

15 Jul 2014

85% of African American adults expressed interest in genetic testing for AD susceptibility

Alcohol dependence (AD) has a genetic component and testing can determine a person's genetic risk for susceptibility to AD.

15 Jul 2014

New method for identifying patients with newly diagnosed HIV using electronic medical records

15 Jul 2014

"Seniors Advocate" Democrat launch new website

A "Seniors Advocate" Democrat from Indiana launched the new website www.ObamacareHurtsSeniors.com.

15 Jul 2014

First Edition: July 15, 2014

Today's headlines include news about how some states are planning to address their backlogs of new Medicaid enrollees.

15 Jul 2014

Paracetamol safety and osteoarthritis: an interview with Professor David Hunter, University of Sydney

Firstly, paracetamol has been the first-line recommended treatment for osteoarthritis pain for very many years and, secondly, it is readily available over the counter and can be bought in relatively large quantities.

15 Jul 2014

Glitch in Connecticut exchange resulted in thousands of problems

Access Health CT is reaching out to 5,784 customers who were either inaccurately enrolled in Medicaid, or who received inaccurate bills because their insurers received incorrect information from the exchange, officials say. Meanwhile, developments related to Minnesota's and Colorado's exchanges are also covered.

15 Jul 2014

BAI and Novartis determine whether investigational drugs can prevent symptoms of Alzheimer's

Researchers from the Banner Alzheimer's Institute (BAI) today announced a partnership with Novartis in a pioneering medical trial to determine whether two investigational anti-amyloid drugs-an active immunotherapy and an oral medication-can prevent or delay the emergence of symptoms of Alzheimer's in people at particularly high risk for developing the disease at older ages.

15 Jul 2014

HealthPlanOne plans to open new location in Phoenix

HealthPlanOne, one of the nation's leading Medicare and under-65 health insurance sales and customer acquisition companies, has announced plans to open a new location in Phoenix.

15 Jul 2014

Viewpoints: Parsing newest reports of coverage gains; 'scientific fraudsters'

It will take a while to understand fully how the Affordable Care Act affects the quality of health care and access to doctors in this country.

14 Jul 2014

Mass. fix to insurance website passes preliminary test

New software for the health exchange has passed its initial testing and officials say they are cautiously optimistic that the state can run its own marketplace when enrollment begins in the fall. Also, Modern Healthcare examines where small business exchanges stand.

14 Jul 2014

New online medical professional video center from Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is now making its video education medical grand rounds lectures and clinical presentations on recent innovations in patient care, education and research accessible to other medical professionals in the new online medical professional video center.

11 Jul 2014