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Feds make arrests in $18 million Medicare and Medicaid scam

The alleged fraud was based on an "elaborate" prescription drug scheme that involved a physician, a pharmacist and 15 others and included the recruitment of veterans, homeless people, poor people and the elderly.

29 Oct 2011

Mount Sinai co-sponsors 'The Impact and Future of Medical School Rankings' summit

A panel of prominent medical school deans from across the country convened yesterday in New York City to discuss the future of annual medical school rankings issued by U.S. News & World Report, which are now celebrating their 20th anniversary.

29 Oct 2011

Not too early to consider funding for, distribution of malaria vaccine

In this Huffington Post opinion piece, Orin Levine, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center of Johns Hopkins University, notes some of the parallels between the development of RTS,S, the experimental malaria vaccine currently being tested in Africa, and the polio vaccine, but he says "there are also some particularly disappointing ways in which the polio and malaria efforts could differ."

29 Oct 2011

VUMC doctors to begin statin drug screening for rare genetic variation

Vanderbilt University Medical Center doctors announced today they will begin screening patients who take commonly prescribed statin drugs for a rare genetic variation that can increase risks for side effects from these drugs such as muscle aches, kidney damage and even death.

29 Oct 2011

State highlights: Wash. Gov. announces more budget cuts

For the fourth year in a row, Gov. Chris Gregoire on Thursday outlined more than $1.5 billion in state cuts to health care, social services, prisons and education.The latest round would increase public-school class sizes, eliminate subsidized health care for the working poor and release hundreds of inmates early…. The state's Basic Health Plan would close, ending state-subsidized insurance for about 35,000 low-income people.

29 Oct 2011

Some experts question early release of RTS,S malaria vaccine trial data

Nature News reports on last week's announcement of preliminary results from a large clinical trial testing the efficacy of GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) RTS,S malaria vaccine, writing that while media coverage of the announcement touted it as a "big breakthrough in the long campaign to create a malaria vaccine," "several leading vaccine researchers, who are critical of the unusual decision to publish partial trial data, argue that the results raise questions about whether the RTS,S/AS01 candidate vaccine can actually win approval."

29 Oct 2011

New KFF poll finds dwindling Democratic support for health law

The overhaul's popularity reached an all-time low this month, a change that was driven by eroding confidence among Democrats, according to a new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

29 Oct 2011

Seeking a broad scientific consensus on disease eradication

In a SciDev.Net letter to the editor, Rashid Zargar from the Centre of Research for Development at the University of Kashmir, responds to an editorial published by the news service last week in which editor David Dickson suggested that "focusing on the science and technology required to eliminate a disease, rather than just control it, can pay off."

29 Oct 2011

State spending on Medicaid skyrockets, further straining state budgets

A 50-state survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that state spending on Medicaid will increase 29 percent this year.

29 Oct 2011

Targets for Somalia aid likely to be missed in 2011, U.N. draft report says

"Despite a massive increase in humanitarian operations and international funding since famine was formally declared 100 days ago, the relief effort in Somalia is expected to miss almost all its key targets for 2011, a draft United Nations report reveals," the Guardian reports.

29 Oct 2011

Parties still far apart as deficit panel eyes benefits, taxes

Media outlets report on Capitol Hill reactions to the super committee proposals and counter-proposals that surfaced this week. For instance, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, gave his "most pessimistic" take to date on whether the panel would be able to offer recommendations by Thanksgiving on how to reach the deficit-reduction target.

29 Oct 2011

House votes to fix Medicaid glitch

The House easily passed legislation that would fix a Medicaid "glitch" created by the health law that would have allowed up to 3 million middle-class couples earning as much as $64,000 onto the already struggling Medicaid rolls starting in 2014. The House also voted to adjust a definition that determines eligibility for certain health care programs.

29 Oct 2011

Cancer symposium at Georgetown focuses on 'Linking Policy to the Patient'

The Otto J. Ruesch Center for the Cure of Gastrointestinal Cancers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center announces a three-part symposium, titled "Fighting a Smarter War Against Cancer: Linking Policy to the Patient," to be held Thursday, December 1 through Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011 on the campuses of Georgetown University and Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C.

29 Oct 2011

Global Health Technologies Coalition blog reports on health research projects in Kenya

In a post in the Global Health Technologies Coalition's "Breakthroughs" blog, GHTC's Kim Lufkin reports on her travels to Kenya this month "to visit global health research projects and see the impact on people in the country," writing, "Although we visited a range of projects, I was left with the lasting impression that much of this research is so close to producing new health tools that can lead to amazing innovations in public health," including "the first ever malaria vaccine, gels women can use to protect themselves from HIV, and new drugs for neglected diseases that affect the poorest of the poor."

29 Oct 2011

Research roundup: Medicaid's long-term care bill; work-based coverage and the health law

This study examined Medicare data on beneficiaries diagnosed with colorectal cancer between 1995 and 2005 who ranged from 67 to 85 years old. The authors found, "Medicare beneficiaries with colon cancer had better outcomes if they had more primary care utilization before diagnosis. Even within this universally insured population, 28% of Medicare beneficiaries with colon cancer had no or only 1 contact with primary care physicians in the 3 to 27 months before the diagnosis.

29 Oct 2011

Obama ahead in campaign cash race

The National Journal reports that President Barack Obama is outpacing the GOP candidates in fundraising from the health industry.

29 Oct 2011

Tanzania becomes first country to use self-destructing syringes; designer hopes others will follow suit

"Tanzania is to become the first country in the world to move exclusively to using syringes that self-destruct after a British entrepreneur played the health minister undercover footage of children being injected with used needles," the Guardian reports.

29 Oct 2011

Food aid vouchers are faster, cheaper alternative than shipping food aid abroad

In this New York Times opinion piece, author Tina Rosenberg reports on the use of food vouchers by some aid organizations in Somalia, highlighting the efforts of World Concern, "a Seattle-based Christian humanitarian group, and its Somali partner, the African Rescue Committee, [which] provide 1,800 families every two weeks with rice, beans, cooking oil, salt and sugar for their tea."

29 Oct 2011

Number of polio cases in Pakistan exceeds total number reported in three other endemic countries, report says

According to a report published earlier this month in Virology Journal by a team at the bioinformatics laboratory of the Centre for Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB) in Lahore, Pakistan, that country is reporting more polio cases than Nigeria, India and Afghanistan -- the three other countries where the disease is endemic -- combined, SciDev.Net reports.

29 Oct 2011

Coventry reports operating revenues of $3.0B for third quarter 2011

Coventry Health Care, Inc. today reported consolidated operating results for the quarter ended September 30, 2011. Operating revenues totaled $3.0 billion for the quarter with net earnings of $122.7 million, or earnings per diluted share (EPS) of $0.84.

29 Oct 2011