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Amid health bill delays and snags, lawmakers target issues

The wait for the Congressional Budget Office score on the Senate health care reform bill has left Senators with time to carefully consider all the angles on reform, The New York Times reports. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid "has already received some substantial analysis of his measure, and if the numbers had been what he wanted, he would have released a bill by now.

16 Nov 2009

Heart, cancer doctors get break on scheduled Medicare pay cuts

Heart and cancer doctors will get a smaller fee cut next year from Medicare, the U.S. government program for the elderly, than the Obama administration first sought in a move to shift money to family physicians," Bloomberg reports. Earlier this year, Medicare officials said they would cut 10 percent of payments for the two specialties. Now, they plan on making the reductions over four years, instead.

2 Nov 2009

House GOP's "Better ideas" remain under wraps

"House Republicans said the newly released Democratic health care reform bill would create an expensive government-run heath care system paid for by those who could least afford it, but they declined to say whether they would introduce a conference alternative," Roll Call reports.

30 Oct 2009

Dr. Heather Greene to receive 2009 C.A.R.E. Pharmacy Award

Eisai Inc. and the Alzheimer's Association announce today that Heather Greene, PharmD is the recipient of the 2009 C.A.R.E. Pharmacy Award.

30 Oct 2009

NBCSL lauds the Veterans’ Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act

NBCSL President, Rep. Calvin Smyre (GA), applauds the Obama Administration’s efforts to improve health care for veterans. Today, President Barack Obama signed the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act, which provides one year of advance funding for veterans’ medical programs. The VA now has one year to plan how to best allocate funds and deliver care to returning veterans.

23 Oct 2009

Insurers, other health businesses examine effect of reform bills

Health care industry CEOs are analyzing their wins and losses in the bills being considered in Congress.

19 Oct 2009

Committee nears vote, with boost from Snowe

As the Senate Finance Committee moved towards a vote on its health care bill - expected this afternoon - its chairman, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., implored lawmakers to "get the job done" and called the meeting a "historic moment," USA Today reports. "Passage would mark the biggest step forward yet for President Obama's top domestic priority," according to the report.

14 Oct 2009

Pico-Tesla commences Phase III clinical trial its Resonator system for treating Parkinson’s disease

Pico-Tesla, The Magneceutical™ Therapy Company, announced today that it has commenced a Phase III clinical trial of its patented Resonator™ system that facilitates the Company’s proprietary magnetic (Magneceutical™) therapy for treating Parkinson’s disease patients.

6 Oct 2009

Bacteria could be used to control mosquitoes, prevent disease, study says

New findings, published in the journal Science, about the bacteria Wolbachia could be used to control mosquito populations and prevent malaria, dengue fever and other mosquito-borne diseases, Discovery News reports.

2 Oct 2009

Finance Senators picking sides as panel continues health bill markup

Politico: "Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus faces multiple challenges as he gavels in another week of work on health care Tuesday. High on the list: controlling the drama in the hearing room."

30 Sep 2009

The Children’s Hospital implements Eclipsys’ integrated decision support and analysis solution

Eclipsys Corporation®, The Outcomes Company®, today announced that pediatric hospitals are emerging as a key client base for its Sunrise EPSi™ integrated suite of business performance management solutions. In face of declining reimbursements, both acute and specialty care organizations are seeking the decision support solution as an effective means to become more efficient and improve productivity without sacrificing quality.

28 Sep 2009

Coalition to Protect Patients’ Rights opposes cuts to Medicare

The doctor-led Coalition to Protect Patients’ Rights (Coalition) urged caution to legislators and the public as they consider Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus’s healthcare reform proposal, America's Healthy Future Act of 2009, which was released today.

17 Sep 2009

Congressional aides for health care have industry ties

"Some of the most influential aides in the closed-door Senate Finance Committee negotiations over health care reform have ties to interests that would be directly affected by the legislation," Politico reports.

16 Sep 2009

President Obama’s health care address to Congress broadcasted

Today, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius released a radio actuality previewing President Obama’s health care address to Congress on Wednesday evening. Radio stations and Web sites wishing to download the audio for broadcast can find it on the www.healthreform.gov Web site.

10 Sep 2009

Over 2,800 people worldwide have died from H1N1, WHO reports

The WHO on Friday announced the H1N1 (swine) flu virus has killed at least 2,837 people - the result of an continued increase in the number of H1N1 cases worldwide, not the virulence of the virus, Reuters reports. "There is no sense that the virus has mutated or changed in any sense," WHO spokesperson Gregory Hartl said during a news conference (Nebehay/MacInnis, 9/4).

5 Sep 2009

Victim’s longevity with the deadly disease inspires thousands of dying patients

When Jerry Lewis takes the stage again on Labor Day 2009 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon, thousands of people who suffer from the same lung disease as he will be watching - and not just to hear the funny things he'll say. They'll be looking for inspiration from the funny man who suffers from a not-so-funny and little known fatal lung disease.

5 Sep 2009

Interim Phase II data of Cotara reveals signs of efficacy in GBM patients

Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today reported that clinical investigators are presenting interim Phase II data showing that its brain cancer agent Cotara(R) appeared well tolerated and demonstrated encouraging signs of efficacy in patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the deadliest form of brain cancer.

3 Sep 2009

Abbott introduces XIENCE PRIME Everolimus Eluting Coronary Stent System for global market

Abbott (NYSE: ABT) today announced at the European Society of Cardiology Congress the widespread availability of its next-generation XIENCE PRIME(TM) Everolimus Eluting Coronary Stent System for the treatment of coronary artery disease.

31 Aug 2009

Checking in with health insurers' chief lobbyist Karen Ignagni

This has become an especially rough-and-tumble time for Karen Ignagni, the health industry’s chief lobbyist. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has denounced insurers as “villains,” and President Obama has criticized the industry for its “windfall profits.” Earlier this year, Ignagni pledged to work with Obama and Congress to pass major health care legislation this year, but relations have cooled as the White House and congressional Democrats have begun citing the industry’s practices as a top reason to pass an overhaul of the nation’s health care system.

6 Aug 2009