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Viewpoints: NY Times deconstructs health rulings; Issa on law & deficit; veterans' care needs boost

At a time when the nation's credit has been downgraded for the first time and our country is struggling to finance and reform existing entitlement programs, Obamacare's creation of new entitlements increases dependency on government and pushes our country deeper into a fiscal crisis of Greek proportion. As Congress and the president seek bipartisan ground to address the national debt, we must remember that the first step out of a hole is to stop digging.

23 Aug 2011

New open access journal on malaria

A post in the "Malaria Matters" blog announces "a new open access journal on malaria: Malaria Chemotherapy, Control and Elimination," which "has been recently launched by Ashdin Publishing."

22 Aug 2011

Nurse safety measures around highly toxic drugs needed

Nearly 17 percent of nurses who work in outpatient chemotherapy infusion centers reported being exposed on their skin or eyes to the toxic drugs they deliver, according to a new study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

22 Aug 2011

Online health records, medical devices face IT security risks

Meanwhile, iWatch News reports on how the health information sector seems especially fond of lobbying's "revolving door."

22 Aug 2011

New estimates predict trouble for social security disability payments

The trust fund that supports Social Security disability benefits will run out of money by 2017, leaving the program unable to pay full benefits unless Congress acts, according to new congressional estimates.

22 Aug 2011

HHS approves new round of waivers

The Obama administration granted another 106 waivers last month from part of the health care reform law - the first round of three-year waivers the Health and Human Services Department has approved. The new approvals bring the total number of waivers to 1,472, according to HHS. Those figures cover waivers granted through the end of July.

22 Aug 2011

The politics of health policies emerge in presidential contest

The AP reports that GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry has backed an approach to health reform that could be "as controversial as Obama's remake." Meanwhile, President Barack Obama faces discontent from his base over many of his policies.

22 Aug 2011

Feds challenge Ohio hospital merger

Obama administration officials have been roaming the country, talking up their vision of a future in which doctors and hospitals team up to provide better care at lower cost. But a starkly different picture is unfolding this summer in a courtroom here, where lawyers from the Federal Trade Commission have been challenging a hospital merger in Toledo, Ohio.

22 Aug 2011

Economic pressures trigger seniors' concerns about finances, assisted living housing

While The Wall Street Journal and Kaiser Health News report on the current dark side of aging in America, The Associated Press offers insights into how baby boomer interest in countering the effects of getting older could lead to billions of dollars in spending.

22 Aug 2011

Drug co. executive gives pharma a sunny forecast

Severin Schwan thinks the skeptics are wrong. Those who shun the pharmaceutical sector for its lack of prospects don't understand the potential created by a rapidly growing understanding of genetics and molecular biology, and the new drugs that will follow. ... the chief executive of Roche Holding AG, the world's seventh-largest drug firm by sales, is an informed optimist.

22 Aug 2011

Advocates worry over 'super committee's' consideration of Medicaid

Meanwhile, the health law's individual mandate could fall prey to deficit reduction efforts. And, in the background, congressional appropriators face especially unique challenges this year in trying to get their work done.

22 Aug 2011

Congress could reconsider FSA restrictions

Bills floating through Congress would lift some restrictions on flexible spending accounts and allow employees to set aside pre-tax earnings to pay for out-of-pocket health care expenses.

22 Aug 2011

First Edition: August 22, 2011

Reporting for Kaiser Health News, Harris Meyer writes: "In the fourth year of a depressed real estate market, experts say thousands of seniors remain unable to move into senior housing because they can't sell their homes quickly enough or for the price they need. The upshot: Greater pressure on families to pay for parents' and grandparents' placements, or to care for them themselves"

22 Aug 2011

CMA releases eleventh annual National Report Card on Health Care

The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) today released its eleventh annual National Report Card on Health Care in Canada. The research focuses on access to health care services and shows clear support for specific measures to make the system more accountable to patients.

22 Aug 2011

Disability benefits squeezing social security as politics dominates deficit talk

It's August, Congress and the president are on vacation. Nonetheless, talk on the Sunday morning programs looked ahead to the future deficit negotiations by the "super committee" and the president's upcoming economics speech.

22 Aug 2011

Hospital roundup: Catholic facilities losing nuns' leadership; Georgia infection rates; new VA system for Louisiana

In 1968, nuns or priests served as chief executives of 770 of the country's 796 Catholic hospitals, according to the Catholic Health Association. Today, they preside over 8 of 636 hospitals. ... The leadership shift has stirred angst in many Catholic hospitals about whether the values imparted by the nuns, concerning the treatment of both patients and employees, can withstand bottom-line forces without their day-to-day vigilance.

22 Aug 2011

New York College of Health Professions to inaugurate second Manhattan location

New York College of Health Professions, a private institutionally accredited college based in Syosset, N.Y., with a facility in Luo Yang, China, today announced the opening of its second Manhattan location at the University Settlement on Houston Street and Bowery in Chinatown.

20 Aug 2011

UHC report outlines ways to combat high cost of care through supply chain purchasing process

While health care reform looks at ways to combat the high cost of care, many of the nation's top hospitals have already found ways to eliminate unnecessary costs through the supply chain purchasing process.

20 Aug 2011

Automated navigation support reduces effort and injuries for surgeons

The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society congratulates Dietrich Manzey, Maria Luz, Stefan Mueller, Andreas Dietz, Juergen Meixensberger, and Gero Strauss on receiving the 2011 Human Factors Prize for their article, "Automation in Surgery: The Impact of Navigated-Control Assistance on Performance, Waorkload, Situation Awareness, and Acquisition of Surgical Skills."

20 Aug 2011

AHF: Gilead's campaign for FDA approval of Truvada leads to black marketing in Florida

Today AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) decried the fact that the recent campaign by Gilead Sciences Inc. to obtain approval by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for Truvada as PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) has led to a "black market" for the drug in Florida.

20 Aug 2011