Health Care News and Research

RSS

Stateline: Detailing how a Medicaid 'blended rate' plan would work

House Republicans already have voted to convert Medicaid into a block grant program. ... The Obama administration has issued its alternative — a plan to cut $100 billion from federal Medicaid spending over the next decade.

29 Jul 2011

Longer looks: Expensive cities for health care; mapping Medicaid

It's bewildering for anyone who has ever paid for a health procedure out of pocket when health insurance doesn't cover the full cost: Why does health care cost the way it does, and why do the costs fluctuate depending on where you go and who you see? A colonoscopy, for example, can range from $500 to $3,000 — a large difference depending on how health insurance providers negotiate rates.

29 Jul 2011

Patients with diabetes, depression more likely to develop serious eye disease

Patients with diabetes who also suffer from depression are more likely to develop a serious complication known as diabetic retinopathy, a disease that damages the eye's retina, a five-year study finds.

29 Jul 2011

LUMC recognized as one of the nation's Most Wired Hospitals and Health Systems

Loyola University Medical Center (LUMC) has been named one of the nation's Most Wired Hospitals and Health Systems, according to results of the 2011 Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study.

29 Jul 2011

State roundup: Mass. communities look to new law for health savings

Area cities and towns are salivating at the prospect of saving millions of dollars in insurance costs in coming years, under a new law making it easier to change health coverage for their employees.

29 Jul 2011

AccuVein announces $22.5M Series B financing

AccuVein Inc., a global leader in medical imaging technology and the creator of the AV300, the world's first hand-held, non-contact vein illumination device, announced today that it has secured $22.5 million in a Series B financing.

29 Jul 2011

Viewpoints: Pessimism on partisan debt dealings; supporting community clinics; 'mystery shopper' should go forward

FDR began the entitlement era with the New Deal and Social Security, but for decades it remained relatively limited. … That changed in the mid-1960s with LBJ's Great Society and the dawn of the health-care state. Medicare and Medicaid were launched in 1965 with fairy tale estimates of future costs. Medicare, the program for the elderly, was supposed to cost $12 billion by 1990 but instead spent $110 billion.

29 Jul 2011

$3 million grant to aid minorities with uncontrolled diabetes

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago's Institute for Health Research and Policy and College of Medicine have received a $3 million federal grant to improve diabetes management in minority patients.

28 Jul 2011

First Edition: July 28, 2011

In today's headlines, reports about the ever-growing US health health care tab and about the petition filed by a conservative legal center to bring their health law challenge to the Supreme Court.

28 Jul 2011

NeuroMetrix second quarter total revenues decrease to $2.6 million

NeuroMetrix, Inc., a science-based health care company improving patient care through neurotechnology, today reported business and financial highlights for the quarter and six months ended June 30, 2011.

28 Jul 2011

New approaches to improve biomarker discovery

An article in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS's weekly newsmagazine, describes the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of one of the hottest pursuits in modern biomedical science - the search for "biomarkers" that could greatly improve the diagnosis of disease and efforts to monitor the effectiveness of treatment.

28 Jul 2011

Brooklyn drugstores accused of Medicare Part D fraud

With a blue awning with the Russian word for pharmacy written on it and a sign hung in the window declaring "We Accept All Medicare Part D Plans," Monica's looks like a typical mom-and-pop Brooklyn drugstore.

28 Jul 2011

USAID releases new issue of Frontlines

The June/July issue of USAID's Frontlines focuses on climate change, including an article on how Kenyan farmers are adapting to environmental changes. The issue also includes articles on how the search for an HIV vaccine has boosted African research and on the introduction of the GeneXpert tuberculosis test in Central Asia.

28 Jul 2011

Eli Lilly introduces physician payment registry for public

Eli Lilly and Company today announced the launch of a physician payment registry to help the public better understand how the company works with U.S. physicians and compensates them for their services – and how these collaborations benefit patient care.

28 Jul 2011

World Bank urges China to address NCDs or face economic consequences

In a report released on Tuesday, the World Bank urged China to step up its efforts to fight non-communicable diseases (NCDs), "the main cause of death in the country, warning of rising health expenditure and an economic slowdown if rapid action is not taken," Reuters reports.

28 Jul 2011

U.N. warns 3.5M Kenyans will need food aid by September

The U.N. on Tuesday said approximately 3.5 million Kenyans will need food aid due to drought by September, "while European officials warned such crises would flare up again unless more money was directed at prevention efforts," Reuters reports.

28 Jul 2011

Two large insurers profit by Americans' postponement of care

WellPoint Inc and Aetna Inc , the second and third-biggest U.S. health insurers by market value, are set to report second-quarter earnings on Wednesday that will likely be helped by Americans avoiding doctor visits and delaying medical procedures. The industry has benefited from Americans postponing such care during the weak economy.

28 Jul 2011

Law center presses its health law challenge

"The Thomas Moore Law Center formally asked the Supreme Court Tuesday to reverse an appeals court decision upholding the health care reform law. Marking the first appeal of its kind to reach the nation's highest court, the conservative legal group continues to insist the mandate requiring all Americans to purchase health insurance is unconstitutional".

28 Jul 2011

Pharmaceutical companies' profit protection hurts global AIDS fight

In her latest piece on the New York Times' "Opinionator" blog, author and journalist Tina Rosenberg argues that the terms of Gilead's recent agreement with the Medicines Patent Pool is "confirmation of a dangerous new trend: middle-income countries as a target market for drug makers."

28 Jul 2011

Bill introduced to increase Medigap MLR

The AARP endorsed the measure, introduced in both the House and Senate, which in 2014 would require Medigap insurers to spend 85 percent of every premium dollar in the group market on medical care.

28 Jul 2011