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Dems reject plan to cut Medicare costs, raise eligibility age

As negotiations over raising the nation's debt ceiling continue, two senators — Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn. — advanced a new plan to produce the amount of savings from the Medicare program needed to meet the debt reduction target. The approach, though, which includes raising the eligibility age to 67, was swiftly rejected by top Democrats.

30 Jun 2011

UIC health sciences library receives $8.9M contract to serve 10-state Midwest region

The national library network responsible for MEDLINE/PubMed and other Web-based health information services has awarded an $8.9 million contract to the Library of the Health Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago to serve as its Midwest regional library for another five years.

30 Jun 2011

CSIS report on Army and Navy overseas medical research

This report, titled "The Future of the U.S. Army and Navy Overseas Medical Research," from the Center for Strategic & International Studies lays out the research, conclusions, and recommendations from "a year-long, independent examination of the U.S. Army and Navy overseas medical research laboratories," which "stand at the intersection of health and security, a topic of increased importance to U.S. approaches to global health".

30 Jun 2011

HHS: Half million seniors experiencing lower drug costs

As a result of health law changes to provide seniors with "doughnut hole" relief, Medicare recipients saved a combined $260 million on medicines as of the end of last month.

30 Jun 2011

STSI joins JAX consortium to develop targeted cancer therapies

The Scripps Translational Science Institute (STSI) of San Diego, Calif., has joined a national consortium of research institutions headed by The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) that is building a library of primary human tumors with the goal of developing highly targeted cancer therapies.

30 Jun 2011

Prevalence rate of Parkinson's is higher than previously thought

Parkinson's Disease, brought to public awareness by figures such as Michael J. Fox, is not just difficult to diagnose. It's also difficult to accurately estimate how many people actually suffer from the disease. Current statistics come from small-scale studies, usually based on information from hospital clinics, and no registries or formal databases exist to track how many people have the disease.

30 Jun 2011

State roundup: Minn. officials looking at health cuts to avert shutdown

With just two days to negotiate an agreement with Republican lawmakers before a potential government shutdown, Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican leaders are trying to find additional cuts in health and human services spending, the fastest-growing part of state government.

30 Jun 2011

Medicaid advocates worry about administration plan

Politico reports that advocates fear an idea proposed by the Obama administration to change the way federal matching funds work could have very negative results. Meanwhile, groups — including faith-based organizations — opposing Medicaid cuts continue to step forward.

30 Jun 2011

Social stigma surrounding abortion

An international team of researchers says abortion stigma is under-researched, under theorized and over emphasized in one category: women who've had abortions. As a result, they're launching a new direction into research that explores the social stigma surrounding abortion.

30 Jun 2011

Viewpoints: Calif.'s budget, Supreme Court drug rulings, the Avastin debate

The budget is not realistic, counting on fantastical revenue projections as well as a redevelopment gambit that's likely to be blocked in court. It makes deep cuts in state programs that will have unwelcome repercussions in years to come. And if the revenue projections prove to be as overly optimistic as they seem, there will be more damaging cuts to education, child care and health services. Nevertheless, it's a more earnest effort to clean up the state's budget mess than Sacramento has seen in a decade or more.

30 Jun 2011

Novel use of duct tape in infection prevention saves $110,000 annually

The Trinity Infection Prevention team from Iowa/Illinois Trinity Medical Center has come up with the novel idea of using duct tape to reduce infections and save up to $110,000. For this they received the Blue Ribbon Abstract Award. They presented their work, “The Red Box Strategy: An Innovative Method to Improve Isolation Precaution Compliance and Reduce Costs” which received the designation at the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology's 2011 Annual Conference and International Meeting June27-29 in Baltimore.

29 Jun 2011

Patients, scientists in different corners for cancer drug fight

The drug, Avastin, will be the subject of an unusual Food and Drug Administration hearing to revisit a panel vote last July that steered many doctors away from prescribing the drug for the treatment of breast cancer.

29 Jun 2011

Interest, uncertainty surround health exchanges, ACOs

In other news related to health law implementation, Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., has co-sponsored legislation to allow states to opt out of the health law until legal challenges related to it are resolved.

29 Jun 2011

First Edition: June 29, 2011

In today's news, two senators offer a new plan for Medicare cuts -- which includes increasing the eligibility age -- but top Democrats lined up against it.

29 Jun 2011

South African circumcision program moving forward with support from Zulu king

NPR's Morning Edition on Monday examined how a circumcision program in South Africa's Kwa-Zulu Natal, run by the Society for Family Health at the Boom Street Community Health Clinic, "is gaining momentum" because of a decree issued last year by King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu about the importance of circumcision in helping to reduce the risk of HIV infection.

29 Jun 2011

NPR examines maternal, child health in Mozambique

NPR's All Things Considered reports on efforts to improve maternal health in Mozambique. The piece, which is part of a summer series, looks at the challenges involved with getting pregnant women to hospitals and shortages of trained health worker (Block, 6/27).

29 Jun 2011

South Sudan should use military as force for development

Calestous Juma, an author and professor at Harvard Kennedy School, writes in an East African opinion piece that as South Sudan prepares for independence on July 9, it "is the time" for the country "to chart a new path by defining a new role for its military" by "shift[ing] its military budget to development objectives."

29 Jun 2011

Stop ignoring historical western advocacy of sex selection

Mara Hvistendahl, a correspondent with Science magazine and author of the recently published "Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men," writes in a Foreign Policy feature that "as American politicians argue over whether to cut Planned Parenthood's U.S. funding and the Christian right drives through bans on sex-selective abortion at the state level, the effects of three decades of sex selection elsewhere in the world are becoming alarmingly apparent.

29 Jun 2011

New FAO Director General says he wants to help food importing developing countries address high food prices

In a news conference on Monday, Jose Graziano da Silva, the newly elected head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said he wants to do more to help poor countries deal with volatile food prices, Reuters reports.

29 Jun 2011

President steps in as debt talks remain divided — Medicare savings in exchange for added revenue?

As the high-level negotiations continue, health care advocates are stepping up their campaigns to protect against Medicare and Medicaid cuts. Meanwhile, organizations representing physicians — including the American Medical Association — maintain that a permanent fix to Medicare's physician payment formula should be included in the debt-ceiling legislation.

29 Jun 2011