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Acousticon receives FDA clearance for ACAM-5 hearing loss product

TCG today announced that Acousticon Inc., one of its portfolio companies, recently received FDA clearance for its ACAM-5 product, allowing the company to begin US commercialization activities for the first time.

9 May 2011

State roundup: Concerns about state employee retirement boom

Plummeting stock portfolios and home values prompted many Baby Boomers to keep working long after retirement age. ... "What was once a planned exit is no longer a planned exit," says Daniel Hackler, Indiana's state personnel director.

9 May 2011

Calif. health exchange effort slows; Sebelius: Health law is state friendly

"We want to be the lead car," California Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley told POLITICO in January, shortly after the state became the first in the nation to pass legislation allowing it to set up a health exchange. But four months later, it's hard not to question whether California's lead is slipping. Gov. Jerry Brown is more focused on filling a $25 billion hole in California's budget than setting up the health reform's new programs (Kliff, 5/9).

9 May 2011

Appeals Court set to hear arguments Tuesday in health law challenge

Arguments in the two cases, which are the first two challenges to the Obama administration's health overhaul to advance from the federal to appellate level, mark the beginning in what some say is a race to the Supreme Court.

9 May 2011

First Edition: May 9, 2011

"It sounds like a new Apple product, but IPAB is actually a controversial board at the heart of a highly charged battle over Medicare, the federal health program for the elderly and disabled".

9 May 2011

CMS outlines two different ways to revise Medicare payment system for skilled nursing care

In conjunction with a hearing today before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce in which Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified about the "Policies and Priorities of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services," the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care underscored the importance of provider - Department collaboration in recalibrating the recently implemented Medicare payment system for skilled nursing facility care.

9 May 2011

Administration's top lawyer to argue for health law at appeals court hearing

The government's top lawyer will handle the first appeals court arguments on the constitutionality of the healthcare reform law - a sign of how seriously the administration takes lower court proceedings in a case with huge ramifications not only for the healthcare system, but for the 2012 election.

9 May 2011

IPAB claims a friend within the GOP

During a break in a Thursday House subcommittee hearing on elements of the health law, Mark McClellan offered positive views of IPAB. Also during the hearing, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius commented on how the reform law assists entitlement reform and gave her views on the measure's pre-existing condition program.

7 May 2011

Appellate hearing for two health law challenges scheduled for Tuesday

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit will consider two cases testing the sweeping law that requires people to buy health insurance by 2014 or face a tax penalty.

7 May 2011

House Energy and Commerce Committee takes on Medicare payment reform issues

During a Thursday hearing, medical societies weighed in on efforts to fix Medicare reimbursement and Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said a repeal of the current physician payment formula is on the "short list" of things to get done this summer.

7 May 2011

Sonova reports record consolidated sales of CHF 1.617 billion for 2010/11

Sonova announces preliminary financial results for the 2010/11 year which includes consolidated sales of CHF 1.617 billion, a new record for the company, and an EBITA of CHF 326.6 million, or 20.2% of net sales.

7 May 2011

Patent expiries, generic pricing policies may be factors in slow drug spending growth

Although drugs remain an important cost driver in Canada's health system, growth in spending has slowed to its lowest rate in 14 years, according to a new report released today by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

6 May 2011

Cell Therapeutics Board approves reverse stock split

Cell Therapeutics, Inc. today announced that the Company's Board of Directors approved a reverse stock split following the Company's receipt on May 3, 2011 of a notification of non-compliance from the staff of The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC.

6 May 2011

House hearing will include effort to revive 'balance billing'

Testimony will come from the nation's largest physician organizations, which will tell a House subcommittee about the need to replace Medicare's current payment system. Meanwhile, on the personnel front, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has a new chief medical officer and Berwick is talking about his "service."

6 May 2011

A new round of deficit talks begins amidst roadblocks, debt-ceiling concerns

How to handle entitlement spending issues including Medicare will be central to the discourse. Meanwhile, AARP launches a campaign to protect Medicare in the midst of it all.

5 May 2011

Roundup: Vt. universal care bill advances; Duluth, Minn., seeking to change retiree health benefits; Texas steps back from plan to close centers for disabled

Dr. James Mongan, a physician with a specialty in politics who for decades helped shape the health care debate in Washington, D.C., and the Commonwealth, and who formerly served as president of Massachusetts General Hospital and Partners HealthCare, died in MGH yesterday.

5 May 2011

Omega reports $5.9 million net loss for first quarter 2011

Omega Healthcare Investors, Inc. today announced its results of operations for the three-month period ended March 31, 2011.

4 May 2011

CMS: States to analyze Medicaid provider payments, access issues

CMS officials may have kept the Supreme Court from injecting itself into the controversy over disparate state Medicaid payment rates for various providers through a proposed rule issued Friday.

3 May 2011

Health expert to speak at 205th Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Commencement ceremony

U.S. Surgeon General and Vice Admiral Regina M. Benjamin - one of the world's leading experts on public health and a key player in the national debate on health care reform - will deliver the main address at the 205th Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Commencement on May 28.

2 May 2011

Researchers discover two mutations responsible for neurological condition

Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered two mutations responsible for a devastating neurological condition they first identified 15 years ago. The researchers say their study -- appearing in Nature Genetics -- has revealed a new neural pathway that may help understand a variety of similar conditions.

2 May 2011