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IBC now qualified as 'patient-centered medical homes'

Independence Blue Cross (IBC) has reached a significant milestone with 100 primary care practices with more than 1,000 physicians now qualified as "patient-centered medical homes," and announced today that it is stepping up its efforts to support this transformation of primary care.

10 Jun 2011

Roundup: Maryland program treats prisoners' medical problems

A sweeping deal to cut pensions and health-care benefits for hundreds of thousands of New Jersey public workers was teetering Wednesday, as rank-and-file Assembly Democrats refused to go along with an agreement struck between top legislative Democrats and Gov. Chris Christie.

10 Jun 2011

TriWest earns third consecutive Health Network reaccreditation from URAC

Successfully managing a network of 170,000-plus providers and meeting high compliance standards earned TriWest Healthcare Alliance yet another recertification from URAC, a national leader in promoting quality health care.

10 Jun 2011

Viewpoints: Health law's latest day in court; Obama's "abdication" on Medicare; Blue Shield profits vs. premiums

Provisions of the federal Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare, "may violate the constitution of Ayn Rand, but they do not violate the Constitution of the United States," acting solicitor general Neal Kumar Katyal told a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday. Conversely, attorney Paul Clement, representing Georgia and 25 other states, framed the issue of mandated purchase of health insurance as an issue of liberty.

10 Jun 2011

Drugs for enlarged prostate raise cancer risk

According to health officials, this Thursday, a class of drugs meant to improve symptoms of an enlarged prostate gland may actually increase the chance of getting a more serious form of prostate cancer. However they also said the drugs' benefits outweigh the risks.

9 Jun 2011

Global initiative to prevent HIV in babies

World leaders met to decide on the launch of a global plan with the goal of ensuring that every baby is born HIV-free by 2015 and that their mothers with the HIV virus live to raise them.

9 Jun 2011

Avvo.com, cites top 10 most popular medical specialty categories based on website's patient usage

Avvo (www.avvo.com), the world's largest online directory for doctors and lawyers that provides free rankings for 90% of the working physicians in the U.S., today revealed the most popular medical specialty categories based on Q1 2011 metrics quantifying patient participation in Avvo's online services that include searching Avvo's physician directory, asking health related questions in the Q&A forum, and submitting reviews on their doctors' Avvo profiles.

9 Jun 2011

The ‘decade of vaccines’ has the potential to save lives, many challenges ahead

Vaccinating children around the world against infectious diseases has saved the lives of millions over the past several decades. Now new opportunities exist to overcome remaining challenges—and save another 6.4 million lives over the current decade, according articles in the June 2011 edition of Health Affairs. The issue was produced under the journal’s grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

9 Jun 2011

Hospitals seek help with costs of caring for illegal immigrants

The American Hospital Association is urging President Barack Obama to consider the costs hospitals incur for treating illegal immigrants—and to include provisions in his legislative recommendations to Congress that would sufficiently reimburse them for doing so (Zigmond, 6/9).

9 Jun 2011

Several state legislatures debate abortion restrictions

State legislatures around the country are looking at a variety of measures dealing with abortion.

9 Jun 2011

Obama administration launches new program to spur health IT innovation

The initiative, announced Wednesday, uses prizes and challenges to encourage accelerated research and development activities in the health IT sector.

9 Jun 2011

Deadline extended for ACO pioneer program

The new deadline is Aug. 19. Meanwhile, in other policy-related news, the White House pushed back against study findings released earlier this week by McKinsey & Co. that as many as 30 percent of companies may stop offering health insurance to their employees and said the president's healthcare plan "will reduce costs overall."

9 Jun 2011

New vaccine leads to dramatic fall in meningitis A cases

Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger report the lowest number of confirmed meningitis A cases ever recorded during an epidemic season this year following the successful introduction of a new vaccine that could eliminate the primary cause of the deadly disease from Africa's meningitis belt, announced the Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP) today, which spearheaded development of the vaccine.

9 Jun 2011

First Edition: June 9, 2011

Today's headlines include reports from yesterday's action in an Atlanta courtroom where oral arguments were held in an appeal related to the multi-state challenge to the health law.

9 Jun 2011

Make antiretroviral therapy 'cornerstone' of HIV prevention

Ahead of the U.N. High Level Meeting on AIDS, AVAC: Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention and multiple signatories in a statement call on governments, advocates and researchers to act on the evidence from HPTN 052 and make antiretroviral therapy a cornerstone of the set of proven strategies we have to prevent and treat HIV.

9 Jun 2011

IAS calls on leaders to include HIV cure research in global strategy

The International AIDS Society (IAS) in a statement released ahead of the U.N. High Level Meeting on AIDS "calls on leaders to ensure the inclusion of HIV cure research and its global strategy into the international HIV agenda and in all discussions, political decisions and funding strategies."

9 Jun 2011

VOA News examines debate over U.N. Women funding levels

VOA News examines advocates' concerns over funding levels for U.N. Women. "The mandate of U.N. Women is large, and some supporters are concerned that its starting budget of $500 million dollars is not enough to promote women and gender equality around the world, especially at the country level.

9 Jun 2011

UNICEF representative highlights humanitarian challenges in Yemen

Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF's representative in Yemen, said the country is facing humanitarian challenges and is "absolutely in dire need of humanitarian assistance," Reuters reports.

9 Jun 2011

Number of new E. coli cases abating but more deaths expected

"Germany reported two more deaths and 300 more E. coli cases Wednesday, but its health minister insisted that new infections were dropping, giving some hope that the world's deadliest E. coli outbreak was abating," Associated Press reports.

9 Jun 2011

Health law's independent payment board draws new opposition

Politico reports on the Independent Payment Advisory Board's growing unpopularity and CQ HealthBeat details the complexities that will be involved in the overhaul's expansion of health coverage for children and families. In the background, politics come into play as part of the run up to 2012.

9 Jun 2011