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Message is key in debate over Medicaid block grant plans

Some congressional Democrats are concerned that Medicaid will become even more of a target for funding cuts and, as a result, are rallying the troops.

3 Jun 2011

Technology, expert training and real-time feedback improves Hepatitis C outcomes

Widely-available technology, expert training and real-time feedback helped ensure that patients treated for Hepatitis C in local communities did as well as patients treated at a university-based medical center, results of a new study funded by HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality show. The study is published in the June 2 online issue of the New England Journal of Medicine and in the June 9 print edition.

3 Jun 2011

Telethermographic device is not approved for screening breast cancer

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today warned women not to substitute breast thermography for mammography to screen for breast cancer.

3 Jun 2011

New survey: State tax revenues up but so are Medicaid costs

Although state tax collections are picking up after several brutal years, a new survey by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers found that states still expect to collect less tax revenue and spend less money in the coming fiscal year than they did before the Great Recession began.

3 Jun 2011

Longer looks: Is American medicine destroying itself?

Ever since Republicans took control of half the country's statehouses this year, the anti-abortion movement has won one victory after another. At least 64 new anti-abortion laws have passed, with more than 30 of them in April alone. The campaign is the largest in history and also the most creative.

3 Jun 2011

First Edition: June 3, 2011

Reporting for Kaiser Health News, Marilyn Chase writes: "Memorial, a 278-bed hospital in this city 55 miles north of San Francisco, sued California to try to stop the payment reductions. Now it is part of a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that could redefine states' responsibilities on Medicaid services and ultimately determine whether Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown can go forward with cuts he says are vital to closing the state's budget gap.

3 Jun 2011

IOM finds flaws in Medicare payments to hospitals, doctors

Medicare uses inaccurate, unreliable data to pay doctors and hospitals, the National Academy of Sciences said Wednesday. Although Medicare is a national program, it adjusts payments to health care providers to reflect regional differences in wages, rent and other costs.

3 Jun 2011

CICC White Paper identifies several care gaps of atrial fibrillation patients in Ontario

A White Paper released today by the Centre for Innovation in Complex Care (CICC), of the University Health Network (UHN), has identified significant care gaps of atrial fibrillation (AF) patients in Ontario, which contribute to debilitating strokes that could be prevented.

3 Jun 2011

HHS inspector general: $3.4 billion recovered in first half of 2011

HHS' inspector general's office tallied $3.4 billion in expected recoveries through its audits and investigations in the first half of fiscal 2011, according to its semiannual report to Congress. The office recovered $3.1 billion in the year-ago period.

3 Jun 2011

AHRQ: States see improvements in health care quality, but disparities persist

States are seeing improvements in health care quality, but disparities for their minority and low- income residents persist, according to the 2010 State Snapshots, released today by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

3 Jun 2011

U.N.-led joint report examines HIV/AIDS among young people ages 10-24

An estimated 2,500 young people are infected with HIV every day worldwide, and young women and adolescent girls are most at risk of contracting the disease because of biological and social factors, according to a report released on Wednesday by a group of international agencies, RTT News reports.

3 Jun 2011

Medicaid no longer paying for hospital mistakes

Left a sponge inside the patient? Transfused the wrong blood type? Don't look for the federal government to pay for fixing the mistake. Medicaid will no longer pay hospitals or doctors for certain preventable illnesses and injuries, such as operating on the wrong body part, the Health and Human Services Department said Wednesday.

3 Jun 2011

UC review finds rate of rtPA treatment for ischemic stroke in the U.S. doubled since 2005

In a review of nationwide hospital databases, University of Cincinnati (UC) emergency medicine and neurology researchers have found that the rate of treatment with the standard therapy for acute ischemic stroke patients has doubled since 2005.

3 Jun 2011

UNICEF appealing for $6M to continue water treatment in Zimbabwe

UNICEF on Wednesday said it needs $6 million to continue treating water in Zimbabwe, which does not have the funds to do it on its own, Deutsche Presse-Agentur/M&C reports.

3 Jun 2011

Health law gets mixed reception in Ohio federal appeals court

A panel of federal appellate judges heard oral arguments Wednesday regarding whether the Obama administration can — under the Constitution — require Americans to buy health insurance. A key issue for the judges to determine is whether the plaintiffs have legal standing to sue after one said she recently purchased coverage from her employer. The case was initially brought by the Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center.

3 Jun 2011

House Republicans use Ag spending bill to push back against certain health measures

The Republicans have used an agriculture appropriations bill to send several messages: They don't want the government to require school meals that are more nutritional but also more expensive, they don't want the government to prod food companies to restrain marketing to children, and they don't want the Food and Drug Administration to regulate any substance based on anything but "hard science".

3 Jun 2011

Media outlets examine case of man cured of HIV, leukemia through bone marrow transplant

In a special report, Reuters examines the case of Timothy Ray Brown, who was cured of HIV and leukemia after undergoing "a bone marrow transplant using cells from a donor with a rare genetic mutation, known as CCR5 delta 32," which researchers knew conveyed resistance to HIV infection.

3 Jun 2011

$White House budget meeting leads to Medicare fracas$

White House budget meeting leads to Medicare fracas

The White House meeting on Wednesday was expected to focus on the debt limit fight, but instead got caught up in the dispute over Medicare. Following the session, Representative Paul D. Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who is chairman of the Budget Committee, said he asked Mr. Obama to not engage in demagogy about the Republicans' Medicare plan, which was under fierce attack from Democrats as essentially being a voucher program for older Americans.

3 Jun 2011

HHS says Indiana cannot cut Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood

The Obama administration prohibited the State of Indiana on Wednesday from carrying out a new state law that cuts off money for Planned Parenthood clinics providing health care to low-income women on Medicaid. The state law penalized Planned Parenthood because some of its clinics also perform abortions.

3 Jun 2011

HHS Secretary joins St. Paul’s Regions Hospital to highlight Partnership for Patients

On Thursday, June 2, 2011, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will join hospital officials, doctors, patients, and other key health care advocates at Regions Hospital to highlight the Partnership for Patients.

3 Jun 2011