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Highlights: Va. mental health care task force; pharmacist duties in N.C.; nurse practitioners in Conn.

A selection of health policy stories from Virginia, North Carolina, New York, Connecticut, Minnesota, Florida, Iowa and Oregon.

11 Apr 2014

Longer looks: Vermont's single payer system; Nevada's cancer cluster; the toll of dementia on a family

Skatchewan is a vast prairie province in the middle of Canada. It's home to hockey great Gordie Howe and the world's first curling museum. But Canadians know it for another reason: it's the birthplace of the country's single-payer health-care system.

11 Apr 2014

Viewpoints: Medicare's 'doctor payment problem'; a 'wasted advantage'; 'puzzling' Rand numbers

The news that a small percentage of the country's physicians collected billions of dollars from Medicare in a single year may or may not be a testament to individual greed; some of the top recipients are under investigation for allegedly bilking the system, while others work long hours delivering costly care.

11 Apr 2014

Sebelius resigning, OMB director Burwell tapped to head HHS

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is resigning from the Obama administration after the rocky rollout of President Barack Obama's signature health care law, a White House official said Thursday.

11 Apr 2014

Oregon, Minnesota exchanges weigh next steps

Officials overseeing the troubled exchanges examine what went wrong this year and debate how to proceed. Meanwhile, a small business exchange in Georgia gets few enrollees and The Denver Post reports that more residents signed up for Medicaid than for private insurance.

11 Apr 2014

Study looks at factors that influence life expectancy of childhood cancer survivors

Many factors influence the life expectancy of childhood cancer survivors: not getting enough exercise, being underweight, and being worried about their future health or their health insurance. These are the findings of research led by Cheryl Cox of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in the US, published in Springer's Journal of Cancer Survivorship. The study found that, on average, childhood cancer survivors passed away before they were 40 years old.

11 Apr 2014

HTMS introduces algorithm-based analytics model, Alfred

HTMS, an Emdeon company, is pleased to introduce Alfred™. Alfred is an algorithm-based analytics model that can help all types of healthcare stakeholders calculate health plan rates and federal subsidies through its comparison and advisory capabilities and is both easy to use and understand.

10 Apr 2014

First Edition: April 10, 2014

Today's headlines include a range of stories taking additional looks at the Medicare physician payment data released yesterday by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

10 Apr 2014

Affordable Care Act may alter costs for Automobile and liability insurance

The expansion of health insurance accomplished under the Affordable Care Act may alter costs for several major types of liability insurance, although any such changes are likely to be modest, according to a new RAND Corporation report.

10 Apr 2014

Health law: Attack ad fuel for midterms

The Wall Street Journal reports on three ads that focus on health care with roots in the 2008 presidential election, while the Koch brothers have launched health law ads against Democratic senators they deem vulnerable. And many health law critics have accepted the law's subsidies.

10 Apr 2014

Viewpoints: Sebelius' questionable arithmetic; Rand finds 9.3 million gained insurance; new numbers on your doctor

In setting the 2015 calendar parameters for health plans and employers, Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, quietly did some creative but questionable arithmetic that forced taxpayers to give still more help to businesses and people who buy health insurance (Casey B. Mulligan, 4/9).

10 Apr 2014

Va. Senate sends budget with Medicaid expansion to House

A key Republican leader says, however, that the House will not take up that measure. In Georgia, protesters resume demands for Medicaid expansion, and Sen. Mary Landrieu encourages lawmakers in Louisiana to move forward on the effort there.

10 Apr 2014

Maryland A.G. urges probe of state health exchange

Douglas Gansler, also a Democratic candidate for governor, called on Gov. Martin O'Malley to launch an independent probe of problems and management issues that related to the state's online insurance marketplace.

10 Apr 2014

Portrait of newly insured takes shape

Early enrollees in the health law's marketplaces were more likely to use expensive specialty drugs and less likely to use contraceptives, according to an analysis of two months of drug claims data by Express Scripts. A Rand analysis, meanwhile, argues that most of the newly insured signed up with an employer rather than buying it through the marketplaces.

10 Apr 2014

Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plans continue to grow

Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plans (SNPs) continue to grow according to Mark Farrah Associates', www.markfarrah.com, latest Business Strategy report.

9 Apr 2014

Bay Area Medical Center renews contract for Zix Email Encryption in a three-year agreement

Zix Corporation (ZixCorp), a leader in email data protection, announced that Bay Area Medical Center has renewed its contract for ZixTM Email Encryption in a three-year agreement.

9 Apr 2014

First Edition: April 9, 2014

Today's headlines include coverage of the release of Medicare billing and utilization data, as well as early insights into who enrolled in health coverage as a result of the health law.

9 Apr 2014

Viewpoints: A 'misguided' debate; trying to figure out who's uninsured; the safety net for the middle class

Supporters of Obamacare are celebrating that the law is not an unmitigated disaster, just a mitigated one. As enrollment closed (for most) on March 31, the system passed 7 million exchange sign-ups.

9 Apr 2014

UCSF launches Brain Health Registry to advance neuroscience research

A new online project led by researchers at UC San Francisco promises to dramatically cut the time and cost of conducting clinical trials for brain diseases, while also helping scientists analyze and track the brain functions of thousands of volunteers over time.

9 Apr 2014

Majority of Medicaid sign-ups centered in 10 states

An analysis from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services found that 80 percent of the 3 million people who enrolled in Medicaid since Oct. 1 were located in 10 states. Also in the news, specific enrollment tallies from Michigan and the latest on Virginia's legislative stalemate over the expansion.

9 Apr 2014