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Englewood Hospital and Medical Center earns HealthGrades Patient Safety Excellence Award

Englewood Hospital and Medical Center was identified as a recipient of the 2011 HealthGrades Patient Safety Excellence Award, indicating that its patient safety ratings are in the top 5% of U.S. hospitals.

18 Mar 2011

Opinions: TB funding; BBC World Service funding; direct cash transfer programs

"Prevention and control of tuberculosis on our globe is crumbling" and "[i]t needs fixing," retired pediatrician Elinor Graham writes in a Seattle Times opinion piece. She describes the burden of TB in developing countries and the costs associated with treatments, including those for drug-resistant forms of the disease.

18 Mar 2011

Scientists develop California's first detailed neighborhood database on cancer

Does living in a low-income, densely populated neighborhood such as San Francisco's Tenderloin district predispose you to a higher cancer risk than if you live in an upscale and suburban neighborhood such as San Diego's Rancho Santa Fe? Or vice versa? Scientists at the Cancer Prevention Institute of California now have the data that hold the answers.

18 Mar 2011

Blue Shield of California withdraws planned rate hike

Part of the reason for the decision may have been the result of political and public pressure, but an unexpected development may have made the retreat easier for the company to accept — it's paying out less than expected for claims.

18 Mar 2011

At the one-year mark, implications of health law emerge

Media outlets report on a range of issues related to implementation of the health law and its one-year anniversary — among them, the unexpected importance taken on by waivers, the marketplace impact on health insurance brokers, the geography of the health care workforce issues likely to result from coverage expansions and the continuing problems faced by lawmakers who are trying to repeal the measure's 1099 reporting provision.

18 Mar 2011

ACP: Increase in internal medicine enrollment can ease primary care workforce shortage

The increase in the number of U.S. medical students choosing internal medicine residencies in 2011 is a positive sign toward easing the primary care workforce shortage, according to the American College of Physicians, the nation's second-largest doctors group.

18 Mar 2011

Viewpoints: Houston's 'painful' E.R. decision; Arizona's 'war' on kids' health care; protecting elders from abuse

Women are the majority of public-sector employees at the state and local levels and have already lost 320,000 public-sector jobs in the past two years. In addition, the GOP majority is attempting to defund Title X services, which have connected millions of American women to health care since 1970.

18 Mar 2011

MeadWestvaco's Mebane packaging plant earns FSC Chain of Custody certification

MeadWestvaco Corp. announced today that its Mebane, N.C. packaging plant received Forest Stewardship Council Chain of Custody certification in February 2011.

18 Mar 2011

What about medical mistakes?

Are California hospitals reporting medical mistakes and infections accurately — or at all?

18 Mar 2011

ANCI signs agreement with Annapolis for healthcare solution

American CareSource Holdings, Inc., the nation's leading ancillary health care network services company, announced today that it has signed and implemented an agreement with Annapolis, Maryland-based Self Funding Administrators Corporation, a third party administrator representing an additional 30,000 covered lives.

18 Mar 2011

Pentagon health care proposal: Vets pay more

In the battle on Capitol Hill over federal spending cuts, one targeted group poses a particular quandary for Republicans and Democrats alike: working-age military veterans.

18 Mar 2011

Humana offers new long-term care insurance plan

Humana Inc. today announced it has begun piloting a new long-term care insurance offering that provides an affordable alternative to traditional long-term care coverage.

18 Mar 2011

ACAP selects ArpegioHealth as vendor for business strategy services

National management consulting firm ArpegioHealth announced today it has been selected by the Association for Community Affiliated Plans as a preferred vendor for business strategy.

18 Mar 2011

Roundup: Cuts in Calif. programs; Ga. seeks federal MLR waiver; N.J. lawmakers try to restore some health funding

State lawmakers Wednesday approved billions of dollars in cuts to welfare, medical programs for the poor and in-home care for the elderly and frail, among other services, moving forward key pieces of Gov. Jerry Brown's budget reduction package.

18 Mar 2011

Brand name drug prices go up

Even as government and private health plans push to restrain spending on medicines, the prices of brand name prescriptions are climbing rapidly, reaching the steepest rate of the decade last year.

18 Mar 2011

Wash your hands? You may now approach the patient bed!

Each year patients in the U.S. get more than a million infections while in the hospital being treated for something else. The best way to prevent infection is to practice proper hand hygiene, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

17 Mar 2011

Home care and hospice nurses, aides and providers march on Washington to ensure the right of every American to be cared for in their home

Hundreds of home care and hospice providers will arrive in that nation’s capitol to keep the fight alive for the critical, high-value, high-quality care that is delivered every day to some of the nation’s most vulnerable individuals.

17 Mar 2011

St. John Providence Health System selects Intuit Health Patient Portal

St. John Providence Health System, a 3,200 provider health system serving the Metro Detroit area, has selected Intuit Health, the nation's leader in patient-to-provider communication solutions, to provide its physician practices with a patient portal. With the Intuit Health Patient Portal, employed and private practices can now connect with data from multiple electronic health record and practice management systems to offer patients a single view of data for their personal health record.

17 Mar 2011

First Edition: March 17, 2011

Today's headlines include reports about a new GAO report showing success in health insurer appeals and a decision by Blue Shield of California to retreat from proposed rate increases.

17 Mar 2011

MedPAC recommends patients help pay home health care costs

The advisory panel also urged that payments for physicians and hospitals be increased and that the home health care payment formula be reworked. In related news, a Ways & Means subcommittee hearing on Medicare payment issues quickly turned into an exploration of a GOP proposal to replace the program's current structure with a voucher system.

17 Mar 2011