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BCBSF Foundation honors 5 Florida nonprofits at 2010 Sapphire Award ceremony

Today, five Florida nonprofits were honored for their dedication to improving the health of the state's uninsured and underserved populations at the Sapphire Award ceremony, presented annually by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida Foundation (BCBSF Foundation).

19 Feb 2011

Mardi Gras fundraiser event to bring better quality of life to homeless seniors

Seniors over the age of 55 are the largest and fastest growing segment of Arizona's homeless population. Already on the margins of society, senior citizens without homes are often overlooked and forgotten.

19 Feb 2011

PBMI awards CVS Caremark and ArcelorMittal the 2011 Rx Benefit Innovation Award

CVS Caremark announced today that the Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute (PBMI) awarded the company and its PBM client ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel company, the 2011 Rx Benefit Innovation Award. The award recognizes the Pharmacy Advisor program, which was developed by CVS Caremark to manage costs, improve medication adherence and close gaps in care for members with diabetes.

19 Feb 2011

Planned Parenthood funding sparks passionate debate on House floor

Almost unnoticed in the wars over the federal budget has been a pitched battle over money for Planned Parenthood, which provides contraception, medical services and abortions at 800 clinics around the country. ... At stake is more than $75 million that Planned Parenthood receives to provide family planning assistance to low-income women, money that its opponents say only frees up funds for abortions (Eckholm, 2/17).

19 Feb 2011

Former President Carter highlights gains in reducing spread of Guinea worm disease

"The global cases of Guinea worm disease have plunged to another new all-time low, former President Jimmy Carter said Thursday, bringing health workers closer to their goal of eradicating the disease," the Canadian Press reports.

19 Feb 2011

Kaiser Permanente receives No. 1 customer loyalty ranking in health insurance sector

Kaiser Permanente received the highest customer loyalty ranking in the health insurance sector, based on the Satmetrix 2011 Net Promoter® industry rankings. A new addition to this year's benchmarks, Kaiser Permanente received a Net Promoter Score, or NPS® of 28 percent, more than 30 points higher than the industry average of negative 5 percent.

19 Feb 2011

EMA grants Prima BioMed Scientific Advice for CVac ovarian cancer vaccine Phase III trial

Australian health care company Prima BioMed Ltd announced today that there has been an agreement for strategy and design of the Phase III clinical registration trial for the CVac™ immunotherapy therapeutic ovarian cancer vaccine.

19 Feb 2011

Opeds: Leavitt on HHS secretary's power; entitlements and fed budget; health threat of Wisc. 'showdown'

If I may, as a former HHS secretary, offer a suggestion to the current secretary, it would be this: Use these expanded discretionary powers to grant states and the private sector more flexibility and more autonomy.

19 Feb 2011

In 'largest-ever' bust, Medicare Fraud Task Force arrests 111

Los Angeles Times: Medicare Fraud Task Force Arrests 111 Doctors, Nurses And Executives In 'Largest-Ever' Federal Healthcare Sweep The federal government's Medicare Fraud Task Force brought criminal charges Thursday against doctors, nurses and healthcare company executives - in all, 111 people in nine cities - in what was billed as the nation's "largest-ever federal healthcare fraud takedown" (Serrano, 2/17).

19 Feb 2011

G20 finance ministers kick off meeting in Paris after groups call for food price issues to be addressed

"G20 ministers gather in Paris Friday to hammer out common criteria for measuring global economic imbalances at a two-day session that host France hopes will lead to an overhaul of world finance," Agence France-Presse reports.

19 Feb 2011

American Cancer Society receives AAHPM Presidential Citation Award for palliative care research

The American Cancer Society has been selected to receive a Presidential Citation Award from American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine recognizing the Society's commitment to support research to address quality of life issues and to promote patient-centered care.

19 Feb 2011

Justice Department asks judge for more clarity on health law decision

Administration officials went back to a federal judge in Florida Thursday to ask him to clarify an earlier ruling against the new health law.

19 Feb 2011

House to vote on FY11 budget bill, Senate likely to reject it

House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) said on Thursday that Republicans had reached an agreement with Democrats to reduce the the number of pending amendments to a bill that would fund the government through the end of the current fiscal year, CQ reports (Carter, 2/17). "A final vote on the 2011 budget measure may come as soon as today. It then would go to the Senate, where the Democratic majority is likely to reject the proposal, raising the prospect of a government shutdown," Bloomberg Businessweek reports (Faler, 2/18).

19 Feb 2011

AHF commends Congressman Hastings for securing additional $42M for AIDS Drug Assistance Programs

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) today commended United States Congressman Alcee Hastings (D, FL, 23rd District) for authoring, introducing and successfully shepherding a budget amendment to the current year's budget that secures crucial additional funding to address a growing crisis in the nation's AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAP), a network of federal and state funded programs that provide life-saving HIV treatments to low income, uninsured, and underinsured individuals living with HIV/AIDS nationwide.

19 Feb 2011

House Republicans begin work to defund health law

On Capitol Hill, government spending is the hot topic. House Republicans look to save money by defunding the new health law, and some members of the Senate are examining ways to cut entitlements.

19 Feb 2011

MFA finds health insurance companies across the U.S. alter vendor management policies

Mark Farrah Associates, a leading provider of market data and intelligence solutions, found health insurance companies across the U.S. are altering their vendor management policies.

19 Feb 2011

Research roundup: Racial disparities in hospital readmissions; evaluating home oxygen costs; Medicare funding hurdles

Thirty-Day Readmission Rates For Medicare Beneficiaries By Race And Site of Care - Using national Medicare data on 30-day readmissions after hospitalizations for heart attack, congestive heart failure and pneumonia, the authors report that "black patients had 13% higher odds of all-cause 30-day readmission than white patients.

19 Feb 2011

FirstHealth selects Bottomline's Inprotica workflow solution to streamline patient data collection

Bottomline Technologies today announced that FirstHealth of the Carolinas, located in Pinehurst, N.C., has selected Bottomline's interactive automation solution to streamline patient data collection and automate information flow between disparate systems.

19 Feb 2011

HHS approves Medicaid expansion for Minnesota

Gov. Mark Dayton's plan to expand the state's Medicaid rolls by 95,000 people has been approved by federal authorities, his office said Thursday. The move, which begins March 1, will provide health insurance to 12,000 low-income adults who previously were uninsured, and broader coverage at lower cost to another 83,000 who received care under two state-funded programs, MinnesotaCare and General Assistance Medical Care (2/17).

19 Feb 2011

State roundup: Mass. cost control plan advances; Texas Senate's abortion bill vote; Miami's public hospital crisis

The governor of Massachusetts proposed changes on Thursday to the state's comprehensive healthcare program, one often seen as a prototype for national reforms, to attempt to bring rising costs under control. The plan would give the U.S. state more authority to scrutinize fees paid to hospitals and doctors, reform the current standard by which healthcare providers are compensated and enact medical malpractice reform.

19 Feb 2011

Health Care News and Research

BCBSF Foundation honors 5 Florida nonprofits at 2010 Sapphire Award ceremony

Mardi Gras fundraiser event to bring better quality of life to homeless seniors

PBMI awards CVS Caremark and ArcelorMittal the 2011 Rx Benefit Innovation Award

Planned Parenthood funding sparks passionate debate on House floor

Former President Carter highlights gains in reducing spread of Guinea worm disease

Kaiser Permanente receives No. 1 customer loyalty ranking in health insurance sector

EMA grants Prima BioMed Scientific Advice for CVac ovarian cancer vaccine Phase III trial

Opeds: Leavitt on HHS secretary's power; entitlements and fed budget; health threat of Wisc. 'showdown'

In 'largest-ever' bust, Medicare Fraud Task Force arrests 111

G20 finance ministers kick off meeting in Paris after groups call for food price issues to be addressed

American Cancer Society receives AAHPM Presidential Citation Award for palliative care research

Justice Department asks judge for more clarity on health law decision

House to vote on FY11 budget bill, Senate likely to reject it

AHF commends Congressman Hastings for securing additional $42M for AIDS Drug Assistance Programs

House Republicans begin work to defund health law

MFA finds health insurance companies across the U.S. alter vendor management policies

Research roundup: Racial disparities in hospital readmissions; evaluating home oxygen costs; Medicare funding hurdles

FirstHealth selects Bottomline's Inprotica workflow solution to streamline patient data collection

HHS approves Medicaid expansion for Minnesota

State roundup: Mass. cost control plan advances; Texas Senate's abortion bill vote; Miami's public hospital crisis

Event guide: 3rd Measuring Patient Engagement Summit eBook

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

Expanding access to NMR with the Fourier 80 Duo

Advancing Intracellular Delivery with LumiPore®

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