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GOP lawmaker calls government funding bill a 'trojan horse' for health reform

Politics continue to swirl around health overhaul and deficit reduction issues. A new Bloomberg poll, for instance, indicates that the public wants the deficit addressed, but still wants Congress to stay away from Medicare, Medicaid and other entitlement programs. Meanwhile, a GOP senator targets the catch-all spending bill to fund the government as a "trojan horse" to fund the health overhaul. Off the hill, groups are paying particular attention to the words used in discussing health policy issues.

10 Dec 2010

Deals, expansions and ACOs mark hospital sector activity

Hospitals and health systems are the subject of proposed deals and acquisitions. Meanwhile, the concept of accountable care organizations continues to trigger interest and curiosity within the health care sector.

10 Dec 2010

OpEds: Palin on the Ryan Roadmap, Seniors and primary care docs, Arizona transplant controversy

[The president's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform's report] implicitly endorses the use of 'death panel'-like rationing by way of the new Independent Payments Advisory Board—making bureaucrats, not medical professionals, the ultimate arbiters of what types of treatment will (and especially will not) be reimbursed under Medicare.

10 Dec 2010

Stroke falls from third to fourth leading cause of death

A new report, "Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2008," released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), says that for the first time in 50 years, stroke has fallen from the third to the fourth leading cause of death.

10 Dec 2010

AARP Pennsylvania thanks House for passage of bill stopping payment cut to doctors in Medicare

AARP Pennsylvania State Director Dick Chevrefils released a statement following today's passage of the Medicare and Medicaid Extenders Act of 2010 by the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill stops a scheduled payment cut to doctors in Medicare, ensuring seniors can continue to see their physicians for the next year.

10 Dec 2010

Pfizer withdraws Thelin for treatment of PAH, discontinues global clinical studies

Pfizer Inc. announced today that, in the interest of patient safety, it is voluntarily withdrawing Thelin® (sitaxentan) for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in regions where it is approved (the European Union, Canada and Australia). In addition, Pfizer is discontinuing clinical studies of Thelin worldwide.

10 Dec 2010

AMA welcomes House passage of legislation to stop Medicare physician payment cut for one year

"The AMA welcomes bipartisan House passage of legislation to stop the Medicare physician payment cut for one year. Stopping the steep 25 percent Medicare cut for one year was vital to preserve seniors' access to physician care in 2011. Many physicians made clear that this year's roller coaster ride, caused by five delays of this year's cut, forced them to make difficult practice changes like limiting the number of Medicare patients they could treat.

10 Dec 2010

Tru-D UV-C device effective in reducing pathogens on all environmental surfaces in hospital patient rooms

Results of an eight-month hospital study, "Room Decontamination with UV Radiation," were published in the October 2010 issue of "Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology." The study evaluated the ability of an automated UV device, Tru-D, to decontaminate patient rooms contaminated with MRSA, VRE, C. difficile and a MDR strain of Acinetobacter baumannii.

10 Dec 2010

First Edition: December 10, 2010

In today's health policy headlines, reports about the Obama administration lawyer charged with defending the health law as well as the latest action in this lame duck Congress.

10 Dec 2010

Epigenetic-molecular targeted therapy combination holds promise against advanced lung cancer

A new study shows that a combination of epigenetic therapy and molecular targeted therapy has promising results at combating advanced lung cancer according to research presented at the 2010 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology. This symposium is co-sponsored by the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (ISLAC) and The University of Chicago.

10 Dec 2010

Alliance of Specialty Medicine calls for new, permanent Medicare reimbursement formula

The Alliance of Specialty Medicine (Alliance) today called on Congress to permanently fix Medicare's Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) after lawmakers once again passed a temporary fix, thereby postponing unprecedented reimbursement cuts to Medicare doctors until 2012.

10 Dec 2010

Access problems for psychiatric patients to Medicaid medication leads to increased hospital, emergency care

Too often, mental health patients have problems accessing or paying for their prescription drugs under Medicaid. The results — longer hospital stays and more emergency room visits — are hard on patients and costly for the entire health care system, a new study finds.

10 Dec 2010

Incoming House Foreign Affairs Committee chair outlines views on U.S. foreign policy; House passes FY 2011 funding act

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) "moved rapidly Wednesday to put her mark on U.S. foreign policy as the incoming chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee," McClatchy reports (Clark, 12/8).

10 Dec 2010

WFP, UNAIDS work to improve nutritional support available for people living with HIV/AIDS

The World Program Program (WFP), with the support of UNAIDS, is planning to launch "a new policy to make food and nutritional support more available to people living with HIV," VOA News reports. The agency "says the aim of [the] program is to help patients stick to their treatment, while protecting their households from further vulnerability," the news service adds.

10 Dec 2010

Three-day meeting on eliminating river blindness kicks off in Nigeria

A three-day meeting of the WHO African Program for Onchocerciasis (River blindness) Control (WHO/APOC) opened in Abuja, Nigeria, on Tuesday, PANA/Afrique en ligne reports (12/8).

10 Dec 2010

New 5-minute Memory Orientation Screening Test to identify elderly patients with dementia

A new 5-minute test to identify elderly patients with dementia promises to give doctors a more sensitive tool to use in the Annual Wellness Examination. The Memory Orientation Screening Test (MOST™) developed by Mitchell Clionsky, Ph.D., a neuropsychologist, and Emilymarie Clionsky, MD, an internist/psychiatrist, is based on their clinical experience with thousands of patients who suffer from Alzheimer's Disease and other dementias, which now afflicts more than 5 million Americans.

10 Dec 2010

Presidential commission pushes feds to 'facilitate' more health IT

A report by a presidential advisory panel urges the federal government to be more aggressive in facilitating the adoption of universal standards for sharing electronic health information and maintaining patient privacy.

10 Dec 2010

Insurers develop new products, brace for overhaul's impact

News outlets report that insurers and brokers are devising strategies to respond to the new health law.

10 Dec 2010

State roundup: Facing budget 'cliff'; Medicaid woes; Arizona transplant program; Another Florida health vote?

U.S. states are preparing for more budget cuts next year as tax revenue isn't likely to rebound enough to replace almost $38 billion in aid that will be gone as federal economic stimulus ends, according to a report. At least 31 states and Puerto Rico are forecasting deficits of $82.1 billion in the next fiscal year even as tax receipts are picking up, the National Conference of State Legislatures said today.

10 Dec 2010

Opinions: Questioning WHO's relevance; Reforming foreign aid; Efforts to prevent child marriage

"The WHO - for 62 years the world's go-to agency on all public health matters - is today outmoded, underfunded, and overly politicized," Jack Chow, former assistant director-general on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria at WHO, writes in a Foreign Policy Argument where he outlines some of the major issues facing the WHO, including personnel challenges, the agency's "archaic" governance system and a "new atmosphere, where [other] organizations are taking health into their own hands."

10 Dec 2010

Health Care News and Research

GOP lawmaker calls government funding bill a 'trojan horse' for health reform

Deals, expansions and ACOs mark hospital sector activity

OpEds: Palin on the Ryan Roadmap, Seniors and primary care docs, Arizona transplant controversy

Stroke falls from third to fourth leading cause of death

AARP Pennsylvania thanks House for passage of bill stopping payment cut to doctors in Medicare

Pfizer withdraws Thelin for treatment of PAH, discontinues global clinical studies

AMA welcomes House passage of legislation to stop Medicare physician payment cut for one year

Tru-D UV-C device effective in reducing pathogens on all environmental surfaces in hospital patient rooms

First Edition: December 10, 2010

Epigenetic-molecular targeted therapy combination holds promise against advanced lung cancer

Alliance of Specialty Medicine calls for new, permanent Medicare reimbursement formula

Access problems for psychiatric patients to Medicaid medication leads to increased hospital, emergency care

Incoming House Foreign Affairs Committee chair outlines views on U.S. foreign policy; House passes FY 2011 funding act

WFP, UNAIDS work to improve nutritional support available for people living with HIV/AIDS

Three-day meeting on eliminating river blindness kicks off in Nigeria

New 5-minute Memory Orientation Screening Test to identify elderly patients with dementia

Presidential commission pushes feds to 'facilitate' more health IT

Insurers develop new products, brace for overhaul's impact

State roundup: Facing budget 'cliff'; Medicaid woes; Arizona transplant program; Another Florida health vote?

Opinions: Questioning WHO's relevance; Reforming foreign aid; Efforts to prevent child marriage

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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