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Research to improve prognosis for patients with dementia and Alzheimer's disease

Research on preventing the devastating onset of dementia is about to break new ground as McGill University, in partnership with Pfizer Canada, has announced today the creation of a professorship for the prevention of dementia and Alzheimer's-related diseases.

8 Dec 2010

Reduced salt intake prevents serious threats in diabetic patients

For patients living with diabetes, reducing the amount of salt in their daily diet is key to warding off serious threats to their health, a new review of studies finds.

8 Dec 2010

New Health Affairs study reexamines cost issues related to care in McAllen and El Paso

"Did McAllen get a bum rap? McAllen, Texas, spends more on Medicare patients than almost any other part of the country. A June 2009 New Yorker article by Atul Gawande attributed the high spending to a culture of doctors that 'came to treat patients the way sub-prime mortgage lenders treated home buyers: as profit centers.' The article became required reading in the White House and Congress during the health care debate and turned McAllen into shorthand for America's decadent medical spending problem."

8 Dec 2010

Issues in health delivery: Hospital-spread infections; Finger-prick blood tests for diabetes; Medicare spent millions on unnecessary stents

News outlets report on a variety of issues and developments related to quality of care and health delivery systems.

8 Dec 2010

HHS reaches out to defiant states for health law support

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is personally contacting incoming governors — many of whom are Republicans who campaigned against the health law — to try to build relationships that could prove critical to the law's implementation.

8 Dec 2010

Test vote on health bill for Ground Zero workers expected today

The Wall Street Journal: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., "is trying to find one additional Republican senator to vote for a $7.4 billion" health care bill for Ground Zero workers. The bill would "re-open a victim-compensation fund and provide 10 years of health tracking and treatment for those who have become sick from exposure to the toxic dust and debris of the World Trade Center site. A test vote on the bill is expected Wednesday" (Barrett, 12/6).

8 Dec 2010

N.Y. charges 33 with selling prescriptions to dealers

The Associated Press: Thirty-three people have been charged in Buffalo, N.Y., "in a large-scale investigation that has opened a window into an emerging class of suppliers in the illicit drug trade: medical patients, including many who rely on the publicly funded Medicaid program to pay for their appointments and prescriptions" who sell their prescription drugs.

8 Dec 2010

Conn. addresses insurance rates, Mass. physician groups evaluate controversial payment plan

"House and Senate leaders are eyeing passage of a second midyear spending bill before the start of the next legislative session to address more caseload-driven accounts that are running short on funds five months after Gov. Deval Patrick signed the fiscal 2011 budget. The deficiencies, which follow inaccurate enrollment estimates for MassHealth and other social service programs, threaten to eat into some the revenue surpluses the state has amassed over the first half of fiscal 2011, when tax receipts have exceeded projections" (Murphy, 12/7).

8 Dec 2010

Texas health officials confronting Medicaid costs

"The biggest culprit in Texas' growing debate over escalating Medicaid costs" is "[a] mathematical formula that calculates how much the federal government pays and what's left over for the state," Kaiser Health News, in collaboration with The Texas Tribune, reports. "Already facing a record budget shortfall, Texas' Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) will drop more than 2 percentage points in late 2011, equivalent to a $1.2 billion hit."

8 Dec 2010

Some in health industry raising concerns about Accountable Care Organizations

CQ HealthBeat: "The medical device industry told the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that it's concerned about whether accountable care organizations could give providers financial incentives to hold back on needed patient care, particularly on technology. Meanwhile, insurance plan executives warned CMS officials that the ACOs could give hospitals and doctors new bargaining leverage in negotiations with insurers.

8 Dec 2010

Military health costs skyrocket

CNNMoney: "The cost of health care is blowing the top off the Pentagon's budget. Mirroring the private sector trend, expenses have skyrocketed within the military's health system. The military spent $19 billion on health care in 2001 — and $49 billion in 2010. The Department of Defense forecasts a continued rise of 5% to 7% a year.

8 Dec 2010

Company reaches $28 million settlement for Medicare program

The Tennesseean: "Healthways Inc. will return $28 million to Medicare's overseer under a settlement related to the company's participation in a pilot program to determine the effectiveness of its nurse-based health coaching for chronically ill seniors." The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had paid the company $72 million for the pilot program, which ended two years ago, under the condition that it meet "specific targets for cost savings, health outcomes and patient satisfaction."

7 Dec 2010

Deal for year-long doc fix in the works

Politico: Senators reached a tentative deal Monday that would tap health law funds to avert a scheduled pay cut for physicians. The deal would take back about $19.2 billion in health law subsidies to help people buy health insurance beginning in 2014. It "would change how much money consumers would have to repay if their income status changes mid-year, pushing them out of the eligibility bracket.

7 Dec 2010

Cognitively-impaired human research subjects need better protection

Practices for protecting human research subjects with Alzheimer’s disease and other conditions that make them incapable of giving informed consent are widely variable and in need of more concrete ethical and legal guidance, according to a study in IRB: Ethics & Human Research.

7 Dec 2010

Aetna announces agreement to acquire Medicity

Aetna today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Medicity, a health information exchange technology company, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.

7 Dec 2010

Mental Health Research Network receives grant to create data resource for mental health researchers

Ask anyone: There must be better ways to treat mental health problems. Treatment hinges on research. But traditional research is slow-and so expensive that it can't even ask many pressing questions in mental health. And findings from academic settings may not apply to patients or clinicians in the real world of health care.

7 Dec 2010

First Edition: December 7, 2010

In today's headlines, Senate leaders appear to be nearing a one-year deal on Medicare's physician pay problem.

7 Dec 2010

Interference with biofilm detachment mechanisms may prevent biofilm-associated infections

Patients in hospitals and healthcare facilities can develop infections as a result of contamination of indwelling medical devices such as catheters with bacteria that are normal inhabitants of the skin of the patient or health care personnel. The bacterium Staphylococcus epidermidis is a major cause of such infections.

7 Dec 2010

32% of UAE residents could have diabetes or prediabetes by 2020

One in three United Arab Emirates (UAE) residents could have diabetes or prediabetes by the end of the decade, according to a new analysis from international health and well-being company UnitedHealth Group, released today at the World Health Care Congress Middle East meeting in Abu Dhabi.

7 Dec 2010