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State roundup: Medicaid costs slow states' recovery

Like a bad hangover that won't go away, some states are still suffering from the effects of the recession that technically ended three and half years ago. … Some states, including Iowa, Indiana and Tennessee, started the new session with surpluses, but none are planning to embark on new spending.

1 Mar 2013

Viewpoints: Michelle Obama makes a business case for healthy food; Orszag weighs reforms to Medical malpractice

For years, America's childhood obesity crisis was viewed as an insurmountable problem, one that was too complicated and too entrenched to ever really solve. According to the conventional wisdom, healthy food simply didn't sell - the demand wasn't there and higher profits were found elsewhere - so it just wasn't worth the investment. But thanks to businesses across the country, today we are proving the conventional wisdom wrong.

28 Feb 2013

Breakthrough study aims at developing first comprehensive model of fetal heart

Technology developed at The University of Nottingham has been used in a breakthrough study aimed at developing the first comprehensive model of a fully functioning fetal heart.

26 Feb 2013

States continue mulling Medicaid expansion's costs and benefits

After conducting a review of the two choices California officials are considering for optional Medi-Cal expansion, the state Legislative Analyst's Office yesterday strongly recommended the state-based option, rather than a county-based plan.

21 Feb 2013

Intravitreal ranibizumab shows little benefit after hemorrhage

Ranibizumab given intravitreally offers no clear benefit in the treatment of vitreous hemorrhage due to proliferative diabetic retinopathy, a randomized clinical trial indicates.

8 Feb 2013

USANA Health Sciences’ fourth quarter net sales increase 15.5% to $168.5 million

USANA Health Sciences, Inc. today announced record financial results for its fiscal fourth quarter and full-year ended December 29, 2012.

6 Feb 2013

State officials, policy experts mull health law implementation issues

The Medicaid expansion continues to trigger significant debate and discussion among state officials.

5 Feb 2013

State leaders seeking cash, legislation to improve mental health care

Minnesota, Florida, Illinois are directing money to provide more mental health care as Massachusetts is taking another look at background checks for gun sales.

29 Jan 2013

Senate hearing urges action on Obama mental health care agenda

Democrats and Republicans expressed concerns about gaps in the system at the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

28 Jan 2013

Roundup: Lessons from Mass. health reform; Berwick moves closer to gov. bid; Jindal reverses Medicaid hospice cut

When Massachusetts adopted its landmark health care law in 2006, the goals were ambitious and the potential solutions complex. ... What are they getting in return?

25 Jan 2013

Neurolysis combats hip replacement sciatic nerve pain

Preliminary research suggests that neurolysis can significantly reduce neuropathic pain in patients who develop sciatic nerve palsy after total hip replacement.

14 Jan 2013

Liberal Dems line up against raising Medicare's eligibility age

Proposals to raise the eligibility age continue to get traction in the fiscal negotiations between the White House and Congress. But liberal Democrats oppose it and express concern that President Barack Obama has not ruled out.

14 Dec 2012

Roundup: Mass. a template for controlling health care costs?; Fewer than expected use Minn. health care vouchers; Blue Shield in Calif.'s proposed rate hikes

This simple shift in how health care is paid for -- long seen as key to taming costs -- has been occurring in pockets of the country. But nowhere is it happening more systematically than in Massachusetts, the state that blazed a trail in 2006 by guaranteeing its residents health insurance. Now Massachusetts, a model for President Obama's 2010 national health care law, may offer another template for national leaders looking to control health spending.

13 Dec 2012

Fiscal crisis, thoughts of sequestration cause provider angst

If the "fiscal cliff's" scheduled cuts take effect, physicians will face a 2 percent reduction in Medicare reimbursements. Separately, however, they also are confronting a 27 percent pay cut as a result of the failure to fix the Medicare physician payment formula.

1 Dec 2012

USAID launches '16 Days of Activism' for Elimination of Gender Violence

"This week we launch the 16 Days of Activism for the Elimination of Gender Violence, which runs from November 25 to December 10," Carla Koppell, senior coordinator for gender equality and women's empowerment at USAID, writes in the agency's "IMPACTblog."

28 Nov 2012

Federal judge grants temporary injunction in Bible publisher's contraception rule challenge

In separate action, another judge ruled against Hobby Lobby's effort to be exempted from the contraception mandate.

21 Nov 2012

Republicans consider old, new ways to hinder health law implementation

Some Republicans and religious leaders are following through with challenges to the law's contraception coverage mandate, looking for ways to repeal a Medicare cost-cutting board and trying further to delay implementation.

9 Nov 2012

Exercise not superior to physiotherapy for neck pain

Both exercise-based interventions and physiotherapy are effective for reducing pain in patients with nonspecific neck pain, UK researchers have found, but adherence to such treatments remains a challenge.

6 Nov 2012

New anterior approach in hip-replacement surgery results in less pain, faster recovery

The morning after undergoing a total hip replacement, Sean Toohey walked up half a flight of stairs at the hospital. That afternoon, he progressed from a walker to crutches to a cane. And 15 days after his surgery, he returned to work, no longer hobbled by a severely arthritic hip that had been bone-on-bone.

6 Nov 2012

House Republicans appear to have thwarted Democratic attack on Medicare

Attacking Paul Ryan's Medicare plan - once seen as the most potent weapon in House Democrats' campaign arsenal - is turning out to be a dud. Democratic leaders have hit Medicare harder than any other issue for more than a year, even calling Ryan's plan a "majority-maker."

4 Nov 2012