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Texas Community Care announces debut of new office location in El Paso

Texas Community Care, a subsidiary of Arcadian Health, has just announced the debut of a new office location in El Paso, TX at the Sunland Park Mall located at 750 Sunland Park Drive, Space J2. The office location will give representatives the opportunity to have an even stronger presence in the community.

11 Oct 2010

Health care interests push to make ACOS pay off for them

Kaiser Health News staff writers Phil Galewitz and Jenny Gold write about increasing interest in the accountable care organizations that may come out of the new health overhaul.

11 Oct 2010

Pelosi issues statement on HHS announcement of $727 million in grants

Speaker Pelosi issued the following statement today after Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced $727 million in grants to community health centers across the nation, including more than $4 million to San Francisco's South of Market Health Center and $91.5 million for California, as part of the Affordable Care Act.

11 Oct 2010

NCQA recertifies Lilly's online Health Education Answers program

Lilly's Health Education Answers program, an interactive online health and wellness tool, has received Health Information Product Recertification from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).

11 Oct 2010

Prescription Solutions' MS DTM program wins URAC Best Practices Platinum Award

Prescription Solutions, a leading pharmacy benefits management (PBM) organization and a UnitedHealth Group company, received a platinum award in the URAC Best Practices in Health Care Consumer Empowerment and Protection Awards. Prescription Solutions was recognized for its Multiple Sclerosis Disease Therapy Management (MS DTM) program, which empowers patients through education and support to successfully attain skills in self-managing their symptoms and medication therapy for their chronic condition.

11 Oct 2010

The insurance straw man

In this Kaiser Health News column, James C. Capretta of the Ethics and Public Policy Center criticizes Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for some of her tough tactics with insurance companies.

11 Oct 2010

The Atlantic reports on potential challenges to passage of the International Violence Against Women Act

The Atlantic looks at the challenges facing the passage of I-VAWA (S.2982, HR. 4594), or the International Violence Against Women Act, which was recently delayed in Congress.

11 Oct 2010

The age wave could bust government budgets, rating agency says

The ratings agency Standard & Poor's has joined the chorus of concern about how the looming age wave will affect governments that must pay for escalating entitlement programs, The Wall Street Journal reports.

11 Oct 2010

Sec. of State Clinton, other officials launch initiative to provide mobile phones to 150M women in the developing world

Officials gathered in Washington, D.C. on Thursday to launch mWomen, an initiative aimed at increasing access to mobile phones to further health and development benefits among women in the developing countries, the Telegraph reports.

11 Oct 2010

NBM 200 system accurately measures hemoglobin level

OrSense Ltd., developer of monitors for non-invasive measurements of various blood parameters, presented today at the AABB Annual Meeting & CTTXPO 2010, in Baltimore, Maryland, results showing that hemoglobin (Hb) measurements obtained by its NBM 200, a non-invasive Hb measurement system for anemia screening, showed accurate performance compared with invasive point of care (POC) devices.

11 Oct 2010

First Edition: October 11, 2010

Today's early morning highlights include articles on new options for open season, concerns among retirees about the provisions of the federal health law and the latest campaign arguments over that new overhaul.

11 Oct 2010

CCHIT certifies Health Care Systems' eMR Version 4

Health Care Systems, Inc. (HCS) announced today that HCS eMR, Version 4, is 2011/2012 compliant and was certified as an EHR Module on 9/30/2010 by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT®), an ONC-ATCB, in accordance with the applicable HOSPITAL certification criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The 2011/2012 criteria support the Stage 1 meaningful use measures required to qualify eligible providers and hospitals for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

11 Oct 2010

Financing HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment could cost $400B-$700B over 20 years

A new report published by the Results for Development Institute in the Lancet "has offered governments and donors a glimpse into the future of HIV epidemics - and what it will cost to prevent and treat them. Researchers warn of hard choices ahead and a need for some countries to take more responsibility for their national programmes," IRIN/PlusNews reports. Study authors present their "cheapest" and "ideal" scenarios for HIV/AIDS funding in the future, according to IRIN/PlusNews.

11 Oct 2010

Health insurance: Coverage expands for children, young adults; not necessarily for retirees

Glenn Franco, a retired community-college instructor in Michigan, tried to get his 24-year-old daughter on his health plan—and was turned away. Many large employers are telling retirees the same thing.

11 Oct 2010

American Specialty Health named to fastest-growing company list on 2010 Inc. 5000

Health and wellness company American Specialty Health Incorporated (ASH) was recently named to Inc. magazine's fourth annual list of the 5,000 fastest growing privately-held companies in the United States for a second consecutive year. The list is a comprehensive look at one of the most important segments of the economy—America's independent-minded entrepreneurs—and serves as a unique illustration of the profound changes taking place in the U.S. economy.

11 Oct 2010

Asia Pacific Conference on Tobacco addresses developing country smoking

American Public Media's "Marketplace" reports on the Asia Pacific Conference on Tobacco or Health, where experts from 41 countries discussed how the tobacco industry has "been been targeting developing countries more and more" (10/7).

11 Oct 2010

Senate leaders eye temporary, one-month 'doc fix' for Medicare reimbursement

Congress Daily: "Senate leaders are eyeing a temporary, one-month patch for a looming Medicare physician pay cut, hoping to buy time to work out a longer-term fix despite pushing deadlines for a number of other provider reimbursement issues.

11 Oct 2010

Lifestyle interventions benefit overweight, obese and severely obese adults

Lifestyle interventions, including physical activity and structured weight loss programs, can result in significant weight loss for overweight, obese and severely obese adults, according to two reports that were posted online today by JAMA. The studies and accompanying editorials were made available early online to coincide with the presentation of these papers at the 28th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Obesity Society. The articles will appear in the October 27 print issue of JAMA.

11 Oct 2010

Charges and counter-charges on health law infiltrate political debates

CNN: "The two candidates vying for President Barack Obama's old Senate seat sat side-by-side and calmly accused each other of lying and other improprieties in a televised debate Sunday," on NBC's Meet the Press (Cohen, 10/10).

11 Oct 2010

Federal judge in Michigan rules health law constitutional

His decision rejected the "argument that Congress lacked the power to create the legislation's 'individual mandate,' which requires virtually all Americans to purchase health insurance," The Washington Post reports. "Other federal courts have already dismissed some challenges to the law on technical grounds — ruling, for instance, that the plaintiffs lacked standing.

11 Oct 2010