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KHN's weekend update: Highlights from the Saturday and Sunday headlines

Kaiser Health News tracked a variety of stories over the weekend regarding the new federal health law and getting health coverage, including reports that Congress is poised to weigh changes in the health law's business purchase requirements and more coverage of young adults lacking health coverage Coverage (8/29). Read Saturday's and Sunday's news summaries.

30 Aug 2010

BayCare Behavioral Health announces opening of Morton Plant North Bay Hospital Recovery Center in Lutz

As part of its continued commitment to meet the mental health needs of the Tampa Bay community, BayCare Behavioral Health has opened the Morton Plant North Bay Hospital Recovery Center in Lutz.

30 Aug 2010

KHN column: As reform improves the overall market, inefficient insurers could take hits

In his latest Kaiser Health News column, done in collaboration with The New Republic, Jonathan Cohn writes about how the insurance market will change as a result of the health overhaul.

30 Aug 2010

Today's Opinions and Editorials: The costs of public employees' health benefits, more on Medicare Advantage, and will reform undermine medical innovation?

We want to spend just a little less, so that we have more money for other purposes. And we want to spend just a little differently, so that we're getting a higher quality, more humane health care system (Jonathan Cohn, 8/30).

30 Aug 2010

Some small businesses look forward to health care tax credits

Word of new tax credits for some small businesses continued to make the rounds in news reports this weekend, as business owners seek to make sense of it details.

30 Aug 2010

Canada hosts 13th World Congress On Pain

The Canadian Pain Society (CPS) eagerly welcomes leading pain experts from across Canada and around the globe to the 13th World Congress on Pain in Montreal, Quebec, from August 29 to September 2. Hosted by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), more than 6,000 pain professionals will gather to share their thoughts, research and best treatment practices concerning this throbbing public health issue.

30 Aug 2010

Health IT: New Medicaid rules, a race for meaningful use, fraud prevention

Instructions for state Medicaid directors to distribute some of the funding for electronic medical records through their programs beginning next year have been circulated by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, American Medical News reports. "The incentive program stipulates that the federal government will pay the full cost of Medicaid bonuses to eligible physicians who adopt certified EMR technology in a way that meets the government's 'meaningful use' criteria.

30 Aug 2010

AMA supports recommended medical loss ratio rules

The American Medical Association and state medical societies are supporting a proposal by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners on what expenditures insurers can consider medical spending under the new health law.

30 Aug 2010

HealthInfoNet partners with HLI to implement HIE statewide

HealthInfoNet, the nonprofit organization managing the Health Information Exchange for the State of Maine, today announced that it is partnering with Health Language, Inc., the global leader in medical terminology management, as it transitions from a two-year demonstration project to a full statewide HIE implementation. Health Language will support the Maine HIE's clinical content integration strategy during this expansion.

30 Aug 2010

SearchAmerica announces launch of Data Breach Advance Response for hospitals

SearchAmerica®, a part of Experian® and a leader in financial clearing services for health care, today launched its newest service offering for hospitals, Data Breach Advance Response™. The new service helps hospitals by providing a data breach preparedness plan so they can respond quickly and efficiently should a breach occur.

30 Aug 2010

TDWI recognizes CRI as 2010 Best Practices Award Winner

QlikTech today announced that its customer, Centerstone Research Institute, has been recognized as a 2010 Best Practices Award Winner by The Data Warehousing Institute.

30 Aug 2010

MedCath to sell interest in Avera Heart Hospital of South Dakota to Avera McKennan

MedCath Corporation announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its subsidiary which is the indirect owner of a one-third ownership interest and management rights in Avera Heart Hospital of South Dakota to Avera McKennan. The transaction is expected to close in 45 to 90 days, subject to certain closing conditions.

30 Aug 2010

First Edition: August 30, 2010

Today's headlines include reports about the market challenges public hospitals are facing as well as the record number of Americans now receiving government assistance such as Medicaid.

30 Aug 2010

Toshiba announces 1,000th worldwide MR installation

Diagnostic imaging leader Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. has installed its 1,000th MR system worldwide. Kosair Children's Medical Center - Brownsboro, the only pediatric outpatient facility of its type in Kentucky, is the site of Toshiba's milestone installation. The new facility, dedicated to the care of children, is located in the eastern suburbs of Louisville, Ky., and is the newest addition to Kosair Children's Hospital and the Norton Healthcare Network.

30 Aug 2010

Latest achievements in brain research and treatment for mental disorders

Mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety disorders, addiction and schizophrenia are the core challenge of most health care systems around the world. In the EU alone, each year 27% of the total adult population - this corresponds to 83 Million citizens - suffer from mental disorders. Depression alone affects almost 20 million ranking in the EU as the most disabling disorder of all diseases.

30 Aug 2010

Ontario nurses look forward to work with Dr. Jeff Turnbull

Registered nurses in Ontario are eager to work with Dr. Jeff Turnbull, the new president of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), to strengthen our publicly-funded and not-for profit health-care system by improving access, and making it more patient-centred and cost-efficient.

30 Aug 2010

Health care-associated infections increase length of hospital stays

Adults who developed health care-associated infections (HAIs) due to medical or surgical care while in the hospital in 2007 had to stay an average of 19 days longer than adults who didn't develop an infection, (24 days versus 5 days), according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

30 Aug 2010

US Oncology engages Milliman to develop physician-payer risk contracting model

Innovent Oncology, a subsidiary of US Oncology, has engaged Milliman, a premier global, actuarial and consulting firm, to help develop models in which physician-led oncology organizations can contract around risk, with the intent of negotiating with payers in the first half of 2011.

30 Aug 2010

Malawi's President threatens to close newspapers, expel donors in response to reports of food shortages

Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika threatened to chase donors away from the southern African nation on Thursday and close newspapers for reporting that more than one million people are in need of food aid,Reuters reports.

30 Aug 2010

Roughly one in six cancer survivors forgo some medical care due to cost, Study finds

Two years after undergoing a double mastectomy and chemotherapy so severe she was hospitalized in intensive care for several weeks, breast cancer survivor Denise Hicks should be following what her doctors call 'the plan' which includes additional medications and treatments.

30 Aug 2010