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Pulse Report 2010: Recession, unemployment, insurance losses increase pressure on ERs, patients

Average length of stay in the nation's emergency departments increased to four hours and seven minutes, and the nation's emergency physicians are very concerned about patient safety being jeopardized by long wait times. Press Ganey's Pulse Report 2010, released yesterday, confirms what the American College of Emergency Physicians has reported previously: The recession, high unemployment and insurance losses are increasing pressure on emergency departments and their patients.

26 Jul 2010

Md. Democrats tout crackdown on Medicaid fraud; Four plead not guilty in Calif. Medicare fraud case

Touting a favorite program, Lt. Governor Anthony Brown said Thursday the state's health department has found $26 million in fraud and waste in the state Medicaid program. The extra cash will not close the roughly $1.5 billion deficit that awaits the winner of November's gubernatorial election, but Brown argued the extra money will help. Brown also used the occasion to remind folks that he lobbied to strengthen the state's Medicaid False Claims Act during the legislative session.

26 Jul 2010

Research roundup: Hospital emergency room HIV screenings; Medical device reviews; Health law impact on docs and hospitals

Physician Satisfaction With Chronic Care Processes: A Cluster-Randomized Trial Of Guided Care - The authors randomly assigned teams of physicians and their chronically ill older patients into groups that either provided Guided Care - an educated registered nurse works with a primary care practice team to enhance quality of care - or usual care. One year later, they measured "physicians' satisfaction with chronic care processes, time spent on chronic care, knowledge of their chronically ill older patients, and care coordination provided by physicians and office staff."

26 Jul 2010

AU Summit panel focuses on water, sanitation to meet MDG targets in Africa

African countries should focus on preventing diarrhea - the biggest killer of children in Africa - in order to achieve Millennium Development Goal targets, Yunia Musaazi, WaterAid's East Africa policy advisor, told delegates at the 15th African Union Summit, PANA/Afrique en ligne reports.

26 Jul 2010

VA to allow patients to use medical marijuana

The Department of Veterans Affairs will formally allow patients treated at its hospitals and clinics to use medical marijuana in states where it is legal, a policy clarification that veterans have sought for several years. A department directive, expected to take effect next week, resolves the conflict in veterans facilities between federal law, which outlaws marijuana, and the 14 states that allow medicinal use of the drug, effectively deferring to the states. ...Under department rules, veterans can be denied pain medications if they are found to be using illegal drugs.

26 Jul 2010

Some insurers ending children-only coverage because of health law

UnitedHealth Group and other insurance companies have stopped offering or are considering dropping children-only health coverage in several states "because of the potential added costs of insuring sicker youngsters under the new U.S. health-care law," Bloomberg reports.

26 Jul 2010

Ohio sets up high risk pool; Four drug companies come under scrutiny for payments to Pittsburgh doctors, nurses

"Ohioans with pre-existing health conditions, such as cancer or diabetes, can apply for coverage under a new high-risk insurance pool beginning Aug. 1." Qualifications include evidence of a pre-existing condition, proof of Ohio residency and U.S. citizenship, state of being uninsured for six months prior to the date of applying for coverage and being "ineligible for coverage under the Medicare program, the Ohio Medical Assistance Program, the Ohio Children's Health Insurance Program, or an employer-sponsored group health plan, unless subject to a mandatory initial waiting period" (7/22).

26 Jul 2010

Liberal bloggers, activists push Democrats for more changes, including public option

President Barack Obama made a surprise video appearance at Netroots Nation, a convention of about 2,000 liberal bloggers and activists in Las Vegas, trying to calm their frustrations that the Democratic administration and Congress have not achieved all the changes that progressives were hoping for, Miami Herald/McClatchy News Service report.

26 Jul 2010

HHS Secretary announces 15 awards to support Preventive Medicine Residency Programs

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced 15 awards totaling $9 million to support Preventive Medicine Residency Programs at accredited schools of public health, schools of medicine, and hospitals. Of these funds, nearly $6.7 million is part of the $200 million appropriated to HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to address the nation's health care workforce shortages.

26 Jul 2010

AIDS 2010: Obama, Clinton vow U.S. support to global fight against HIV/AIDS

During the closing ceremonies of the International AIDS Conference-AIDS 2010, President Barack Obama "on Friday pledged to redouble efforts to fight HIV and AIDS through his Global Health Initiative, despite dealing with economic hard times in the wake of a global recession," Reuters reports. According to the news service, "Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said their focus was on a broad, sustainable and effective approach to the global epidemic" (Kelland, 7/23).

26 Jul 2010

CMS awards Jurisdiction 15 Medicare Parts A and B Administrative Contract to CGS

CIGNA Government Services, L.L.C. announced that it has been awarded the Jurisdiction 15 Medicare Parts A and B Administrative Contract by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

26 Jul 2010

Insurers scrambling to get expenses defined as patient care

The New York Times looks at current efforts by state insurance officials to set regulations requried under the new health overhaul about insurance company spending. "The legislative battle over the health care overhaul ended months ago, but it is hard to tell from the intense effort now under way by insurance companies to retool a critical provision.

26 Jul 2010

Obama signs legislation to cut improper government spending, largely in Medicare and Medicaid

President Barack Obama signed legislation Thursday that aims "to take on fraudulent and improper government spending that he said diverts money from important priorities," the Los Angeles Times reports.

23 Jul 2010

Health law gives consumers new rights to appeal insurer decisions

The Obama administration issued regulations yesterday addressing a top consumer gripe with health insurers: The rejected claim. "Rejection notices are often unclear, as are the procedures for challenging them." The new regulations are "designed to simplify the process and expand consumers' rights, as required by the recently enacted healthcare law." Current appeals rules differ by insurer. The regulations will standardize the process, allowing consumers to first take their complaints to the insurer, and then to an independent review panel (Levey, 7/22).

23 Jul 2010

Insurers, advocates fight over upcoming spending rules

Insurance companies are banding together to weaken a key health law rule that requires them to spend as much as 85 percent of their revenues on medical care, according to the advocacy group Health Care for America Now. At issue is the definition of 'medical loss ratio,' a figure used on Wall Street to show an insurer's profitability.

23 Jul 2010

Prevalence of HD substantially underestimated in the UK

The prevalence of Huntington's disease is substantially underestimated in the UK, with significant implications for those affected, the healthcare system, and research. New estimates of prevalence, and their implications, are discussed in a comment published in an upcoming Lancet, written by Professor Sir Michael Rawlins, who is the Chairman of the UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, but writes in his capacity as an Honorary Professor of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK.

23 Jul 2010

ACLU says some nursing homes use 'scare tactics' to keep psychiatric patients

The American Civil Liberties Union says in court papers that some for-profit nursing home operators are using "scare tactics" to persuade psychiatric patients to stay in their facilities. "The action follows a historic court settlement in which Illinois authorities pledged to offer supportive community-based housing and treatment to roughly 4,500 psychiatric patients who now live in two dozen large nursing homes designated as Institutions for Mental Diseases.

23 Jul 2010

Securing universal access to HIV prevention, care, treatment and support

The biennial meeting of the global AIDS community concluded today with clear evidence of tangible progress in HIV research and programme scale up, yet facing an urgent need for increased resources, the protection of human rights, and broader use of scientifically sound prevention strategies. Delegates and organizers depart Vienna - where the conference opened 18 July under the theme of Rights Here, Right Now -- with a renewed commitment to push for securing universal access to HIV prevention, care, treatment and support.

23 Jul 2010

Today's OpEds: Varying points on the nation's doctor shortage, benefits of negative studies, and what about universal health care?

In the long list of problems affecting the American health care system, the shortage of general practitioners and overabundance of specialists is usually ranked near the top. There is truth to this: only 32 percent of physicians practice primary care medicine. As a result, patients have to wait longer to see their doctors and are more likely to be seen by nurse practitioners and physician assistants instead. However, pediatrics has the opposite problem: a growing shortage of pediatric subspecialists (Dennis Rosen, 7/22).

23 Jul 2010

Researchers investigate regional variation in Medicare spending

In the latest Health Policy Outlook from the American Enterprise Institute and the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at USC, Schaeffer Center researchers investigated whether geographic variations in utilization of health services and spending differed between Medicare and the private sector.

23 Jul 2010

Health Care News and Research

Pulse Report 2010: Recession, unemployment, insurance losses increase pressure on ERs, patients

Md. Democrats tout crackdown on Medicaid fraud; Four plead not guilty in Calif. Medicare fraud case

Research roundup: Hospital emergency room HIV screenings; Medical device reviews; Health law impact on docs and hospitals

AU Summit panel focuses on water, sanitation to meet MDG targets in Africa

VA to allow patients to use medical marijuana

Some insurers ending children-only coverage because of health law

Ohio sets up high risk pool; Four drug companies come under scrutiny for payments to Pittsburgh doctors, nurses

Liberal bloggers, activists push Democrats for more changes, including public option

HHS Secretary announces 15 awards to support Preventive Medicine Residency Programs

AIDS 2010: Obama, Clinton vow U.S. support to global fight against HIV/AIDS

CMS awards Jurisdiction 15 Medicare Parts A and B Administrative Contract to CGS

Insurers scrambling to get expenses defined as patient care

Obama signs legislation to cut improper government spending, largely in Medicare and Medicaid

Health law gives consumers new rights to appeal insurer decisions

Insurers, advocates fight over upcoming spending rules

Prevalence of HD substantially underestimated in the UK

ACLU says some nursing homes use 'scare tactics' to keep psychiatric patients

Securing universal access to HIV prevention, care, treatment and support

Today's OpEds: Varying points on the nation's doctor shortage, benefits of negative studies, and what about universal health care?

Researchers investigate regional variation in Medicare spending

Event guide: 3rd Measuring Patient Engagement Summit eBook

Advancing Intracellular Delivery with LumiPore®

How ELRIG Is Helping Mid-Career Scientists Navigate Leadership, Career Change and Redundancy

The role of UV-Vis in biopharma QC

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