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UnitedHealthcare receives Business Insurance magazine’s Readers Choice Award

UnitedHealthcare, a UnitedHealth Group company, has been named the “Best Health Plan Provider” by the readers of Business Insurance in the magazine’s fifth annual Readers Choice Awards.

19 Nov 2009

Senate health bill released, another step toward Democratic-backed reforms

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid set the stage for a climactic debate in the Senate over health care by unveiling a 10-year, $848 billion bill that would extend insurance to 31 million Americans without coverage," The Wall Street Journal reports.

19 Nov 2009

CBO: Senate health bill would reduce deficit $130 billion over a decade

Democratic leaders were jubilant that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office determined that the Senate bill would cut federal deficits by $130 billion over the next decade. That projection, released shortly before midnight Wednesday, represents the biggest cost savings of any legislation to come before the House or Senate this year, but the measure's effective date also was pushed back by one year, to 2014.

19 Nov 2009

Insurers say they won't alter mammogram coverage despite new guidelines

Insurance companies say mammogram coverage is unlikely to change despite the debate over the effectiveness of breast cancer screenings for women in their forties.

19 Nov 2009

Daschle still making voice heard on health care

The Hill reports that former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle helped Obama Administration officials strategize to win health care reform votes from Senators on Capitol Hill Wednesday.

19 Nov 2009

A look at how key provisions compare in the House and Senate bills

The New York Times reports that "the health care proposals from the House and the Senate are broadly similar but differ on some major issues." It reports on five issues - the public plan, employer contribution, abortion, illegal immigrants and financing - and puts differences in bold type (11/19).

19 Nov 2009

A selection of today's opinions and editorials

Everyone has been trying to come up with a good nickname for the 10 years we're concluding next month. Terror Era really sounds like too much of a downer. How about the Decade of Medical Backtracking? Somewhere between the reports that Pap smears and tests for prostate cancer aren't all they were cracked up to be and the news that a high fiber diet doesn't do anything to prevent cancer, the health establishment began looking decidedly nonomniscient. Then this week, a federal task force reported that most women don't need annual mammograms (Gail Collins, 11/18).

19 Nov 2009

Senate bill draws immediate reactions from GOP, interest groups

Republicans quickly rebuked Senate Democrats' health overhaul bill after its release last night, Roll Call reports. They said it would result in higher insurance premiums, tax hikes, and Medicare cuts, and complained that it was drafted behind closed doors, and that they have not yet had a chance to read it.

19 Nov 2009

Democrats' continue efforts to win over moderates

Wavering moderates, including Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La., Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., control the key votes needed to bring the health overhaul bill to the Senate floor, so securing their agreement to go forward has become a priority for the Democratic leadership.

19 Nov 2009

Senate leaders consider timeline for health bill votes

Roll Call reports: "Senators may keep slogging through debate on their health care overhaul until the day before Thanksgiving, according to an adjournment resolution the House approved Wednesday. That measure provided for the Senate to adjourn Friday — or next Wednesday. The House is set to break on Thursday or Friday of this week." The Senate must first vote on a motion to proceed - to move the bill to the floor (Newmyer, 11/18).

19 Nov 2009

Kansas pilot program to use electronic medical records to coordinate care

A health information technology project "may revolutionize how health care is managed" by using medical records to coordinate patients' records.

19 Nov 2009

White House backing Medicare 'doc fix' bill

Reuters reports that the White House Wednesday "urged Congress to pass a bill to boost Medicare payments to doctors, a step that could shore up support" from the American Medical Association for health care reform.

19 Nov 2009

Lawmakers call for inquiry into pharmaceutical company price hikes

Congressional Democrats are seeking government investigations into recent price increases of brand-name prescription drugs, as Congress finalizes an overhaul of the healthcare system. Lawmakers are concerned the companies are trying to reap gains ahead of reforms aimed at lowering drug prices and forcing drugmakers to partly fund changes that aim to boost the number of Americans covered by health insurance.

19 Nov 2009

Emerging trends fuelling the US market for reprocessed electrophysiology diagnostic catheters

According to Millennium Research Group (MRG), the global authority on medical technology market intelligence, the US market for reprocessed electrophysiology diagnostic catheters will grow at a rate of over 15% through 2014. MRG's new US Markets for Electrophysiology Mapping and Ablation Devices 2010 report finds that although reprocessed catheters have existed for a number of years, it is only recently that this device type has begun to play a larger role in the electrophysiology diagnostic market.

19 Nov 2009

VCU-RAA treatment protocol nearly doubles pre-hospital cardiac arrest resuscitation and survival rates

ZOLL Medical Corporation announced today that in a “Best Original Resuscitation Science” presentation at the American Heart Association’s Resuscitation Science Symposium (ReSS) in Orlando Florida, Joseph P. Ornato, M.D., and Mary Ann Peberdy, M. D., reported nearly doubling the resuscitation and survival rates from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest due to a comprehensive treatment protocol established between Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center (VCU) and the Richmond Ambulance Authority (RAA).

19 Nov 2009

DxNA announces successfull evaluation of its GeneSTAT PCR system

DxNA, a molecular diagnostics company headquartered in St. George, Utah, announced today that the DxNA GeneSTAT PCR system has successfully completed evaluation studies under the direction of a California laboratory supported by the Joint FAO/IAEA Programme in Food and Agriculture.

19 Nov 2009

First Edition: November 19, 2009

Today's headlines are overwhelmingly focused on yesterday's major health policy development: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid finally unveiled the much-anticipated Senate health bill.

19 Nov 2009

Political commitment to include health care coverage for smoking cessation needed

Massachusetts today announced extraordinary results from its aggressive efforts to help Medicaid beneficiaries quit smoking by providing easy access to coverage for smoking cessation medication and counseling.

19 Nov 2009

First comprehensive, international baseline evidence about pandemics published

Public health officials walking a tightrope between massive demand for vaccines and intense public scrutiny of side effects now have a new standard for evaluating the safety of their vaccination programs.

19 Nov 2009

Southern District of Florida Health Care Fraud Team receives the 2009 Excellence in Public Awareness Award

The National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association (NHCAA) is pleased to announce that the Southern District of Florida Health Care Fraud Team--comprised of individuals representing the United States Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida; the United States Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami Division; and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, Miami Regional Office--is the recipient of the 2009 Excellence in Public Awareness Award.

19 Nov 2009