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First Edition: December 13, 2013

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about a set of steps taken by the Obama administration in an effort to help consumers avoid coverage lapses as the health law takes effect.

13 Dec 2013

Centene updates 2013 financial guidance, announces financial guidance for 2014 fiscal year

Centene Corporation announced today its 2014 financial guidance. Premium and service revenues are expected to be $13.5 billion to $14.0 billion, representing growth of 29%.

13 Dec 2013

Political activist discusses Obamacare on Voice of Russia

In an exclusive interview with the Voice of Russia, political activist Karl Denninger discusses Obamacare, medical monopolies, and why Democrats are likely to lose the next midterm elections.

13 Dec 2013

Massachusetts residents have broader health insurance coverage, greater access to primary care

In 2006, Massachusetts was on the same brink that the entire nation is on today: the brink of expanding health insurance to cover far more people than before, through government-driven, market-based reform.

13 Dec 2013

Health Law Op-Eds: Obama must 'fire some people'; the law's many possible futures; Obamacare 'is a disaster'

Though the site is working vastly better today than it was two months ago, the debut of HealthCare.gov was a genuine disaster. Specifically, it was a management disaster. CMS's information technology department botched its job as systems integrator for HealthCare.gov. CMS management botched the job of recognizing that CMS's IT department was botching its job.

13 Dec 2013

Sebelius: Enrollment numbers going up and website getting better, but a review will be launched over healthcare.gov launch problems

Just as the November enrollment figures were released, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified Wednesday before the health subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee where she was again grilled on the difficulties that have plagued the website's launch and other related issues.

13 Dec 2013

Frustration with Minn. insurance exchange mounts as officials race to remedy problems

Problems with Minnesota's online health insurance exchange -- long wait times, technology problems and security issues -- are getting extra scrutiny as officials push to fix the website ahead of the new year when coverage is slated to begin for many.

13 Dec 2013

ACS, BCBSIL and Northwestern Medicine join to improve quality of surgical care in Illinois

The Illinois chapters of the American College of Surgeons (ACS), Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois (BCBSIL), and Northwestern Medicine- have come together to offer selected hospitals across Illinois the opportunity to join the Illinois Surgical Quality Improvement Collaborative (ISQIC), a three-year effort to improve the safety and quality of surgical care in Illinois.

13 Dec 2013

Michigan to require separate abortion coverage on public and private policies

Michigan will join more conservative states in requiring residents who want health insurance coverage for abortions to buy an extra policy, after Republican legislators passed the law Wednesday over the objections of Democrats who pleaded for them to take the issue to voters instead.

13 Dec 2013

Study: Almost half of psychiatrists don't accept health insurance

The findings were published yesterday in JAMA Psychiatry.

13 Dec 2013

NY frustrated by long wait for Medicaid waiver

Gov. Cuomo says he wants to help struggling hospitals. In Florida, Gov. Scott wouldn't say if he still supports expanding Medicaid eligibility to poor Floridians.

13 Dec 2013

New enrollment figures give clearer view of exchange efforts in states

Officials in California, Maryland, Illinois, Kansas and Georgia give status checks on their online health insurance exchanges. In the meantime, officials in Oregon are pressuring their website contractor, Oracle, to speed up fixes to the marketplace as insurers consider extending deadlines there.

13 Dec 2013

Health law presents new challenge for small businesses

Large numbers of small entrepreneurs have not yet focused on the law, and their responses for employee coverage are expected to vary. Meanwhile, news outlets examine some of the issues around paying premiums and other insurance issues.

13 Dec 2013

First Edition: December 12, 2013

Today's headlines include ongoing coverage of the health law's implementation -- from details of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' Wednesday Capitol Hill appearance and more information about the most recent enrollment numbers to analysis of policy issues related to the overhaul.

12 Dec 2013

Market research report on global and China insulin industry

As the third largest human health disease following neoplastic disease, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, the number of diabetic patients has continued growing from 246 million in 2007 to 382 million in 2013 at a compound annual growth rate of 7.6%.

12 Dec 2013

HCV antiviral therapy also improves diabetes outcomes

Researchers from Taiwan reveal that antiviral therapy for hepatitis C virus improves kidney and cardiovascular outcomes for patients with diabetes. Results of the study published in Hepatology, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, show that incidences of kidney disease, stroke, and heart attack were lower in patients treated with pegylated interferon and ribavirin compared to HCV patients not treated with antivirals or diabetic patients not infected with the virus.

12 Dec 2013

100K sign up for coverage through insurance exchange in N.Y., but problems elsewhere persist

More than 100,000 people in New York have signed up for coverage on the health insurance exchange -- most in private plans.

12 Dec 2013

Group says Obamacare plans discourage HIV patients from enrolling

A coalition of AIDS organizations is asking the Obama administration to investigate whether some insurers are trying to discourage HIV-infected patients from enrolling in their policies by failing to cover some AIDS drugs or through what it called "egregious cost-sharing designs." Other stories explore the law's impact on African-Americans and small businesses.

12 Dec 2013

Filling in the big picture: Enrollment numbers and goals

News outlets examine the goals, numbers and challenges that continue to surround efforts to enroll new beneficiaries in health coverage either through the health law's new insurance marketplaces or Medicaid.

12 Dec 2013

Iowa wins approval to expand Medicaid using private plans

Federal officials approved much of Iowa's proposal to expand low-income health care, but - like the government's approval of Arkansas' request - set important conditions.

12 Dec 2013