Health Care News and Research

RSS

Medtronic releases Virtual ICD study data

Medtronic, Inc. released the Virtual ICD study data today that predicted 98 percent of studied implantable defibrillator patients would be free of inappropriate shocks one year after implant and 92 percent at five years post-implant.

14 May 2010

Practice Greenhealth honors SRI Surgical with Champion for Change Award

SRI/Surgical Express, Inc., a leading provider of reusable surgical products and reprocessing services supporting the healthcare industry, announced today that Practice Greenhealth presented its "Champion for Change Award" to SRI Surgical for outstanding contributions to environmentally responsible health care.

14 May 2010

NPAF commends extension of health care coverage for young adults

The National Patient Advocate Foundation (NPAF) – a national, non-profit organization dedicated to the mission of creating avenues of improved patient access to health care through public policy reform at the state and federal levels – today praised the Obama Administration for extending health care coverage for young adults under the new "Affordable Care Act" through a new provision allowing them to stay on their parents' health insurance plans until age twenty-six. This proposed regulation will affect an estimated 1.2 million Americans.

14 May 2010

Health law guarantees protections for emergency room visits

Kaiser Health News' Maggie Mertens writes: "When Kelly Arellanes fell off a horse and suffered a severe head injury in rural Arkansas, medics said she would need to be airlifted immediately to the nearest hospital—50 miles away in Fort Smith.

14 May 2010

Ambulance fees will deter emergency calls for help and risks lives: Study

Multiple data sources, including scientific survey data, medical studies and analyses of data in regions that have imposed ambulance fees, indicate that ambulance fees will discourage calls to emergency services for help, risking the health and safety of those experiencing medical emergencies.

14 May 2010

Media Line/All Headline News examines agriculture investment gap in Middle East

"Arab countries need to invest some $144 billion in agriculture over the next 20 years to meet the food demands of the growing population, an Arab agricultural organization has said," the Media Line/All Headline News reports in a piece that examines the contributing factors to gaps in food security in the region.

14 May 2010

TIME examines how charity T-shirt project highlights foreign aid debate

TIME reports on the recent efforts of a "young Florida businessman" who started a project "to collect a million shirts and send them to poor people in Africa." The project elicited a range of responses from people in the aid world who have been debating "the best and worst ways to deliver charity, or whether to give at all." The magazine examines these different perspectives.

14 May 2010

U.N. Secretary-General discusses G8, G20 commitments during visit to Ottawa

On Wednesday, ahead of a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addressed several topics in a "speech warning that leaders of the G8 and G20 countries should not use global economic and financial difficulties as 'an excuse' to neglect previous pledges of billions of dollars for the world's poor - for doubling aid to Africa, food security, malaria and AIDS programs and maternal and child health care," Canwest News Service/Calgary Herald writes (O'Neill, 5/12).

14 May 2010

India, Brazil launch trade dispute against EU, Netherlands over seizures of generic drugs

"India and Brazil launched a trade dispute against the European Union and the Netherlands on Wednesday, saying their seizures of generic drugs were hurting healthcare in poor countries and disrupting international trade," Reuters reports.

14 May 2010

Report examines vaccine costs, access in low-income countries

A recent report by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and Oxfam International warns "that the global campaign to vaccinate children in poor countries is being hampered by high prices and is facing an acute funding crisis," BMJ News reports.

14 May 2010

Johns Hopkins Children's Center neonatologist joins NQF HIT advisory committee

Johns Hopkins Children's Center neonatologist Christoph Lehmann, M.D., has joined the nation's leading watchdog organization on health-care quality, the National Quality Forum (NQF), as a member of its newly formed Health Information Technology (HIT) advisory committee.

14 May 2010

Guidelines for reducing risk of falling among older adults

Falling down is hazardous to a senior citizen's health, yet fewer than half of all seniors see a doctor after a fall. And those who don't seek medical attention are far less likely to engage in any of the six widely recommended activities - such as a review of their medications or getting a cane or walker - that might prevent repeated falls, according to a new policy brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

14 May 2010

Senate bill offered to allow young adults to stay on parents' FEHBP; Clock ticks on next round for Medicare physician pay fix

This week a senator followed House lawmakers' lead by introducing a bill that would let the children of federal employees remain on their parents' health insurance until age 26, starting this year. Under the health reform law President Obama signed in March, the cutoff age would have increased from 22 to 26 in January 2011 for Federal Employees Health Benefits Program participants, due to laws that prevent the Office of Personnel Management from making midyear changes.

14 May 2010

Health reform implementation issues: Emergency room costs, consumer websites and small business questions

Kaiser Health News: The new health reform law guarantees insurance companies must cover emergency care for their beneficiaries at hospitals in- or out-of-network at the same rate. "The law also bars health plans from requiring prior authorization for emergency services. And it mandates that plans follow the 'prudent layperson' rule.

14 May 2010

Smoking, obesity and alcohol use associated with poorer survival of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients

A new study led by researchers from Mayo Clinic in collaboration with six other U.S. institutions has found that patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma who smoked, consumed alcohol or were obese before their cancer diagnosis had poorer overall survival, compared to patients who did not have these risk factors.

14 May 2010

Upcoming primaries involve tough fights over health votes

Sens. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., and some other lawmakers are facing stiff fights to retain their party's nomination for their own seats as they spend time defending their records and health care positions from the left.

14 May 2010

White House says new CBO estimates do not signify high health spending

"The new healthcare law doesn't include more spending and less deficit reduction than previously reported, an Obama administration official said Wednesday," The Hill reports.

14 May 2010

Studies explore geography's influence on medical practice, spending

Reuters: "Doctors in some parts of the United States are more likely to tell Medicare patients they are sick than in other parts, researchers said on Wednesday in a finding that could explain regional differences in health spending. The study is the latest from the Dartmouth Atlas Project, which [has uncovered] wide differences in spending by region, a finding that became a touchstone in the debate about the need for healthcare reform in the United States."

14 May 2010

New England Journal offers perspectives on health law

The New England Journal of Medicine dedicates a significant amount of its current issue to research and perspectives on the new health reform law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which is abbreviated as ACA (5/12).

14 May 2010

CIGNA adds CTCA to national network

Recognizing the importance of access, quality and choice for its many customers who have been touched by cancer, CIGNA has entered into a new agreement that opens the doors to comprehensive, integrative care at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA).

14 May 2010