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KHN Column -- Rescissions: Much ado about nothing

In this Kaiser Health News column, John Goodman writes: "How many times have you heard President Obama say, 'Health insurers won't be able to drop your coverage just because you get sick?

14 May 2010

Justice Dept. defends health law implementation from court injunction

The Justice Department released a statement yesterday defending the federal health overhaul law from legal critics. "A conservative public interest group, the Thomas More Law Center, had filed a lawsuit in Michigan on March 23, the day Obama signed the law, and asked the court for an injunction to block it from taking effect.

14 May 2010

GOP launches attacks on CMS nominee Berwick

Republicans have begun attacking Donald Berwick, a doctor and Harvard professor nominated to head the Obama administration's Medicare and Medicaid agency, The Boston Globe reports. If confirmed, Berwick would run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an agency with 4,500 employees and an annual budget of $780 billion.

14 May 2010

Groups plead for more health funding as Chairman warns about cuts to proposed HHS budget

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., said Wednesday that groups pressing for $14 billion more in funding for education, health and labor programs will likely be disappointed because the budget proposed by President Barack Obama already faces cuts of about $3.5 billion in those areas.

14 May 2010

Federal officials say crackdown on Medicare fraud recovers $2.5 billion

The Associated Press: "The government says it recovered $2.5 billion in overpayments for the Medicare trust fund last year as the Obama administration focused attention on fraud enforcement efforts in the health care industry. Investigators have new tools this year to help crack down on health care fraud, with the Justice Department and the Health and Human Services Department working cooperatively to police companies.

14 May 2010

Today's Opinions: CBO numbers undercut health law promises; Concerns about Berwick nomination; The recission myth

The Democrats' reform is barely out of the gate and the Congressional Budget Office already says its previous cost estimate was too low. Either the bill's supporters lied or they're profoundly ignorant. Either way, they are not fit to serve the country, much less rule it, which many of them seem to believe is their divine right. As noted on these pages and elsewhere, government programs always cost far more than their original projections (5/12).

14 May 2010

Home health care stocks fall with Senate Finance Committee inquiry

Shares of four home health care providers tumbled Thursday after the Senate Finance Committee raised questions about how the companies bill Medicare for home health therapy visits, The Associated Press/ABC News reports.

14 May 2010

First Edition: May 13, 2010

Among today's headlines are reports that some Republican senators are taking aim at President Obama's pick to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

13 May 2010

Solta Medical honored with Provectus Award at first annual Bright Lights Conference

Solta Medical, Inc., a global leader in the medical aesthetics market, today announced that it has received the Provectus Award presented by MDB Capital Group at the first annual Bright Lights Conference, the first public company conference to focus exclusively on companies with disruptive and market changing intellectual property (IP).

13 May 2010

NPTA launches new ACPE-accredited certification course to improve safety of pharmacy technicians

The National Pharmacy Technician Association is doing its part to improve the safety of pharmacy technicians with the launch of a new ACPE-accredited certification course on the safe handling of hazardous medications, also referred to as Chemo Certification.

13 May 2010

Researchers to discuss various implications for personalized medicine during one-day symposium

On May 27, researchers with the National Human Genome Research Institute and the National Cancer Institute, along with Group Health Cooperative in Seattle and Henry Ford Health System, will debate and discuss that question during the one-day symposium "Multiplex Initiative: Implications for Personalized Medicine."

13 May 2010

e-Volution-TREAT system simplifies mental health care planning in Ontario and beyond

Mental health, the second leading cause of disability and premature death in Canada, impacts the lives of every Canadian, much like technology. Mental health and technology are now being brought together with an innovative tool developed by University of Toronto Bloomberg nursing researchers in collaboration with Toronto-based software development company HInext and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

13 May 2010

Pacific Island region on track to meet TB MDG, drug-resistance remains a threat

Experts at the Fifth Pacific Stop Tuberculosis Meeting in Nadi, Fiji, concluded that the Pacific Islands region is on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving TB prevalence by 2015, All Headline News reports in an article about the meeting, which recently concluded.

13 May 2010

Study: When incentive payments are removed, quality of health care suffers

Los Angeles Times: Researchers in Britain teamed with Kaiser Permanente in Northern California "to see what happened in Northern California when the health giant stopped rewarding doctors who screened patients for diabetic retinopathy and cervical cancer."

13 May 2010

Additional benefits of LAIAs over long-acting human insulin not been proven

It has so far not been proven that the long-acting insulin analogues (LAIAs) insulin detemir (trade name: Levemir) and insulin glargine (trade name: Lantus), which are approved for the treatment of type 1 diabetes, offer patients an additional benefit versus long-acting human insulin. This applies to adults as well as to children and adolescents. This is the result of the final report published by the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) on 19 April 2010.

13 May 2010

Florida weighs next steps for small business insurance exchange; N.J. considers COBRA eligibility expansion; Other highlights

When Republican lawmakers created the Florida Health Choices program in 2008, they billed it as a way to deregulate the health-care market for small businesses. Two years later, Florida Health Choices has still not started offering coverage, and its leaders and lawmakers face a philosophical choice that could determine whether the program survives.

13 May 2010

Prescription costs more likely to keep Hispanics away from pharmacy counter: Study

Drug costs could prevent some people from filling their prescriptions, which can interfere with optimal health care. A new study of Medicare beneficiaries finds that cost concerns are more likely keep Hispanics away from the pharmacy counter than non-Hispanics.

13 May 2010

Seriously mentally ill are three times more likely to be imprisoned than hospitalized, report finds

USA Today: "On average, a seriously mentally ill person in the USA is three times more likely to be incarcerated than hospitalized, a report concludes today. In no state was a seriously mentally ill person — someone with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, for example — less likely to be incarcerated than hospitalized, the report by the National Sheriffs' Association and the Treatment Advocacy Center found.

13 May 2010

World Bank announces five-year plan to reduce maternal deaths, fertility rates in 58 low-income countries

During the release of its five-year plan to help drive down high maternal death and fertility rates in low-income countries, the World Bank on Tuesday said "that family planning and other reproductive health services have fallen off the radar of many governments, donors and aid agencies," Reuters reports.

13 May 2010

Two-thirds of child deaths in 2008 due to infectious diseases, report finds

Pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and other infectious diseases accounted for two-thirds of the 8.8 million deaths in 2008 among children under age 5 around the world, according to a Lancet study published on Wednesday, HealthDay News/Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports. The highest numbers of childhood deaths were in Africa (4.2 million) and Southeast Asia (2.39 million), according to the news service (5/11).

13 May 2010

Health Care News and Research

KHN Column -- Rescissions: Much ado about nothing

Justice Dept. defends health law implementation from court injunction

GOP launches attacks on CMS nominee Berwick

Groups plead for more health funding as Chairman warns about cuts to proposed HHS budget

Federal officials say crackdown on Medicare fraud recovers $2.5 billion

Today's Opinions: CBO numbers undercut health law promises; Concerns about Berwick nomination; The recission myth

Home health care stocks fall with Senate Finance Committee inquiry

First Edition: May 13, 2010

Solta Medical honored with Provectus Award at first annual Bright Lights Conference

NPTA launches new ACPE-accredited certification course to improve safety of pharmacy technicians

Researchers to discuss various implications for personalized medicine during one-day symposium

e-Volution-TREAT system simplifies mental health care planning in Ontario and beyond

Pacific Island region on track to meet TB MDG, drug-resistance remains a threat

Study: When incentive payments are removed, quality of health care suffers

Additional benefits of LAIAs over long-acting human insulin not been proven

Florida weighs next steps for small business insurance exchange; N.J. considers COBRA eligibility expansion; Other highlights

Prescription costs more likely to keep Hispanics away from pharmacy counter: Study

Seriously mentally ill are three times more likely to be imprisoned than hospitalized, report finds

World Bank announces five-year plan to reduce maternal deaths, fertility rates in 58 low-income countries

Two-thirds of child deaths in 2008 due to infectious diseases, report finds

Event guide: 3rd Measuring Patient Engagement Summit eBook

The impact of vibration on microscopy

How Omics Technologies Are Transforming Biological Research and Drug Discovery

How microplastics and bacteria interact to drive antibiotic resistance

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