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Emdat launches DaRT solution to help physicians utilize EMRs more efficiently

Emdat announces the launch of DaRT, or Discrete accurate Reportable Transcription, a solution that enables more efficient utilization of electronic medical records by seamlessly integrating with Emdat's online medical transcription platform.

29 Apr 2010

Sierra Leone launching free health care program for mothers, children; Challenges remain

Sierra Leone is launching a program to provide free health care for mothers and children in an effort to reduce high maternal and child mortality rates, Ernest Bai Koroma, the country's president, said on Tuesday, the Associated Press reports (4/27).

29 Apr 2010

Survey: Americans worry about getting health coverage, but leading Democrat optimistic of turnaround

Reuters: A new survey published Wednesday suggests that "Americans are steadily losing confidence in their ability to get healthcare and pay for it, despite the passage of healthcare reform legislation."

29 Apr 2010

Injection drug use contributes to transmission of syphilis

A binational team of researchers led by University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered that active syphilis infections are significantly greater in female sex workers who inject drugs and share needles than those who don't. The findings suggest that injection drug use may play as big a role as risky sexual behavior in the transmission of syphilis. It may also exacerbate the spread of both HIV and syphilis, as syphilis is frequently a co-factor for HIV infection.

29 Apr 2010

Mass. legislation to push poor seniors into managed care plans stirs concerns

Legislation that could push more than 100,000 low-income senior citizens in Massachusetts into managed care health plans spurred intense lobbying yesterday, as consumer advocates argued the measure would strip patients of their freedom to stay in traditional Medicare, while proponents said it could save the state significant money.

29 Apr 2010

Astrazeneca settles drug marketing lawsuit, plea deal rejected for possibly defective heart device maker

The New York Times: AstraZeneca has settled a case and agreed to pay $520 million after federal investigations into its marketing practices for a schizophrenia drug, Seroquel. The announcement came Tuesday from Attorney General Eric Holder. Government officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, said the company paid illegal kickbacks to doctors to promote drugs for unapproved uses by children, the elderly, veterans and prisoners, which is illegal under federal law.

29 Apr 2010

State regulators say insurance industry should easily meet medical-loss requirement

Insurers can meet the requirements in the new health overhaul law for minimum spending on patient care by deducting taxes and relabeling expenses related to improving "health care quality" as medical costs, rather than administrative ones, according to an April 24 memo from an expert at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports.

29 Apr 2010

Costs for long-term care rise while home health care costs remain fairly stable

"Institutional costs for long term care continued to post big increases last year even as the economy sputtered along, according to the seventh annual Cost of Care survey from Genworth Financial, a major seller of long term care insurance. The good news in the survey is that costs for in-home care -- where nearly 80 percent of people prefer being cared for -- have risen very little during the past five years."

29 Apr 2010

UnitedHealthcare ends use of rescissions ahead of implementation date

UnitedHealthcare, a UnitedHealth Group company, has ended its limited use of rescissions effective immediately, except in cases of fraud or intentional misrepresentation of material fact. This change in policy is well ahead of the September 23, 2010 implementation date as required in the recently passed health reform legislation.

29 Apr 2010

Study finds WIC program has moderate effect on birth outcomes, but more research is needed

A new study that looked at the effect of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) to determine the effect on various birth outcomes found that the overall effects were only moderate.

29 Apr 2010

Elderly and whites seek alternative therapies for pain relief: Study

In a University of Michigan Health System study, 1 out of 3 patients with chronic pain reported using complementary and alternative medicine therapies such as acupuncture and chiropractic visits for pain relief.

29 Apr 2010

WellPoint profits rise 51 percent amid scrutiny on several fronts

WellPoint, the U.S. health insurer with the biggest membership, announced Wednesday that its first-quarter earnings rose 51 percent compared to last year and were boosted by a mild flu season, The Wall Street Journal reports. Medical membership fell 2.1% to 33.8 million as of March 31 from a year earlier but rose by 165,000 during the quarter. The company trimmed its year-end medical membership projection to 33.1 million from 33.3 million."

29 Apr 2010

Small business owners have mixed reviews on health law's tax credits

Kaiser Health News staff writer Andrew Villegas reports: "Everyone wants a tax credit, right? Maybe not. Employers, particularly small businesses, are fretting over provisions in the health overhaul they say could burden their companies.

29 Apr 2010

Nearly all U.S. states offer HPV vaccine to adolescent girls in juvenile justice facilities: Report

Nearly all U.S. states offer the human papillomavirus vaccine to adolescent girls who have been arrested or detained, according to a new report from The Miriam Hospital and Brown University. The study, published in the May issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, offers the first nationwide review of HPV vaccination practices among juvenile justice facilities.

29 Apr 2010

Former U.S. Secretaries of State urge Congress not to cut international affairs budget

"As the Senate Foreign Relations Committee begins mark up today of the first foreign affairs authorization bill in five years, all eight living former U.S. Secretaries of State have written a letter [.pdf] urging Congress not to cut the international affairs budget," Politico's Laura Rozen writes on her blog.

29 Apr 2010

Canadian leaders focus on hunger, disease prevention at G8 meeting

G8 countries should make use of low-cost, effective tools to prevent hunger, disease and premature deaths among women and children in developing countries, Bev Oda, Canada's international cooperation minister, said on Tuesday at the opening of a meeting of G8 development ministers in Halifax, the Toronto Sun reports (Payton, 4/27).

29 Apr 2010

US Senate concentrates on benefits of new wireless medical technology: EHSI

Emerging Healthcare Solutions, Inc. applauded news that the US Senate Committee on Aging was beginning to concentrate on the benefits of new wireless medical technology, a sector that includes the Company's MedAnywhere iPhone application which is currently in development. The Committee began the review last week.

29 Apr 2010

Dental clinic reveals need in Los Angeles area while North Carolina County may cut dental care for many Medicaid patients

More than 100 who had waited for care were asked to return next week for services. In all, volunteers saw 1,157 patients, 64 of them minors. Overwhelmed by demand for dental services, organizers of a massive free mobile health clinic asked some patients who had Tuesday appointments to return next week, a hitch in an otherwise smooth first day at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

29 Apr 2010

Overhaul may cost drugmakers more than expected

Bloomberg BusinessWeek: The health overhaul legislation will likely cost drugmakers $25 billion more than the $80 billion the industry anticipated when it agreed to back the Democratic-led effort, according to Wall Street analysts. "The extra costs will come from expanding drug rebates through Medicaid, the U.S. insurance program for the poor, [Leerink Swann & Co executive] John L. Sullivan said today at a Bloomberg conference in Chicago."

29 Apr 2010

China lifts decades-old HIV/AIDS travel ban

Late Tuesday, China's State Council lifted a decades-old restriction that banned foreigners with HIV/AIDS from entering the country, Reuters reports (Buckley, 4/27). The amended rules, which appear on the government website, also lift a travel ban on foreigners with other sexually transmitted diseases and leprosy, and "narrow the travel restriction on people with tuberculosis, to those with an infectious form of the lung disease," according to Bloomberg Businessweek (Randall, 4/28).

29 Apr 2010

Health Care News and Research

Emdat launches DaRT solution to help physicians utilize EMRs more efficiently

Sierra Leone launching free health care program for mothers, children; Challenges remain

Survey: Americans worry about getting health coverage, but leading Democrat optimistic of turnaround

Injection drug use contributes to transmission of syphilis

Mass. legislation to push poor seniors into managed care plans stirs concerns

Astrazeneca settles drug marketing lawsuit, plea deal rejected for possibly defective heart device maker

State regulators say insurance industry should easily meet medical-loss requirement

Costs for long-term care rise while home health care costs remain fairly stable

UnitedHealthcare ends use of rescissions ahead of implementation date

Study finds WIC program has moderate effect on birth outcomes, but more research is needed

Elderly and whites seek alternative therapies for pain relief: Study

WellPoint profits rise 51 percent amid scrutiny on several fronts

Small business owners have mixed reviews on health law's tax credits

Nearly all U.S. states offer HPV vaccine to adolescent girls in juvenile justice facilities: Report

Former U.S. Secretaries of State urge Congress not to cut international affairs budget

Canadian leaders focus on hunger, disease prevention at G8 meeting

US Senate concentrates on benefits of new wireless medical technology: EHSI

Dental clinic reveals need in Los Angeles area while North Carolina County may cut dental care for many Medicaid patients

Overhaul may cost drugmakers more than expected

China lifts decades-old HIV/AIDS travel ban

Event guide: 3rd Measuring Patient Engagement Summit eBook

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