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Health reform affects high-risk patients, abortion and doctor practices

NPR: "Recent fights between anti-abortion groups could leave people with the impression that the new health overhaul law expands women's access to abortion. But abortion-rights groups vehemently disagree."

16 Apr 2010

Obesity prejudice in medical community

Prejudice towards obese people is rife among trainee health professionals, but can be modified, new research has found.

16 Apr 2010

Congress sends Haiti Recovery Act to President Obama

The House of Representatives approved a measure by voice vote Wednesday that "instructs U.S. directors at the International Monetary Fund and other global development institutions to use their votes and influence to cancel Haiti's debt," CongressDaily reports (4/15).

16 Apr 2010

Bariatric surgery reduces breathing problems, medication costs

Another benefit of rapid weight loss after bariatric surgery is a 50 percent reduction in use of prescription breathing medications, according to a study published this month in Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI).

16 Apr 2010

Director of Mass. Health Connector Authority steps down

Jon Kingsdale, the executive director of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority, the state agency that helps people in Massachusetts find health insurance, is leaving his job, Gov. Deval Patrick" announced Thursday, the Boston Herald reports.

16 Apr 2010

Arthritis causes more pain and limitations for African-Americans and Hispanics

Arthritis causes more pain and limitations for African-Americans and Hispanics than for whites, according to a study released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

16 Apr 2010

sBioMed's anthrax killing sterilant receives EPA approval

It has been nine years since the 2001 anthrax attacks sickened twenty-three people and killed five. Since that time, the U.S. government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in remediation and billions in their search for a disinfectant that can reliably kill anthrax spores and other pathogens that might be used as weapons.

16 Apr 2010

Vote expected today on COBRA subsidy extension

Democrats' extension of jobless benefits - including provisions to extend a subsidy to help the newly laid-off afford health insurance - passed a key procedural test yesterday. A final Senate vote on the bill could come today.

16 Apr 2010

CLASS Act provision in health law will provide long-term care for elderly, disabled

The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act program, a provision of the health reform law, "establishes a voluntary, long-term care program that will provide cash to enrollees who suffer at least two limitations in daily activities, such as eating, bathing and dressing. … There are about 10 million Americans who need long-term care services, including 4 million under age 65."

16 Apr 2010

Pennsylvania Medical Society comments on court ruling against state

The following is a statement from James A. Goodyear, MD, president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, regarding a Commonwealth Court 4-1 ruling indicating the state should not have diverted money from the Mcare Fund and Health Care Provider Retention Account to help with state budget problems.

15 Apr 2010

Texas Health, LHP form joint venture to acquire Wilson N. Jones Medical Center

Texas Health Resources, the largest health care system in North Texas in terms of patients served, and LHP Hospital Group, Inc., have formed a joint venture to acquire Wilson N. Jones Medical Center in Sherman, Texas. Texas Health will own a majority equity interest in the joint venture that owns Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital-WNJ and LHP will manage the operation of the hospital.

15 Apr 2010

HHS: Early retiree claim forms for new temporary program to help businesses will be ready in June

Business Insurance: The Department of Health and Human Services says that reimbursement forms to have the federal government help pay employers for early retiree health care claims will be available in June.

15 Apr 2010

First Edition: April 15, 2010

In today's headlines: The jobless benefits package, including a COBRA subsidy extension and Medicare-doctor pay fix, advances in the Senate. In the House, a committee chairman cancels a hearing on business health care complaints.

15 Apr 2010

New York Times examines how developments in India, Nigeria could aid global polio eradication campaign

"A decade after the world's original deadline for eradicating polio, the most tenacious bastions of the crippling virus - Nigeria and India - have recently shown remarkable progress in halting its spread, giving even some of the antipolio campaign's severest doubters hope that it may yet largely achieve its goal,"

15 Apr 2010

WHO official says agency struggled to find 'right tempo' for release of H1N1 information

The rapid spread of information via the Internet "had a disruptive impact on the handling of the flu pandemic by fanning speculation and rumours," WHO officials said Tuesday on day two of a three-day meeting of external experts tasked with evaluating the WHO's handling of H1N1 (swine flu), Agence France-Presse reports.

15 Apr 2010

Health bill provision on long-term care will affect baby boomers

Kaiser Health News' Peggy Girshman talks with National Council on Aging President and CEO Jim Firman about a specific part of the new health law -- one of the lesser-known provisions that may have one of the biggest and longest-lived impacts (Girshman, 4/13).

15 Apr 2010

Opinions: Health and living conditions; H1N1, one year later; global water shortages

Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Habitat for Humanity CEO Jonathan Reckford write in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution opinion piece about the need to "address the constant crisis families face daily in deplorable living conditions."

15 Apr 2010

Partners HealthCare offers $40 million to control health insurance costs in Massachusetts; Neb. Gov. signs new abortion law

Partners HealthCare, whose Boston teaching hospitals have been blamed for helping to drive up medical spending, is offering $40 million toward reducing double-digit health insurance rate increases for small businesses, part of a broader package that will be unveiled today by Senate President Therese Murray.

15 Apr 2010

The nuts and bolts of reform's new policies

The New York Times: "In a new report, the Congressional Research Service says the law may have significant unintended consequences for the 'personal health insurance coverage' of senators, representatives and their staff members." Lawmakers agreed to depart from their existing health plans in order to join new health insurance exchanges, something they have made available to many of their constituents. But, while the exchanges don't start up until 2014, the law is silent on when lawmakers must ditch their current benefits.

15 Apr 2010

Phase I clinical trial of DFMO initiated to treat children with neuroblastoma

A new Phase I clinical trial sponsored by the Vermont Cancer Center at the University of Vermont and Fletcher Allen Health Care has opened to test the investigational drug DFMO, or alpha-difluoromethylornithine, as a treatment for the pediatric cancer neuroblastoma.

15 Apr 2010