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Opinions: PEPFAR; Private-civil society partnerships in Africa; Global maternal mortality; SA HIV testing campaign

"The Obama administration's new Global Health Initiative, designed to broaden and better integrate health programming overseas, deserves wide support. But stalling on global AIDS threatens to undermine the worthy goals of the initiative," Chris Collins, vice president and director of public polity for the Foundation for AIDS Research, writes in a Boston Globe letter to the editor calling for sustained support for PEPFAR.

20 Apr 2010

Increased health care costs concerns 99.4% of employers

Results of the 2010 UBA Employer Opinion Survey indicate that nearly all (99.4 percent) top decision makers are concerned with the impact of health care costs are having or are going to have on their overall corporate costs, according to newly released data.

20 Apr 2010

Lincare Holdings first-quarter net revenues increase 10.3% to $410M

Lincare Holdings Inc. today announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2010.

20 Apr 2010

KHN column -- Report from Michigan: What state residents stand to gain from health reform

On their way to Washington last week, Tea Party activists stopped in Lansing, Michigan. And among the officials who addressed them was Mike Cox, the state's Republican attorney general.

20 Apr 2010

Senate committee targets claim rejections by health insurers

The News Journal: A Senate committee has sent letters to two more Delaware insurance companies that have denied coverage for nuclear stress tests, imaging tests that are used to identify heart-attack causing arterial blockage.

20 Apr 2010

Atherotech to showcase VAP Cholesterol Test at Internal Medicine 2010

Atherotech Inc. announced it will exhibit its VAP® Cholesterol Test in booth #1305 at Internal Medicine 2010, the annual scientific meeting of the American College of Physicians (ACP). The meeting takes place April 22-24, 2010, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Canada.

20 Apr 2010

Health law hits consumers, companies in complex ways

News outlets report on the new health law's impact on various segments of the population, including the self-employed, small business owners and seniors.

20 Apr 2010

Two large health insurers extend coverage to young adults

The Wall Street Journal / Dow Jones: Two large U.S. health insurers have announced plans "to keep young adults on their parents' policies before a new law requiring such action goes into effect, and the government is working to get others to do the same. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, citing the insurers' moves, said Monday her department is 'working hard with other insurers on similar proposals' and sent letters offering to assist them in such efforts.

20 Apr 2010

Panel to save Medicare costs irks lawmakers

A Medicare panel meant to help lawmakers make tough choices about cutting costs in the program has drawn bipartisan ire, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports.

20 Apr 2010

Obama camp, industry shift from political battle to implementation focus

President Barack Obama's administration is shifting its focus from the politics of the health overhaul to the work of implementing it, which officials may pursue even more quickly than required by the law, The New York Times reports. Top health officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, White House adviser Pete Rouse, and Obama's health care lobbyist Nancy-Ann DeParle will all play central roles in implementing the law.

20 Apr 2010

Health care a key factor in some congressional races

USA Today: "In an election year dominated by health care, dozens of candidates for Congress have a catchy campaign slogan at their disposal: Send a doctor to the House. Forty-seven physicians — 41 Republicans and six Democrats — are running for the House or Senate this year, three times the number of doctors serving in Congress today, according to a USA TODAY review" (Fritze, 4/19).

20 Apr 2010

Consumers: How will health reform affect insurance premiums?

Las Vegas Sun: "Like many other Las Vegas Valley residents, Yvette Williams is hoping the new national health insurance law will choke down the siphoning of money from her family's budget." The family spends $12,000 a year on health care. "Because the new national health insurance law is supposed to give consumers more ways to get insurance, it's expected to force industry giants to offer more comprehensive plans at lower prices" (Kanigher, 4/19).

20 Apr 2010

White House officially names Berwick as pick to head CMS

"President Barack Obama has nominated Harvard medical professor Donald Berwick to oversee Medicare and Medicaid. Obama had signaled his plans in March and made them official Monday." The nomination must be confirmed by the Senate (4/19).

20 Apr 2010

Today's OpEds: Heritage disputes Obama's claims on health law; Florida nursing home reforms in danger

Think tank analysts usually brim with pride when the president of the United States goes around claiming that his policies are based on their work. But when President Obama tries to sell his health-care law as a moderate approach that borrows ideas developed by the Heritage Foundation, we get incensed (Robert Moffit, 4/19).

19 Apr 2010

Affinion Security Center enhances BreachShield service

Affinion Security Center, a leading provider of identity theft protection services, today announced enhancements to its BreachShield(SM) service, aimed at preventing, detecting and resolving Identity Theft resulting from data breaches for companies at risk and the consumers who trust those organizations. The new enhancements are designed for all types of organizations that experience a breach and include benefits that help customers at risk for medical identity theft.

19 Apr 2010

The AFA and IntegraMed partner to provide innovative fertility education programs

Patients dealing with infertility face many uncertainties, but now there is one place to find a comprehensive guide to almost every aspect of infertility treatment.

19 Apr 2010

Biomarkers to help predict development of aggressive colorectal cancer discovered

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Department of Pathology have discovered a set of four biomarkers that will help predict which patients are more likely to develop aggressive colorectal cancer and which are not. The findings also shed light on the genetics that result in worse colorectal cancer-treatment outcomes for African-Americans, compared with Caucasians, the researchers said.

19 Apr 2010