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Secretary of Labor: Congress extends unemployment insurance, COBRA safety net programs

It is essential that Congress extend the unemployment insurance and COBRA safety net programs that are part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act past their current expiration date of Feb. 28. If Emergency Unemployment Compensation and full federal funding of the Extended Benefit program are not extended, 400,000 Americans will lose these vital benefits during the first couple of weeks in March.

27 Feb 2010

Frequent error in medicine occurs nearly one out of three times a patient is referred to specialist: Study

The most frequent error in medicine seems to occur nearly one out of three times a patient is referred to a specialist. A new study found that nearly a third of patients age 65 and older referred to a specialist are not scheduled for appointments and therefore do not receive the treatment their primary care doctor intended.

27 Feb 2010

VA announces two contracts to create polytrauma center that cares for severely injured Veterans

The Department of Veterans Affairs announced the award of two contracts totaling $41.5 million to create a "polytrauma center" that cares for the most severely injured Veterans and to improve the existing wards at the Audie L. Murphy VA Medical Center.

27 Feb 2010

Hospital Roundup: Recession takes toll on NY hospital, investigation of heart surgeries in Maryland and California's soaring fees

The New York Times: Harlem's North General hospital may fold. Despite "often successful" efforts by "Harlem's civic, political and religious leaders … to get more money and more state subsidies to keep it going," the hospital may not survive this period of general "economic malaise." The hospital serves many low-income and uninsured patients in addition to middle-income patients. A rehabilitation center operated by a city-run hospital appears to be eyeing its location for an expansion as hospital officials consider restructuring and linking up with partners (Hartocollis, 2/25).

27 Feb 2010

National Alliance for Hispanic Health urges Congress to support health insurance reform bill

"Health is more than insurance coverage, but it is critical that this step be accomplished as we continue our journey towards health care for all," said Dr. Jane L. Delgado, President and CEO of the National Alliance for Hispanic Health, the nation's leading Hispanic health advocacy group. According to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, more than a third (37.1%) of Hispanic workers do not have health insurance.

27 Feb 2010

Midlothian Laboratories donates more than $3M worth of vitamins, nutritional supplements to AmeriCares

Midlothian Laboratories, a division of Hi-Tech Pharmacal Co., Inc., as part of its continuing humanitarian relief efforts, recently donated more than $3 million worth of essential vitamins and nutritional supplements to AmeriCares for people in the developing world living in extreme poverty and suffering from chronic malnutrition.

27 Feb 2010

KHN's Blog Watch: Taking in the health care confab

Kaiser Health News' Blog Watch column details some of yesterday's chatter in the blogosphere. "It was a long day of commentary for many health policy bloggers, who concluded that President Barack Obama signaled his intention to push forward with the current proposals, though who will score the most political points from the seven hour health care summit remains contentious"

27 Feb 2010

State roundup: S.C. plan would end benefits to 30,000 disabled residents; Judge bars Calif. from cutting elderly from day care; Mass. faces lawsuit on immigrant health care

Children with autism, people with spine and brain injuries and the long-term disabled in job programs are among the 30,000 people who would lose state help under a $5.1 billion spending plan approved by a House committee Thursday.

27 Feb 2010

Health Policy Research Roundup: Length of hospital stays, analyses of Obama's reform proposals

Archives Of Internal Medicine: Hospital Cost Of Care, Quality Of Care, And Readmission Rates - This study compares patients treated for pneumonia and congestive heart failure (CHF) and finds that high-cost hospitals don't always deliver better care. The researchers, who based their analysis on the data from 3,146 hospitals in the 2004 to 2006 Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR), report that "risk-adjusted costs of care for CHF and pneumonia varied widely between hospitals, although hospital cost-of-care patterns seemed stable over time and correlated across conditions."

27 Feb 2010

Health on the Hill: After the summit

Kaiser Health News staff writer Mary Agnes Carey and the Kaiser Family Foundation's Jackie Judd discuss the health care summit between President Obama, Republicans and Democrats. The forum ended with the president laying out some areas of consensus between the two parties but many disagreements remain (Kaiser Health News).

27 Feb 2010

CPIPA selects ICA’s CareAlign technology to broaden existing reporting functions

Informatics Corporation of America (ICA), unmatched in its ability to deliver a cost-effective, proven solution that leverages complete data across clinical settings to aid decision-making and improve patient outcomes, announced that its CareAlign™ technology was selected by Tennessee-based Cumberland Pediatrics Independent Practice Association (CPIPA).

27 Feb 2010

Federal officials focus on radiation practices at Florida clinic; Medical scan makers announce new efforts to prevent mistakes

Medicare regulations require that when patients receive some types of highly specialized cancer treatments, their radiation oncologist must be on site. But The New York Times reports that federal officials are investigating a Florida cancer clinic that billed Medicare for such treatments while the doctors were absent, sometimes on overseas trips.

27 Feb 2010

Federal officials seek to root out financial and Medicare fraud

The head of the U.S. Department of Justice's criminal division told a gathering of criminal defense lawyers on Thursday that the division was using tools 'not often seen in white collar cases' to combat financial fraud," which includes Medicare.

27 Feb 2010

President Obama, Pelosi inaccurately respond: Health bills do not fund abortion

Yesterday members of Congress attended the White House Summit on Health Care Legislation. Responding to a claim by Minority Leader John Boehner that the health care legislation will fund abortion, President Obama dismissed it as talking points and "untrue." Speaker Pelosi also inaccurately responded that the health bills do not fund abortion.

27 Feb 2010

Fact-checks of the bipartisan health care summit

News outlets fact-check the bipartisan health care summit and provide analyses of the messaging and poll numbers lawmakers used during the six-hour event.

27 Feb 2010

Colorado city a model for low-cost, high quality care, series details

Colorado Public News/Los Angeles Times presents a series of stories about Grand Junction Colorado which delivers some of the best and lowest-cost health care in the nation.

26 Feb 2010

Criticism, passion emerge at health care summit

NPR interviewed Rep. Dave Camp, ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee. Camp said: "We were able to at least be heard and have some exposure to the ideas that we've been promoting for a long time. And the president did finally say in the close that we do have ideas that lower costs in insurance and that — do it without increasing taxes. And we don't cut Medicare. And we don't have new mandates in our proposals. So this is really the first opportunity we've had to really focus not only our colleagues and the president, but also the American people on the proposals we've had" (Siegel, 2/25).

26 Feb 2010

House votes to extend COBRA benefits for a month, Bunning stalls Senate action

After the House passed a month-long extension of COBRA and other benefits for laid-off workers, the Senate Thursday did not follow suit, "jeopardizing unemployment benefits scheduled to expire over the weekend," The Associated Press reports.

26 Feb 2010

Landrieu comments on the release of updated report addressing healthcare concerns of small businesses

Following the President's bipartisan health care forum yesterday, it is good to see that the administration is continuing to address the healthcare concerns of small businesses. The fact is, owners want to provide stable, quality insurance for their employees and they need to in order to stay competitive. But as this report reveals, skyrocketing costs are too much to bear.

26 Feb 2010

Partisanship peaks at health summit, Democrats likely to go it alone

Thursday's bipartisan health summit ended with the partisan rift intact, increasing the possibility that President Barack Obama will try to unify Democrats to pass legislation without GOP support.

26 Feb 2010

Health Care News and Research

Secretary of Labor: Congress extends unemployment insurance, COBRA safety net programs

Frequent error in medicine occurs nearly one out of three times a patient is referred to specialist: Study

VA announces two contracts to create polytrauma center that cares for severely injured Veterans

Hospital Roundup: Recession takes toll on NY hospital, investigation of heart surgeries in Maryland and California's soaring fees

National Alliance for Hispanic Health urges Congress to support health insurance reform bill

Midlothian Laboratories donates more than $3M worth of vitamins, nutritional supplements to AmeriCares

KHN's Blog Watch: Taking in the health care confab

State roundup: S.C. plan would end benefits to 30,000 disabled residents; Judge bars Calif. from cutting elderly from day care; Mass. faces lawsuit on immigrant health care

Health Policy Research Roundup: Length of hospital stays, analyses of Obama's reform proposals

Health on the Hill: After the summit

CPIPA selects ICA’s CareAlign technology to broaden existing reporting functions

Federal officials focus on radiation practices at Florida clinic; Medical scan makers announce new efforts to prevent mistakes

Federal officials seek to root out financial and Medicare fraud

President Obama, Pelosi inaccurately respond: Health bills do not fund abortion

Fact-checks of the bipartisan health care summit

Colorado city a model for low-cost, high quality care, series details

Criticism, passion emerge at health care summit

House votes to extend COBRA benefits for a month, Bunning stalls Senate action

Landrieu comments on the release of updated report addressing healthcare concerns of small businesses

Partisanship peaks at health summit, Democrats likely to go it alone

Event guide: 3rd Measuring Patient Engagement Summit eBook

How ELRIG Is Helping Mid-Career Scientists Navigate Leadership, Career Change and Redundancy

The role of UV-Vis in biopharma QC

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