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AAPC's 2010 National Conference to be held in Nashville, Tennessee

The American Academy of Professional Coders announced its 2010 National Conference being held at the Gaylord Opryland hotel in Nashville, Tennessee on June 6–9. This annual event draws thousands of attendees including doctors, medical coders and office/practice managers to connect on the business side of health care.

16 Feb 2010

Case study demonstrates positive impact of diabetes management program

A case study published in the current issue of the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacists, demonstrates the positive impact of a diabetes management program designed to educate and motivate members to engage in their health care. The program was implemented by CVS Caremark and Polk County, Florida, a self-insured government employer client.

16 Feb 2010

Governor Pawlenty's proposed budget will hurt hospitals and people in Minnesota

Governor Tim Pawlenty's budget proposal announced today will severely hurt Minnesota's hospitals and the citizens they serve. His proposed budget would reduce payment rates for patients in state health programs, cut spending on medical education and put adults without children now covered by MinnesotaCare into the growing ranks of the uninsured. The current budget proposal would only make things worse in both the short term and the long term. If the governor's budget is adopted, hospitals will more than likely need to layoff more skilled workers and cut much-needed services.

16 Feb 2010

Lack of comprehensive insurance coverage is barrier for smoking cessation: Study

As a new year and decade begin, many Pennsylvanians have made an important resolution to quit smoking. Wanting to quit is a good first step, but it's not nearly enough. Smoking, we now know, is not just a "habit"; it's a true physical addiction, and, on average, most smokers try at least five times to quit.

16 Feb 2010

Infertility patients from across GTA demand government-funded IVF

Infertility patients from across the GTA gathered at Queen's Park this morning to demand government-funded in vitro fertilization (IVF). Larger than life children's building blocks on the steps of the provincial legislative building spelled out the $550 million the Ontario Expert Panel on Infertility and Adoption says the province could save in long term health care and social services costs by funding IVF.

16 Feb 2010

Nascent symptoms of autism in infants emerge during latter part of first year of life

A study of the development of autism in infants, comparing the behavior of the siblings of children diagnosed with autism to that of babies developing normally, has found that the nascent symptoms of the condition - a lack of shared eye contact, smiling and communicative babbling - are not present at 6 months, but emerge gradually and only become apparent during the latter part of the first year of life.

16 Feb 2010

Over 96% of SIDS cases due to known risk factors

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) continues to be the third leading cause of infant death, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), despite a decline in SIDS that is associated with a rise in safe-sleep practices for newborns and infants. A new study by Barbara M. Ostfeld, PhD and Thomas Hegyi, MD, professors in the Department of Pediatrics at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, has identified that more than 96 percent of infants who died of SIDS were exposed to known risk factors, among them sleeping on their side or stomach, or exposure to tobacco smoke, and that 78 percent of SIDS cases contained multiple risk factors.

16 Feb 2010

Safety scientist urges medical colleagues to better safety checklist

In the wake of Johns Hopkins' success in virtually eliminating intensive-care unit bloodstream infections via a simple five-step checklist, the safety scientist who developed and popularized the tool warns medical colleagues that they are no panacea.

16 Feb 2010

U.S. Department of Labor awards $4.95M grant for BRIDGE biotechnology project

San Diego State University, BIOCOM, San Diego Workforce Partnership, and the Southern California Biotechnology Center at Miramar College today announced the award of a three-year, $4.95 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor aimed at assisting the economic growth of the San Diego region's life sciences industry. The Biotechnology Readiness, Immersion, Certification and Degrees for Gainful Employment (BRIDGE) project will provide education, training, and placement services to more than 1,000 veterans, incumbent workers and dislocated and unemployed workers within the San Diego region.

16 Feb 2010

Altarum Institute awarded $19.6M ARRA funds to serve as lead agent in establishing M-CEITA

Ann Arbor-based Altarum Institute has been awarded a grant of $19,619,990 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to serve as the lead agent in establishing Michigan’s health information technology regional extension center, the Michigan Center for Effective IT Adoption (M-CEITA, www.mceita.org). The grant will be administered through the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and managed and sponsored by Altarum. It is expected to create over 100 new jobs in Michigan.

16 Feb 2010

American Showa joins with Concentra to open Showa Associates' Wellness Center in Ohio

For innovative employers, providing employee health coverage entails more than just offering health insurance, it becomes the focal point to improve the overall health of their employees and their families. American Showa, Inc., an auto parts manufacturer with two manufacturing plants in Ohio, is leading this effort by joining with Concentra to open the Showa Associates' Wellness Center, a new 4,000 sq ft medical center for their associates and their families located near their manufacturing facility in Blanchester, OH.

15 Feb 2010

Podesta says Obama White House 'lost the narrative' on health bill

"John Podesta, the president of the Center for American Progress who led Barack Obama's presidential transition, acknowledges the White House has been unable to successfully drive the debate on health care reform," Politico reports.

15 Feb 2010

National P4P Summit: National health care leaders to address today’s critical health care issues

The National P4P Summit is a must attend event with national health care leaders addressing today’s critical health care issues

15 Feb 2010

UC3M study reveals more than 900,000 people with right to public benefits in Spain

A study carried out at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) that evaluates the number of those affected by dependency and the costs associated with it in Spain, estimates that there are more than 900,000 people with a right to public benefits and that official numbers come up short in relation to initial forecasts.

15 Feb 2010

Two families having premature baby visit White House to share their inspiring stories with President Obama

Two families who know all too well the trauma of having a baby born prematurely visited the White House today to share their inspiring stories with President Obama. The Hall family from Leesburg, Va., and the Hoffman family from Weston, Fla., are ambassadors for the March of Dimes, a nonprofit foundation that works to prevent premature birth, birth defects, and infant mortality.

15 Feb 2010

Effective smoking cessation treatments

With the national trend toward quitting smoking flat, psychologists are finding some success with treatments aimed at helping smokers from underserved groups, including racial and ethnic minorities and those with psychiatric disorders.

15 Feb 2010

Anthem Blue Cross agrees to postpone rate adjustment for individual members in California

Earlier today, Anthem Blue Cross agreed to a request by the California Department of Insurance to postpone a rate adjustment for individual members in California by two months to allow the Department additional time for review. To avoid confusion for our members, this delay will impact all Anthem individual members regulated at either the state Department of Insurance or the Department of Managed Health Care.

15 Feb 2010

Humanitarian groups express concern that Haiti funding might affect efforts in other crisis countries

A coalition of more than 150 humanitarian groups expressed "concern" in a letter Thursday that more than half of the U.S. government's disaster-assistance program budget has been pledged to help Haiti, which they say could mean cuts for aid to countries such as Sudan or Somalia, the Washington Post reports.

15 Feb 2010

Research roundup: Bundled payments, PTSD incidence, cost of treating immigrants

This paper examines the spending for health care of adult naturalized citizens and immigrant noncitizens (including some undocumented immigrants) compared to U.S. natives, as documented in data from the 1999-2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys (MEPS): "inflation and age-adjusted health care expenditures among noncitizen immigrants were consistently … lower than those of naturalized citizens and U.S. natives during 1999-2006."

15 Feb 2010

Free educational webinar: Important aspects to be aware of when selecting EHR system

Community oncologists, practice administrators (PAs), executive directors (EDs), and clinical staff interested in learning the most important aspects to be aware of when selecting the Electronic Health Record (EHR) system most appropriate for your particular practice are invited to attend a free webinar at 2 p.m. EST (11 a.m. PST) on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2010.

15 Feb 2010

Health Care News and Research

AAPC's 2010 National Conference to be held in Nashville, Tennessee

Case study demonstrates positive impact of diabetes management program

Governor Pawlenty's proposed budget will hurt hospitals and people in Minnesota

Lack of comprehensive insurance coverage is barrier for smoking cessation: Study

Infertility patients from across GTA demand government-funded IVF

Nascent symptoms of autism in infants emerge during latter part of first year of life

Over 96% of SIDS cases due to known risk factors

Safety scientist urges medical colleagues to better safety checklist

U.S. Department of Labor awards $4.95M grant for BRIDGE biotechnology project

Altarum Institute awarded $19.6M ARRA funds to serve as lead agent in establishing M-CEITA

American Showa joins with Concentra to open Showa Associates' Wellness Center in Ohio

Podesta says Obama White House 'lost the narrative' on health bill

National P4P Summit: National health care leaders to address today’s critical health care issues

UC3M study reveals more than 900,000 people with right to public benefits in Spain

Two families having premature baby visit White House to share their inspiring stories with President Obama

Effective smoking cessation treatments

Anthem Blue Cross agrees to postpone rate adjustment for individual members in California

Humanitarian groups express concern that Haiti funding might affect efforts in other crisis countries

Research roundup: Bundled payments, PTSD incidence, cost of treating immigrants

Free educational webinar: Important aspects to be aware of when selecting EHR system

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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