Medicare News and Research

RSS

Exalenz Bioscience launches BreathID Hp to test and treat H. pylori

Exalenz Bioscience, developer of advanced diagnostic systems that use a patient's breath to detect and help manage gastrointestinal and liver conditions, announced today the global launch of the BreathID Hp, a next generation device in the company's BreathID product line.

15 Jul 2013

Actavis receives FDA approval for Opana ER tablets

Actavis, Inc. (NYSE: ACT) today announced that it has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on its Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for Oxymorphone Hydrochloride Extended-release Tablets, 5 mg, 10 mg, 20 mg, 30 mg and 40 mg.

15 Jul 2013

Two upcoming votes in House part of GOP continuing assault on health law

House Speaker John Boehner said the chamber will vote next week to delay the 2010 health-care law's requirement that most Americans carry health insurance. At his weekly news conference today, the speaker said it's not fair for President Barack Obama's administration to keep that provision in effect while postponing enforcement of the requirement that businesses provide their workers with insurance (Hunter, 7/11).

15 Jul 2013

ACOEM, ACPM urge adoption of stronger national policies for preventive medicine

The American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and the American College of Preventive Medicine urged the adoption of stronger national policies to encourage preventive medicine - including in the workplace -- during a special Congressional briefing Tuesday, July 9 in Washington, D.C.

15 Jul 2013

Older minority male cancer survivors less likely to receive basic preventive care: Study

Older African-American and Hispanic men who have survived cancer are less likely than their white counterparts to see a specialist or receive basic preventive care, such as vaccinations, according to new research from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

15 Jul 2013

Obamacare implementation issues: Rollout resembles some of the problems of Medicare Part D

NPR examines how the implementation of that last big government health program might offer lessons for the health law. Also, two stories explore outreach to people needing insurance and the grocery chain Wegmans reportedly is cutting health benefits to part-time workers.

15 Jul 2013

First Edition: July 12, 2013

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including articles on data tracking of doctors and comparing the rollout of the Medicare Part D drug plans to implementation of the federal health law.

12 Jul 2013

Viewpoints: 'Implosion' of the ACA; Administration 'spin machine'; Republicans on 'search-and-destroy' mission

July 3 was the quiet afternoon that a deputy assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy announced in a blog post that the Affordable Care Act's employer mandate would be delayed one year. Something about the "complexity of the requirements." ... Even if you are a liberal and support the goals of the Affordable Care Act, there has to be an emerging sense that maybe the law's theorists missed a signal from life outside the castle walls. While they troweled brick after brick into a 2,000-page law, the rest of the world was reshaping itself into smaller, more nimble units whose defining metaphor is the 140-character Twitter message (Daniel Henninger, 7/10).

12 Jul 2013

CMS to settle payment fight over Gamma Knife

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has proposed a new rule that would effectively put to rest a provision inserted into last year's fiscal cliff bill by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) to help a U.S. company.

12 Jul 2013

Weekend reading: Doctors who decide, death desires, and decisions

On the last week of April earlier this year, a small committee of doctors met quietly in a midsized ballroom at the Renaissance Hotel in Chicago. There was an anesthesiologist, an ophthalmologist, a radiologist, and so on - thirty-one in all, each representing their own medical specialty society, each a heavy hitter in his or her own field.

12 Jul 2013

The number and severity of lower limb amputations have decreased in US

There have been dramatic decreases in the number and severity of lower limb amputations over the past decade, according to a new study published in the July 2013 issue of Foot & Ankle International.

12 Jul 2013

First Edition: July 11, 2013

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations including reports from Capitol Hill about GOP efforts to repeal or delay the health law.

11 Jul 2013

Office nurses' role evolves in marketplace; Studies look at heart procedures

The Wall Street Journal examines how companies, facing higher insurance costs, are using office nurses to "nudge employees about long-term, expensive conditions." Meanwhile, heart studies probe where hospitals are building new angioplasty centers and how Medicare Advantage handles cardiac treatment.

11 Jul 2013

Medicare to propose new doctor payment for managing multiple chronic conditions

Medicare is proposing paying doctors for managing Medicare patients with multiple chronic conditions starting in 2015. In the meantime, a Medicare plan to deny an Eli Lily diagnostic test to patients unless they are enrolled in a clinical trial is decried by some Alzheimer's treatment advocates.

11 Jul 2013

State highlights: Disabled at risk at Calif. facilities, audit finds; Advocates push for single policy for kids' medical, dental coverage in exchange plans; Ga. maternal mortality

Californians with developmental disabilities who are cared for at state facilities are being put at risk by outdated policies and inadequate investigations of abuse, the state auditor's office said Tuesday. Allegations that residents have been raped, shot with stun guns and otherwise abused have not been acted on satisfactorily, auditors found. The California Department of Developmental Services cares for 1,480 severely disabled people in five facilities throughout the state (McGreevy, 7/9).

11 Jul 2013

Minn., Texas, Colo., other states adapting to health law in different ways

News outlets covered how various states are ramping up health exchanges, or not, and expanding Medicaid, or not.

11 Jul 2013

Restaurant owner welcomes delay on law’s insurance requirement

The New York Times profiles the challenges that one business owner faced with the health law. Other outlets offer news on the law, including the problems the administration faces in setting up the online marketplaces, concerns about scams targeting consumers and help for Medicare beneficiaries.

11 Jul 2013