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Health overhaul could worsen doctor shortages

BusinessWeek: "Presuming Congress passes some version of a health-care bill and it is signed into law, some 30 million currently uninsured people will suddenly find themselves with access to doctors. But there may not be enough doctors to see them."

18 Dec 2009

STERIPLEX HC kills MRSA and other pathogens in record time

STERIPLEX® Health Care (HC) is a new Sterilant/Sporicide, Tuberculocide, and Bactericide, which has recently received Federal EPA Registration. STERIPLEX® HC sets new standards, killing MRSA, spores and other pathogens in a fraction of the time of competing products while remaining safe to people and the environment.

18 Dec 2009

VA apologizes for faulty prostate-cancer program in Pa. but denies radiation violations

"The Department of Veterans Affairs yesterday apologized repeatedly for a prostate-cancer program that gave incorrect radiation doses to veterans for six years at its main Philadelphia hospital," The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

18 Dec 2009

Roundup of health policy research and analyses

Urban Institute/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: What Would Health Care Reform Mean for Small Employers and Their Workers? - "Small employers and their workers face a broad assortment of barriers to obtaining health insurance coverage today," such as "high administrative costs, limited ability to spread health care risk, and a low-wage workforce."

18 Dec 2009

Health industry revenue up 5.7 percent, some seniors head south for care

The Dallas Morning News reports that the U.S. Census released a report Thursday that showed health care industry's revenues grew 5.7 percent in 2008 to $1.75 trillion. The number represents 30 percent of economic activity in the U.S., according to a Census official. "The Census Bureau cites Texas as one of the most expensive states for health care.

18 Dec 2009

The backstories of politicians scrambling on health legislation

Politico: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has kept his legislative strategy for the health overhaul under wraps, even from his closest lieutenants. "As Reid works furiously to line up the 60 votes he needs for the most sweeping health care bill in generations, the majority leader is playing an insider's insider's game. He's having private, one-on-one conversations with colleagues, and he's not sharing the contents with others.

18 Dec 2009

COBRA extension moves forward - in defense appropriations bill

Modern Healthcare: "The Senate is expected to vote on a fiscal 2010 Defense appropriations bill by this weekend that would extend a health insurance subsidy for laid-off workers through February 2010. The House has approved the subsidy extension for the COBRA program, which was tucked into the $636.3 billion Defense appropriations bill."

18 Dec 2009

A selection of today's opinions and editorials

No one has guaranteed ways to slow the growth of health-care spending and ... the pending bills include most of the ways experts believe are likely to succeed (Henry J. Aaron, 12/18).

18 Dec 2009

Republicans oppose military spending to delay health bill

Senate Republicans attempted last night to block a $626 billion defense bill in hopes that stalling the military spending legislation would delay Democrats' work on the health overhaul, The Washington Post reports. By a 63-33 vote early Friday morning, the defense measure cleared a key procedural hurdle that should now allow it to gain passage and, as a result, allow the Senate to return to the health bill.

18 Dec 2009

Labor leaders term Senate health bill 'inadequate'

CBS News: "Labor leaders from two influential unions today called the Senate health care bill 'inadequate,' but they stopped short of pulling their support for the bill. Instead, they are pressing the White House and Congress to modify the bill more to make it more like the House health reform package. After a meeting yesterday with leaders of the Service Employees International Union and a meeting today with its members, SEIU President Andy Stern said the union does not think the Senate is willing or able to make any more progress on its bill.

18 Dec 2009

Senate health bill relies on government regulation to expand coverage

The Los Angeles Times: "When Senate Democratic leaders agreed this week to remove a public insurance plan from their massive healthcare bill, they did more than quash a liberal dream of expanding the government safety net. They effectively pinned their hopes of guaranteeing coverage to all Americans on a far more conventional prescription: government regulation.

18 Dec 2009

White House stung by Liberal health bill backlash

The Wall Street Journal reports on the criticism emanating from the left regarding the Senate health bill. "Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is mounting a campaign of sorts against the initiative in its current form.

18 Dec 2009

Senate leaders in hot pursuit of the elusive 60th vote: Ben Nelson

The Associated Press: "With just days remaining to prove that they can meet a self-imposed Christmas deadline and pass President Barack Obama's signature initiative through the Senate, Democrats seeking a rendezvous with history instead detoured to an intraparty brawl. ... All eyes were on the only known Democratic holdout, moderate Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, whose primary concern is that abortion funding restrictions in the bill were too lax.

18 Dec 2009

Congress lifts federal ban on needle exchange programs

The Minnesota Independent: "An appropriations bill passed by Congress last weekend is being hailed by public health advocates for ending funding for abstinence-until-marriage sex education and eliminating the ban on federal funding for needle exchange programs" (Birkey, 12/17).

18 Dec 2009

ABC News should focus more on integrity, says National Center for Public Policy Research

ABC News should focus less on Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer and more on integrity, says the National Center for Public Policy Research, which just completed an advertising review of ABC's nightly World News.

18 Dec 2009

First Edition: December 18, 2009

The highlights from today's headlines focus on continuing movement in the Senate toward a pre-Christmas health overhaul vote -- but many questions about its cost, and how many votes it can attract, persist.

18 Dec 2009

PSS World Medical chooses inVNT to produce its annual national meeting for 1,500 employees

PSS World Medical, Inc., a national distributor of medical products to physicians and long-term health care providers, chose the live events agency inVNT to produce its annual national meeting for 1,500 employees. inVNT used creative cost-saving measures to stage a high-energy meeting while supporting PSS’ efforts to reduce spending.

18 Dec 2009

NHCAA, LearnSomething partner to develop a fraud, waste and abuse compliance training solution

The National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association, the leading national organization focused exclusively on the fight against health care fraud, has partnered with LearnSomething, Inc., to develop a compliance training solution that satisfies the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid's (CMS) requirement for fraud, waste and abuse training.

18 Dec 2009

One quarter of Detroit-area Arab Americans reported personal or familial abuse since 9/11

One quarter of Detroit-area Arab Americans reported personal or familial abuse because of race, ethnicity or religion since 9/11, leading to higher odds of adverse health effects, according to a new University of Michigan study.

18 Dec 2009

Government not held accountable for keeping nurses safe during SARS, Supreme Court denies appeal

Registered nurses in Ontario are devastated today to learn that the Supreme Court of Canada has denied an appeal of an earlier legal decision regarding responsibility for keeping nurses safe during the SARS outbreak.

18 Dec 2009