Health and Human Services News and Research

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Roundup: Other states watching Mass. effort to cut costs; Iowa official denies GOP lawmakers' demand on abortion

As Massachusetts launches an aggressive effort to contain health care spending, the rest of the country will be watching. On July 31, lawmakers passed first-in-the-nation legislation pegging healthcare expenditures at or below the state's overall rate of economic growth, a strategy officials estimate could save Massachusetts as much as $200 billion over the next 15 years.

7 Aug 2012

First generic versions of Singulair receive FDA approval for treatment of asthma, allergies

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the first generic versions of Singulair (montelukast sodium) for use in adults and children to control asthma symptoms and to help relieve symptoms of indoor and outdoor allergies.

6 Aug 2012

Sanofi-aventis receives FDA approval for Zaltrap to treat colorectal cancer

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Zaltrap (ziv-aflibercept) for use in combination with a FOLFIRI (folinic acid, fluorouracil and irinotecan) chemotherapy regimen to treat adults with colorectal cancer.

6 Aug 2012

Ariz. delays Medicaid expansion decision, states make other health law implementation news

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer won't say until January if her state will expand Medicaid. In the meantime, advocates worry about whether health care for kids in Texas could be cut.

3 Aug 2012

Obama Administration promises new money to help Vets become physician assistants

The Obama administration has announced $2.3 million in grants to help veterans become physician assistants -- helping ease their transition back into civilian life.

3 Aug 2012

State roundup: N.Y. law requires coverage for partial mastectomy

New York's newest laws include one that will require health insurance to cover reconstructive surgery after partial mastectomies. Health insurers in New York must already cover the cost of reconstructive surgery after a full mastectomy (8/2).

3 Aug 2012

Goals of curtailing sales of tobacco to underage youth continue to be met

A new report on the Synar Amendment program - a federal and state partnership aimed at ending illegal tobacco sales to minors—shows that all the states and the District of Columbia have continued to meet their goals of curtailing sales of tobacco to underage youth (those under 18). The report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which sponsors the Synar program, shows that the average national retailer violation rate of tobacco sales is down to 8.5 percent, the lowest level in the history of the program.

3 Aug 2012

Depression in kidney cancer patients associated with survival and inflammatory gene regulation

Research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has found that symptoms of depression in patients with newly diagnosed metastatic kidney cancer are associated with survival and inflammatory gene regulation may explain this link.

3 Aug 2012

Birth control coverage mandate impacts doctors, women, religious groups

Physicians say they -- rather than insurers -- will feel the burden of the rule. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress stay relatively quiet on the requirement, but tensions continue among Catholics and evangelical Protestants.

3 Aug 2012

Viewpoints: Orszag on CAP cost-control proposals; High-tech and health costs

The Center for American Progress proposals thus wisely recognize that there is no single strategy to continue the recent progress in slowing the growth in health-care costs. In contrast, the Republican budget plan put forward by Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin seems based on a belief that all that's needed is to shift risks: from Medicare to beneficiaries through a premium-support program, and from the federal government to state governments by turning Medicaid into block grants.

3 Aug 2012

HSF1 increases expression of chaperones and supports cancer metastasis

Whitehead Institute researchers have found that increased expression of a specific set of genes is strongly associated with metastasis and death in patients with breast, colon, and lung cancers.

3 Aug 2012

Weill Cornell Medical College receives NCATS grant to fund Clinical and Translational Science Center

Weill Cornell Medical College has received $49.6 million from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to fund its Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC).

3 Aug 2012

Health law's medical-loss ratio and birth control coverage requirements kick in today

Aug. 1 marks the deadline for insurers to refund consumers and employers if they didn't spend at least 80 percent of premiums on health care. Another provision takes effect requiring most employers to include contraceptive and other women's health services without copays in the insurance plans they offer workers.

2 Aug 2012

People with diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia have difficultly managing all 3 conditions

Most people who have diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol have difficultly managing all three conditions; indeed, success is fleeting for those who do manage all three, according to a Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Research study that appears online in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

1 Aug 2012

First Edition: August 1, 2012

WBUR's Martha Bebinger, working in partnership with Kaiser Health News and NPR, reports: "The Massachusetts Legislature Tuesday passed the next phase of its ongoing attempt to reform the health care system: sweeping cost control legislation. Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, hailed the lawmakers' work saying, 'This is more than a good bill, a great bill.'"

1 Aug 2012

How the Republicans might reshape Medicaid if they win the White House and Congress

The Los Angeles Times reports on how the GOP is readying a push to scale back the health insurance program for the poor if it takes control of the White House and Congress next year. Meanwhile, the insurance industry is paying $1.1 billion in rebates to consumers under the health care law, and eying congressional efforts to overhaul the tax code next year as its best chance to roll back a new health insurance tax.

1 Aug 2012

ICF receives IDIQ contract to conduct pilot and evaluation studies, statistical analysis and TTA

ICF International, a leading provider of consulting services and technology solutions to government and commercial clients, has been awarded a re-compete multiple-award Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to conduct pilot and evaluation studies, statistical analysis, and training and technical assistance (TTA).

31 Jul 2012

Roundup: N.J. public may decide if judges should pay more for health care; Ore. Medicaid experiment to launch; Uncertainty around Va. abortion clinic rules

The New Jersey State Assembly is set to consider a measure that would allow voters to decide whether New Jersey judges should pay more for their pensions and health benefits. The state Supreme Court ruled last week that judges don't have to contribute more toward pensions and health care despite a new law requiring them to do so. The court said the law diminishes judges' salaries, which are protected by state law.

31 Jul 2012

Health systems must prepare for aging population living with HIV

"Many health systems are not ready to cope with the relatively new phenomenon" of people living with HIV (PLHIV) growing older, PlusNews reports. "Data on aging with HIV is largely restricted to the developed world and very little is known about older Africans living with virus, despite the high caseload in this region," the news service writes, adding, "A July 2012 supplement of the medical journal, AIDS, notes that an estimated three million people in sub-Saharan Africa aged 50 and older are HIV-positive -- 14 percent of all infected adults.

30 Jul 2012

Early ART treatment delays AIDS-related health events in HIV-infected individuals

Further analyses of the landmark NIH-funded treatment-as-prevention study (HPTN 052) have found that providing antiretroviral treatment to HIV-infected individuals earlier, when their immune systems are healthier, delays AIDS-related health events, such as chronic herpes simplex virus and tuberculosis, as well as death. Additionally, researchers found that earlier HIV treatment is also cost-effective because it increases survival, prevents costly opportunistic infections and averts transmission of the virus to uninfected individuals.

30 Jul 2012

Health and Human Services News and Research

Roundup: Other states watching Mass. effort to cut costs; Iowa official denies GOP lawmakers' demand on abortion

First generic versions of Singulair receive FDA approval for treatment of asthma, allergies

Sanofi-aventis receives FDA approval for Zaltrap to treat colorectal cancer

Ariz. delays Medicaid expansion decision, states make other health law implementation news

Obama Administration promises new money to help Vets become physician assistants

State roundup: N.Y. law requires coverage for partial mastectomy

Goals of curtailing sales of tobacco to underage youth continue to be met

Depression in kidney cancer patients associated with survival and inflammatory gene regulation

Birth control coverage mandate impacts doctors, women, religious groups

Viewpoints: Orszag on CAP cost-control proposals; High-tech and health costs

HSF1 increases expression of chaperones and supports cancer metastasis

Weill Cornell Medical College receives NCATS grant to fund Clinical and Translational Science Center

Health law's medical-loss ratio and birth control coverage requirements kick in today

People with diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia have difficultly managing all 3 conditions

First Edition: August 1, 2012

How the Republicans might reshape Medicaid if they win the White House and Congress

ICF receives IDIQ contract to conduct pilot and evaluation studies, statistical analysis and TTA

Roundup: N.J. public may decide if judges should pay more for health care; Ore. Medicaid experiment to launch; Uncertainty around Va. abortion clinic rules

Health systems must prepare for aging population living with HIV

Early ART treatment delays AIDS-related health events in HIV-infected individuals

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