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State roundup: Immigration proposal could mean big state health care costs

Making immigrants ineligible for public health benefits -- at least initially -- under proposed immigration law changes would push the costs of health care from the federal government to states and counties, said Sonal Ambegaokar, a health policy attorney at the National Immigration Law Center.

18 Apr 2013

House-Senate 'endgame talks' face political hurdles, delays

The House GOP is moving slowly in naming negotiators to work through differences between the House- and Senate-passed budgets.

18 Apr 2013

Hospitals profit when surgeries go wrong, study finds

The study, which was published Tuesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association, found that hospitals earned 330 percent higher profit margins on surgeries with one or more complications, because private insurers pay them for longer stays and extra care.

18 Apr 2013

Federally qualified health centers lag behind in controlling blood pressure, study shows

Federally funded safety-net clinics for the uninsured lag behind other health care providers in controlling blood pressure among the low-income patients who rely on them for care, a new Michigan State University analysis suggests.

18 Apr 2013

First Edition: April 17, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about a new study finding that surgical woes can actually bolster a hospital's profits.

17 Apr 2013

Occurrence of postsurgical complications associated with higher hospital profit-margins: Study

Findings of an analysis that included nearly 35,000 surgical discharges from a 12-hospital system suggest that the occurrence of postsurgical complications was associated with a higher per-encounter hospital contribution margin for patients covered by Medicare and private insurance but a lower one for patients covered by Medicaid and who self-paid, according to a study in the April 17 issue of JAMA.

17 Apr 2013

Viewpoints: 9 'brilliant legal minds' wrestle with tough biological questions in gene case; Drug overdoses take surprising toll in Calif.; VA case raises privacy questions

When the Supreme Court took up the question Monday of whether genes could be patented, the justices were clearly concerned about preserving innovation in medicine and biotechnology. But the issue presented by Myriad Genetics' patents on the BRCA genes cuts both ways, leading to a potential split among the justices (Jon Healey, 4/15).

17 Apr 2013

Panel expected to give Tavenner the nod, send nomination on to the full Senate

This week brings a full schedule as top federal health officials head for Capitol Hill to defend their 2014 budget requests.

17 Apr 2013

Medicare auditors say millions could be saved by limiting advance payments to insurers

According to a report by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, the federal program prepays private insurers approximately 20 days before they pay their pharmacy bills but does not require them to return any of the interest earned during the time they hold that money.

17 Apr 2013

New partnership to introduce advanced genetic testing technologies to Turkey

BGI Health and ACIBADEM Healthcare Group Genetic Diagnostic Center in cooperation with Genoks Company Molecular Biology, signed a Memorandum of Understanding for jointly introducing the advanced genetic testing technologies to Turkey and improving Turkish reproductive healthcare.

17 Apr 2013

Study compares clinical outcomes of routine screening mammography with and without CAD

A costly and widely used mammography add-on increases detection of noninvasive and early-stage invasive breast cancer but also makes more mistakes than mammography alone, researchers from UC Davis and the University of Washington have found.

17 Apr 2013

House panels kick off hearings on slowing Medicare, social security spending

Among the proposals that will be discussed and debated are increasing Medicare premiums for higher-income seniors and raising the program's eligibility age.

17 Apr 2013

Study finds no evidence that digoxin increases mortality in patients with atrial fibrillation

A study published today in the European Heart Journal found no evidence that digoxin increases mortality in patients with atrial fibrillation, the opposite of results just published by another group in the same journal analyzing the same data.

17 Apr 2013

Large numbers of ER visits go unreported in calculating hospital readmission rates

A study led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Boston University School of Medicine has found that nearly one quarter of patients may return to the emergency department within 30 days of being discharged from a hospitalization.

17 Apr 2013