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White House 'rallies the faithful' for health overhaul push

The White House is going beyond the Wednesday speech to take control of the health reform debate, including a road trip to urge passage of legislation.

4 Sep 2009

Unseen health costs — often from defensive medicine — drive health costs

The Wall Street Journal reports that defensive medicine is a significant yet small portion of overall health care spending in America.

4 Sep 2009

Medicare advantage rates could go up, while Part D 'exceeding expectations'

"Despite near-zero inflation and recessionary conditions, health insurers in 2010 face another year of double-digit increases in the charges they pay for hospital services, physicians, drugs, and other healthcare costs," U.S. News and World Report writes in a news column.

4 Sep 2009

Town hall meetings continue to trigger unexpected events

The New York Times reports that conservatives are hungry for a real debate beyond the rhetoric at these events: "Far from embracing the attacks, many leading conservative health care policy experts said in recent interviews that the dynamic was precluding a more robust real-world debate while making it nearly impossible for them to inject their studied, free-market solutions into the discussion.

4 Sep 2009

Positive impact on medication adherence through Aetna's care management program

Aetna announced today results of an analysis from the first half of 2009, demonstrating an average medication adherence of over 95 percent for its members taking Specialty medications. Disease states evaluated in Aetna’s analysis include: multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV, Crohn's disease, Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH), psoriasis, Hepatitis C and asthma.

4 Sep 2009

Minnesota offers model for cost-effective health care

In the second of two reports, NPR examines how Minnesota provides lessons on how to create a more cost-effective health care delivery system. "Many agree that the [fee-for-service] system for doctors and hospitals doesn't work ... and is a major driver in rising health care costs. The health care bills before Congress may do little to change that. But on the state level, Minnesota may have found its own way to move doctors off of the fee-for-service treadmill."

4 Sep 2009

New scholarship program announced for health care students

At a time when most health care professions are experiencing significant worker shortages and need is growing, community colleges and businesses are teaming up to support future graduates in key health care professions.

4 Sep 2009

Members of Congress will seek business investment in Rwanda

A delegation of five U.S. members of Congress traveling in Africa "pledged to woo the U.S. business community to invest in Rwanda," New Times/allAfrica.com reports. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), who is leading the delegation, "said that Rwanda has proven to be one of the most favourable places to do business and it would be a major destination for U.S. investors," the publication writes. "I think the U.S. can continue to send individuals here, businessmen especially, that would invest in Rwanda and also help the people of Rwanda. I think this is very important," Meeks said.

4 Sep 2009

World should contribute $23B to increase women's access to contraception, UNFPA says

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Tuesday "appealed for the world to contribute more to improve women's health and access to contraception," Agence France-Presse reports.

4 Sep 2009

Uninsured populations to receive health care coverage through grants from HHS

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced $70.9 million in grants to 13 states to support the expansion of health care coverage for their uninsured populations.

4 Sep 2009

Complaint filed against Coventry for violating the Exchange Act

Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP (“Coughlin Stoia”) today announced that a class action has been commenced on behalf of an institutional investor in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland on behalf of purchasers of the common stock of Coventry Health Care, Inc. (“Coventry” or the “Company”) between February 9, 2007 and October 22, 2008, inclusive (the “Class Period”), seeking to pursue remedies under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”).

4 Sep 2009

Obama's health care dilemma evokes memories of 1974

Kaiser Health News reports on similarities between past and present health reform efforts.

4 Sep 2009

Pzifer to pay $2.3 billion in medicare/medicaid fraud settlement

The Obama administration announced a landmark $2.3 billion health care fraud settlement with Pfizer, Inc. Wednesday, which is expected to change drug companies' promotion of off-label use of medicines.

4 Sep 2009

Media examine debate over UNESCO international sex education guidelines

The New York Times examines how "[a] set of proposed international sex education guidelines aimed at reducing H.I.V. infections among young people" and unplanned pregnancies, based on "more than 80 studies of sex education," has received some criticism. The release of the final guidelines, originally scheduled for next week by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), has been delayed.

4 Sep 2009

Grant application guidelines released by The Center for Technology and Aging

The Center for Technology and Aging today released grant application guidelines for a $500,000 Medication Optimization Diffusion Grants Program. Up to six one-year grants will be made to organizations successfully proposing programs that directly benefit older adults. Four or five grants will focus on Californians, while one or two may benefit older adults in other regions of the U.S.

4 Sep 2009

Lessons for America: comparing health systems across Europe

Forbes published a package of articles and opinion pieces called "Public Vs. Private Health Care," which compares health care systems across Europe.

4 Sep 2009

Health workers' misdeeds kept in secret database

NPR: "Twenty-two years ago, the federal government started keeping a list of nurses, nurse aides, pharmacists and pharmacy aides who've been disciplined by state licensing boards. It's called the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank. But hospitals and nursing homes aren't allowed to see the database." The database was intended to be "open to hospitals and nursing homes when they hire staff and want to run a background check.

4 Sep 2009

Expectations high for Obama's 'Major Address' to Congress on health reform

President Obama plans to address Congress on Wednesday, only a day after lawmakers return from their August break, to spell out in detail his vision for overhauling health care, The Associated Press reports. The move signals that "Democrats have all but given up hope for a bipartisan breakthrough by Senate Finance Committee negotiators," because that committee - the only one seeking across-the-aisle compromise - had been given a Sept. 15 deadline.

4 Sep 2009

Also in global health news: Africa measles eradication; water, food security in South Asia; MDR-TB in Mumbai; SADC summit; U.S. Cuba embargo

WHO Regional Director for Africa Luis Gomes Sambo said Tuesday during the 59th Session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa in Kigali, Rwanda, that measles could be eradicated from the continent by 2020, citing an 89 percent reduction in the number of deaths caused by measles between 2000 and 2007, Angencia AngolaPress reports.

4 Sep 2009

Survey reveals health plan costs to increase in 2010

According to The Segal Company’s just-completed survey of projected 2010 health plan costs, medical plan cost trends will continue to be more than four times greater than the annual increase in average hourly earnings and in sharp contrast to changes in the consumer price index for urban consumers, which have been relatively flat or negative in the past 12 months.

4 Sep 2009