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Efforts to 'fix' Medicare payments at center of reform

The Wall Street Journal reports: "A plan to end a program that would cut government payments to doctors is emerging as the flash point in the debate over whether President Barack Obama's effort to overhaul the health system would increase the federal budget deficit.

20 Jul 2009

Health overhaul issues fill the Sunday talk shows

The Associated Press reports: "President Barack Obama's advisers are urging critics of their health care overhaul to wait for Congress to finish writing legislation before issuing verdicts. They also signaled they are willing to wait longer than their White House-imposed August deadline for action if it means they can sway wary lawmakers.

20 Jul 2009

Governors question Medicaid expansion while some states do more with CHIP

The New York Times reports that "The nation's governors, Democrats as well as Republicans, voiced deep concern Sunday about the shape of the health care plan emerging from Congress, fearing that Washington was about to hand them expensive new Medicaid obligations without money to pay for them.

20 Jul 2009

Clinton says U.S. will work with India to address health challenges, hunger

The U.S. will work to address the health challenges facing India among other countries and will aim to improve maternal and child health care services through comprehensive dialogue, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday after visiting a Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) trade outlet in Mumbai, India, PTI/Yahoo! News reports.

20 Jul 2009

South Africa launches HIV/AIDS vaccine trial

"The first clinical trial of an HIV/AIDS vaccine designed and developed in South Africa was launched in Cape Town" Monday, the SAPA/The Times reports.

20 Jul 2009

MSM HIV infection rates in some African countries significantly higher than general population rates, study says

HIV infection rates among gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM) in "some African countries are 10 times that of the general male population, and stigma, poor access to treatment or testing are to blame," according to a Lancet study published online on Monday, AFP/China Post reports.

20 Jul 2009

IAS Conference begins, report says economic crisis forcing Africans living with HIV/AIDS off life-saving medications

At a news conference opening the 5th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention on Sunday in Cape Town, South Africa, Julio Montaner, president of the International AIDS Society, expressed disappointment that the "G8 ignored the HIV-AIDS issue at its annual summit this month," which was "just four years after pledging at the 2005 Gleneagles [G8] summit to fight for universal access to AIDS treatment by 2010," the Globe and Mail reports.

20 Jul 2009

Can pen and paper help make electronic medical records better?

The results of a new study of the pen and paper workarounds employed by healthcare providers who use an electronic medical record system may help make electronic medical records even more useful to health-care providers and the patients they serve.

20 Jul 2009

FDA approves vaccine for 2009-2010 flu season

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that it has approved a vaccine for 2009-2010 seasonal influenza in the United States.

20 Jul 2009

‘In home’ GP visits at the press of a button

Tunstall Healthcare and Family Care Medical Service are working together to provide bulk billed, after hours GP visits for Tunstall Response clients.

17 Jul 2009

With pressure building, Baucus, Reid weigh in on timeline

Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said Thursday that it is possible his committee could have a bipartisan deal by the end of the day, Dow Jones Newswires/Wall Street Journal reports (Yoest, 7/16).

16 Jul 2009

Senate panel advances health-care overhaul, but battle lines sharpen

"President Obama's ambitious drive to overhaul the nation's $2.3 trillion health-care system cleared a key Senate committee yesterday. But the administration was promptly buffeted by criticism from some of the industry players and moderate Democrats it has courted for months, calling into question the prospects for a bipartisan landmark bill," The Washington Post reports.

16 Jul 2009

House Committees prepare for votes on health reform bill

Votes are planned Thursday in the House Education and Labor and Ways and Means committees on a $1.5 trillion plan to overhaul the nation's health care system, The Associated Press reports.

16 Jul 2009

Obama presses lawmakers on health reform

In President Obama's push for health reform, "new fault lines are opening up everywhere you look. Liberals are worried that Obama is going squishy on including a strong, government-run 'public option' among the health-care choices available to Americans.

16 Jul 2009

Massachusetts hospital sues state over cost of universal care

"A hospital that serves thousands of indigent Massachusetts residents sued the state on Wednesday, charging that its costly universal health care law is forcing the hospital to cover too much of the expense of caring for the poor," according to the New York Times.

16 Jul 2009

Cost of health care reform emerges as ‘lightning rod’ issue

The cost of health care reform has emerged as a key battle in overhaul efforts. Attention is being paid to how costs will affect specific groups including the middle class and businesses.

16 Jul 2009

Senators seek $100 billion for health reform from insurers

"Key senators say they want to force the health insurance industry to pay as much as $100 billion toward the 10-year cost of the health care overhaul sought by President Obama," CQ Politics reports.

16 Jul 2009

Proposals may limit health insurance choices and squeeze some middle earners

"President Obama and leading Democrats have stressed that people who like their employer-sponsored insurance would be able to keep it, under a health care overhaul. But they haven't emphasized the flip side: That people who don't like their coverage might have to keep it," Kaiser Health News reports.

16 Jul 2009

Lawsuits allege some medical device companies gave kickbacks to surgeons

Whistleblowers allege in lawsuits unsealed Wednesday that some medical device companies gave kickbacks to heart surgeons to get the doctors to use their products to treat a heart condition, The Wall Street Journal reports.

16 Jul 2009

Lobbyists elbow for attention as health reform votes loom

The conservative message on health care is that President Obama's revamp of the health care system in America will produce a costly government-run program that limits patient choice, The Associated Press reports.

16 Jul 2009