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Health insurance exchanges generating controversy, even within GOP

A Wisconsin state senator blocking health care reform implementation in the state is calling on Gov. Scott Walker's administration to return a major federal grant to build information technology infrastructure for new health insurance exchanges. So far, though, it looks like Walker isn't listening. Wisconsin is the last GOP-led state holding onto its Early Innovator grant.

9 Nov 2011

Viewpoints: Today's 'personhood' vote in Miss.; reactions to Romney's health care plan

What about in vitro fertilization, a process that both creates and discards embryos? What new rights would be afforded to a fetus, and how would those rights affect or compete with the rights of the woman who carries it? Would a woman who has an abortion be guilty of murder and subject to capital punishment? ... In their quest to ban abortion in Mississippi, the amendment's drafters appear to have rushed past such concerns.

9 Nov 2011

Bisexual women more likely to suffer from depression, stress and tend to binge-drink

Bisexual women are more likely than their male counterparts to suffer from depression and stress and to binge-drink, according to a new national study led by George Mason University researcher Lisa Lindley.

9 Nov 2011

A person's stroke risk profile may help identify future cognitive problems

A new study shows a person's stroke risk profile, which includes high blood pressure, smoking, and diabetes, may also be helpful in predicting whether a person will develop memory and thinking problems later in the life.

8 Nov 2011

Bristol-Myers Squibb receives FDA approval for Erbitux to treat head and neck cancer

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Erbitux (cetuximab) for use with chemotherapy to treat patients with late-stage (metastatic) head and neck cancer.

8 Nov 2011

Sen. Grassley seeks more public information on doctors; some experts say physicians could take tough stance with 'assertive' patients

Full public access should be restored to a federal databank on sanctioned doctors maintained by the Department of Health and Human Services, Republican Sen. Charles E. Grassley said in a letter to the agency Friday. Grassley wrote to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to reiterate his objections to a decision by the Health Research and Services Administration (HRSA) to remove the National Practitioner Databank's Public Use File from its website.

7 Nov 2011

Groups sound off on exchanges as governors wrestle with HHS over control

The issue of shaping health insurance exchanges is raising controversy even as states worry they'll bear the brunt of the public's anger over the law.

7 Nov 2011

MRSA co-infection increases risk of flu-related mortality among children

During the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, many previously healthy children became critically ill, developing severe pneumonia and respiratory failure, sometimes fatal. The largest nationwide investigation to date of influenza in critically ill children, led by Children's Hospital Boston, found one key risk factor: Simultaneous infection with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) increased the risk for flu-related mortality 8-fold among previously healthy children.

7 Nov 2011

Medicare beneficiaries file class action suit over hospital 'observation status'

The lawsuit challenges Medicare's use of this practice, which classifies certain hospital patients as not having been formally admitted for billing purposes, even though they might have been in the hospital for days.

5 Nov 2011

CLASS Act provision of health care reform depicts a practical but disappointing reality

The Obama Administration's recent decision not to implement the Community Living Assistance and Services Act provision of health care reform represents a practical but disappointing reality - voluntary enrollment in health and long-term care insurance programs is anything but a sure bet among Americans.

5 Nov 2011

HIV and AIDS do not discriminate

They don't discriminate. They can affect the young, older adults and pregnant women. They also strike rich and poor, male and female. People from all walks of life can become infected with HIV and AIDS. Knowing how to prevent them, how to live with them, and the strides made over the years to fight them are essential. This knowledge is one of the main goals of World AIDS Day, which is observed on December 1 each year.

5 Nov 2011

AHRQ awarded $34M in fiscal year 2011 to expand fight against HAIs

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality announced that it has awarded $34 million in fiscal year 2011 for grants and contracts to hospitals, academic medical institutions, and health care research organizations to expand the fight against healthcare-associated infections.

5 Nov 2011

North Shore Medical Labs to donate Nortec EHR to medically underserved communities

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Minority Health, North Shore Medical Labs, Inc. and the American Health Information Management Association recently announced a demonstration project to foster broader adoption and use of Electronic Health Records and support national efforts to reduce health disparities affecting minorities in underserved areas.

5 Nov 2011

Janssen receives FDA approval for Xarelto to prevent stroke in people with AF

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the anti-clotting drug Xarelto (rivaroxaban) to reduce the risk of stroke in people who have abnormal heart rhythm.

5 Nov 2011

Exercise, vegetarian diet reduce risk of diabetes in African Americans

New research shows that following a vegetarian diet and exercising at least three times a week significantly reduced the risk of diabetes in African Americans, who are twice as likely to be diagnosed with diabetes when compared to non-Hispanic whites.

4 Nov 2011

CRF summit to examine importance of gender in cardiovascular disease research

"In Pursuit of Excellence: Improving Cardiovascular Outcomes in Women" will be held on Friday Dec. 9, 2011. The meeting, which will bring together top national experts in research, academia, and health policy to examine the importance of gender in cardiovascular disease research, will take place at The Princeton Club in New York City. Roxana Mehran, MD will Chair this important meeting.

4 Nov 2011

NEJM publishes 'The 2010 Dietary Guidelines -- The Best Recipe for Health?'

USDA's interest protects that of Industry -- not the American public, conclude leading researchers Water C. Willett, MD, PhD, and David S. Ludwig, MD, PhD in their article, "The 2010 Dietary Guidelines -- The Best Recipe for Health?" published in the prestigious peer-reviewed The New England Journal of Medicine.

4 Nov 2011

EBV vaccine could prevent mononucleosis and cancers linked to virus

In a new article from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and Harold Varmus, M.D., director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), join Gary Nabel, M.D., Ph.D., director of NIAID's Vaccine Research Center, and Jeffrey Cohen, M.D., chief of NIAID's Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, in summarizing a recent meeting of experts who gathered to map directions toward an EBV vaccine.

3 Nov 2011

Edwards Lifescience receives FDA approval for Sapien Transcatheter Heart Valve

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the first artificial heart valve that can replace an aortic heart valve damaged by senile aortic valve stenosis without open-heart surgery.

3 Nov 2011

Nicotine might prime the brain to enhance behavioral effects of cocaine

A landmark study in mice identifies a biological mechanism that could help explain how tobacco products could act as gateway drugs, increasing a person's future likelihood of abusing cocaine and perhaps other drugs as well, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health. The study is the first to show that nicotine might prime the brain to enhance the behavioral effects of cocaine.

3 Nov 2011

Health and Human Services News and Research

Health insurance exchanges generating controversy, even within GOP

Viewpoints: Today's 'personhood' vote in Miss.; reactions to Romney's health care plan

Bisexual women more likely to suffer from depression, stress and tend to binge-drink

A person's stroke risk profile may help identify future cognitive problems

Bristol-Myers Squibb receives FDA approval for Erbitux to treat head and neck cancer

Sen. Grassley seeks more public information on doctors; some experts say physicians could take tough stance with 'assertive' patients

Groups sound off on exchanges as governors wrestle with HHS over control

MRSA co-infection increases risk of flu-related mortality among children

Medicare beneficiaries file class action suit over hospital 'observation status'

CLASS Act provision of health care reform depicts a practical but disappointing reality

HIV and AIDS do not discriminate

AHRQ awarded $34M in fiscal year 2011 to expand fight against HAIs

North Shore Medical Labs to donate Nortec EHR to medically underserved communities

Janssen receives FDA approval for Xarelto to prevent stroke in people with AF

Exercise, vegetarian diet reduce risk of diabetes in African Americans

CRF summit to examine importance of gender in cardiovascular disease research

NEJM publishes 'The 2010 Dietary Guidelines -- The Best Recipe for Health?'

EBV vaccine could prevent mononucleosis and cancers linked to virus

Edwards Lifescience receives FDA approval for Sapien Transcatheter Heart Valve

Nicotine might prime the brain to enhance behavioral effects of cocaine

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