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FDA to open docket to seek public comments on IOM's report on 510(k) program

The FDA today announced that it will open a public docket to begin receiving public comments on the Institute of Medicine's report on the 510(k) program, the most common pathway to market for lower-risk medical devices.

30 Jul 2011

SACHDNC presents new recommendations for storing dried newborn blood specimens

The states should develop clear and open policies regarding retention and research uses of dried blood spot specimens left over from newborn screening, according to a new set of "recommendations for national guidance" published in Genetics in Medicine, the official peer-reviewed journal of The American College of Medical Genetics.

30 Jul 2011

HHS makes funds available for health insurance co-ops

The Department of Health and Human Services will make available $600 million in loans to help start these co-ops, which were authorized by the health law. Meanwhile, various regulations regarding the health law's coverage expansions are pending at the Office of Management and Budget.

30 Jul 2011

HHS announces grants to expand nursing education, training and diversity

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced $71.3 million in grants to expand nursing education, training and diversity.

30 Jul 2011

States struggle with exchange planning; more guidance from feds coming soon

States that didn't create an insurance exchange this year say they're now facing a time crunch that requires them to push the entire process forward at once. Governors in 10 states have signed laws authorizing an exchange — the new insurance marketplaces created by health care reform.

29 Jul 2011

UMMS announces two-year contract to provide newborn screening services in Maine

The University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) today announced a new two-year contract to continue to provide newborn screening services to the state of Maine.

29 Jul 2011

Viewpoints: Pessimism on partisan debt dealings; supporting community clinics; 'mystery shopper' should go forward

FDR began the entitlement era with the New Deal and Social Security, but for decades it remained relatively limited. … That changed in the mid-1960s with LBJ's Great Society and the dawn of the health-care state. Medicare and Medicaid were launched in 1965 with fairy tale estimates of future costs. Medicare, the program for the elderly, was supposed to cost $12 billion by 1990 but instead spent $110 billion.

29 Jul 2011

Social media may improve public health system's ability to prepare, recover from disasters

Social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare may be an important key to improving the public health system's ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters, according to a New England Journal of Medicine "Perspective" article from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania to be published this week.

28 Jul 2011

Smokers are misinformed about safety and efficacy of nicotine replacement therapy

Nearly half of all smokers in the United States attempt to quit at least once per year, yet the majority of these efforts fail. One factor contributing to the low annual rate of successful cessation is that the majority of quit attempts are made without evidence-based treatment such as nicotine replacement therapy.

28 Jul 2011

FDA makes regulatory process for previously cleared 510(k) medical devices less challenging

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today issued draft guidance that clarifies when changes or modifications to a previously cleared 510(k) device require a new premarket submission.

28 Jul 2011

New application process for SAMHSA's major block grant programs

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced a new application process for its major block grant programs - the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant and the Community Mental Health Services Block Grant. The change is designed to provide states greater flexibility to allocate resources for substance abuse and mental illness prevention, treatment and recovery services in their communities.

28 Jul 2011

Viewpoints: Chambliss on reviving Gang of Six proposal; WSJ on Medicare Part D; Friedman on 'doing this right'

I joined five other senators to identify the difficult issues and make the hard, necessary decisions to address the twin challenges of our deficit and debt. ... Among other provisions, our proposal reduces the debt by $3.7 trillion over the next 10 years, stabilizes our publicly held debt by 2014, and imposes tough and honest budget enforcement.

28 Jul 2011

OR models verify cost effectiveness of hepatitis B interventions

With hepatitis B infecting as many as 10% of people of Asian descent, operations researchers collaborated with a liver transplant surgeon to develop mathematical models that verified the cost effectiveness of hepatitis B interventions.

27 Jul 2011

Calif. Governor vetoes adult day care bill

The legislation would provide new funding to help about half the seniors and disabled residents who had been covered under an older program that the state is discontinuing.

27 Jul 2011

Groundbreaking biomechanical data on cervical spine injuries

A high school football player's broken neck - from which he's recovered - has yielded breakthrough biomechanical data on cervical spine injuries that could ultimately affect safety and equipment standards for athletes.

27 Jul 2011

Roundup: Md. to release cancer control plan; funding cut at Texas mental health centers

Maryland health officials plan to release today their newest plan to control cancer, a set of diseases responsible for one in four deaths in the state. The officials say the plan to be used by health care providers, policy makers, communities and individuals is ambitious, aiming to save some 1,200 more people a year. Now, about 10,000 Marylander die a year from all kinds of cancer.

27 Jul 2011

Key risk factors for death, transplantation in children with dilated cardiomyopathy

Researchers have identified important risk factors for death and transplantation in children with dilated cardiomyopathy, according to results from a study supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health.

26 Jul 2011

Symposium on early childhood dental disease

Leaders in medicine and dentistry will meet in Seattle July 28-29 to discuss a new approach in the fight against childhood dental disease: enlisting family physicians and pediatricians.

26 Jul 2011

State roundup: Doctor supply at issue in several states

Laramie, Wyoming, is a long way from Waycross, Georgia. Dr. Joel Higgins has mixed feelings about departing the Peach State. Born in Augusta, he practiced in Waycross as an ob/gyn from 2001 until last December. ... But a deteriorating financial situation drove him to move to Wyoming, he says. ... Roughly 70 percent of Higgins' Waycross patients were on Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poor and disabled.

26 Jul 2011

Iowa, Kentucky get extra time to comply with MLR rule

But North Dakota became the first state to have the Department of Health and Human Services deny a waiver request regarding the health law's medical loss ratio provision, which requires health plans in the individual and small-group markets to spend no more than 20 percent of premiums on administrative costs.

25 Jul 2011

Health and Human Services News and Research

FDA to open docket to seek public comments on IOM's report on 510(k) program

SACHDNC presents new recommendations for storing dried newborn blood specimens

HHS makes funds available for health insurance co-ops

HHS announces grants to expand nursing education, training and diversity

States struggle with exchange planning; more guidance from feds coming soon

UMMS announces two-year contract to provide newborn screening services in Maine

Viewpoints: Pessimism on partisan debt dealings; supporting community clinics; 'mystery shopper' should go forward

Social media may improve public health system's ability to prepare, recover from disasters

Smokers are misinformed about safety and efficacy of nicotine replacement therapy

FDA makes regulatory process for previously cleared 510(k) medical devices less challenging

New application process for SAMHSA's major block grant programs

Viewpoints: Chambliss on reviving Gang of Six proposal; WSJ on Medicare Part D; Friedman on 'doing this right'

OR models verify cost effectiveness of hepatitis B interventions

Calif. Governor vetoes adult day care bill

Groundbreaking biomechanical data on cervical spine injuries

Roundup: Md. to release cancer control plan; funding cut at Texas mental health centers

Key risk factors for death, transplantation in children with dilated cardiomyopathy

Symposium on early childhood dental disease

State roundup: Doctor supply at issue in several states

Iowa, Kentucky get extra time to comply with MLR rule

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