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Rep. Camp wants explanation about rising cost of health law

Cost estimates for a key portion of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law have ballooned by $111 billion from last year's budget, and a senior Republican lawmaker on Friday demanded an explanation.

5 Mar 2012

New York's Beth Israel hospital admits to inflating Medicare fees

The hospital will pay $13 million for "fraudulently" inflating Medicare inpatient fees between 1998 and 2003 - a practice known as "turbocharging."

3 Mar 2012

Gingrey: Outlook dim for long-term fix for Medicare's SGR

Here's a dose of bad news for physicians eager for a long-term fix for Medicare's Sustainable Growth Rate - and it's being delivered by one of their own. Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.), a physician, predicts Congress will settle for "another Band-Aid in regards to the SGR problem." That would come after the latest short-term patch expires in late December.

3 Mar 2012

Poll reveals public opinions on contraception coverage, Medicare plans

The close divide in a Senate vote Thursday over whether employers can refuse insurance coverage for contraception mirrors a sharp partisan divide among the public, according to a national poll and interviews with women around the country.

3 Mar 2012

States consider their own legislation limiting contraception coverage, abortion

Lawmakers in Mississippi, Arizona, Georgia, Texas and Florida are considering bills to limit contraception coverage or abortion.

3 Mar 2012

Viewpoints: The defeated Blunt Amendment, Obama's $100B Catholic hospital risk, fixing drug shortages

The amendment, which was attached to a highway bill, was defeated on a narrow 48-to-51 vote. But it showed once again how far from the mainstream Republicans have strayed in their relentless efforts to undermine the separation of church and state, deny women access to essential health services and tear apart President Obama's health care reform law.

3 Mar 2012

Research roundup: The push for hospital quality and concerns about disparities; Rating physicians online

Researchers wondered if pay-for-performance (P4P) programs, which reward hospitals for meeting quality targets, have unintentional effects on racial and/or ethnic disparities. Using federal patient-level quality data, researchers found that "many hospitals treat Whites and minorities equitably" but they noted that since many minorities tend to seek care at hospitals that "perform poorly on common quality score composites, the pay for performance efforts could unintentionally penalize hospitals serving high numbers of minorities.

3 Mar 2012

Maintaining healthy lifestyle from young adulthood linked with low CVD risk in middle age

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle from young adulthood into your 40s is strongly associated with low cardiovascular disease risk in middle age, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study.

3 Mar 2012

Watson introduces generic PROMETRIUM for endometrial hyperplasia

Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today confirmed that Watson has launched an authorized generic version of PROMETRIUM (progesterone, USP) Capsules 100mg and 200mg, as part of an agreement with Abbott Laboratories.

2 Mar 2012

Congress urged to pass 'Removing Barriers to Colorectal Cancer Screening Act of 2012'

Colonoscopy for colorectal cancer screening saves lives, but a loophole in current Medicare law may cause patients to think twice before undergoing this vital test. Legislation introduced today seeks to ensure that colorectal cancer screening for all Medicare beneficiaries is free, as intended.

2 Mar 2012

First Edition: March 2, 2012

Today's headlines include reports about the Senate's vote to reject an effort to expand exemptions to the Obama administration's birth control coverage rule.

2 Mar 2012

Poll: Democrats hold political advantage on contraception, Medicare debates

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation's February poll, opinions tracked more closely with party affiliation than gender. Meanwhile, the public remains skeptical of the health law.

2 Mar 2012

GOP presidential candidates look to health policies to highlight differences

Mr. Romney and Mr. Santorum both support the repeal of President Obama's national health care law. Mr. Santorum has criticized Mr. Romney for creating the Massachusetts plan that served as the federal model.

2 Mar 2012

Longer looks: Romney's evolution on abortion; The birth of the HIV epidemic

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney began his political career as a pro-choicer. In the story he tells, he had an epiphany, a flash of insight, and committed himself thereafter to protecting life. But that isn't what happened. The real story of Romney's conversion - a series of tentative, equivocal, and confused shifts, accompanied by a constant rewriting of his past - paints a more accurate picture of who he is.

2 Mar 2012

Berg Diagnostics achieves CLIA certificate of accreditation

Berg Diagnostics, a Boston-based molecular diagnostics company has received Massachusetts Clinical Laboratory Licensure and Certificate of Registration from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA).

2 Mar 2012

Ten physicians indicted in alleged $250 million fraud scheme

As has been the trend in some recent health care fraud cases, the physicians were not the ringmasters. Instead, the indictments allege that they were fronts for others - primarily immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

2 Mar 2012

Unpaid caregivers provided an estimated $202 billion in dementia care in 2010

NPR reports unpaid caregiver costs for those with dementia was an estimated $202 billion in 2010 alone. In other news, the income of Massachusetts' elderly covers only 60 percent of living expenses, and at the Mayo Clinic, researchers are trying to learn more about the effects of old age.

2 Mar 2012

House Subcommittee OKs IPAB repeal

The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee voted 17 to 5 to do away with a Medicare cost-cutting panel derided by Republicans as a "rationing board."

2 Mar 2012

Vein illumination improves patient preference and satisfaction with hospitals

AccuVein Inc., the global leader in vein illumination and the creator of the AV300, the world's only hand-held, non-contact vein illumination device, today reported the findings of its study on the impact that vein illumination has on patient preference and overall satisfaction.

2 Mar 2012

Viewpoints: Ryan and Medicare; Va. ultrasound bill 'overreaches'?; NEJM on patient-centered care

Over the past year, an entitlement revolution has taken place on Capitol Hill. ... The revolution involves Medicare, the health-care program for the elderly and the single biggest cause of America's looming debt crisis. Reform of Medicare would be achieved by a policy known as "premium support." It would bring consumer choice and spending restraint to the beleaguered program.

1 Mar 2012