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Study finds Medicare doesn't pay adequately for clot-busting stroke treatment

Treating stroke patients with clot-busting drugs costs U.S. hospitals substantially more than Medicare pays, a new study finds.

18 Jan 2012

With new poll showing low public approval, Congress returns to D.C.:'Doc fix,' tax cuts on agenda

The Associated Press reports that in order to prevent a 27 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors, negotiators are trying to find $39 billion in cuts elsewhere in health spending. A deal could be reached faster than initially expected.

18 Jan 2012

Premier, Horizon enter three-year national group purchasing contract

Horizon Software International, the leader in K-12 food service technology and online account management, has been awarded a three-year national group purchasing contract with the Premier healthcare alliance.

17 Jan 2012

Safety nets in Australia’s Medicare questioned while expert claims $3 billion inappropriate use

In a scathing article for the Medical Journal of Australia published on Monday, GP Dr Tony Webber has described the Medicare scheme as a “monster”. He wrote, “I estimate that $2 billion to $3 billion are spent inappropriately each year.” As former chief of the Professional Services Review - set up to police Medicare - he said he gained insight into how dysfunctional the system had become.

16 Jan 2012

Doctors need more incentives to remain committed to rural Australia: AMA

According to the Australian Medical Association (AMA) every rural GP and specialist should be paid tens of thousands of dollars per year in extra incentives to encourage more to commit to country practice, warning that “urgent intervention” is required to tackle a workforce crisis.

15 Jan 2012

Research Roundup: Raising Medicare's eligibility age; Insurance status affects ER imaging services

Raising The Ages Of Eligibility For Medicare And Social Security -- The authors analyzed a scenario in which the eligibility age - current 65 - would be increased by two months every year until it reached 67 in 2027. They found that would cut Medicare expenditures by 5 percent but many people between the ages of 65 and 67 would pay more for health care.

13 Jan 2012

S.C. GOP primary puts spotlight on Romney abortion stance

Nine days before the South Carolina primary, Mitt Romney has 'picked up his pro-life rhetoric' as Newt Gingrich goes on the attack.

13 Jan 2012

MedPAC: Raise, and also lower, Medicare reimbursements to hospitals

Medicare payments for hospitals' inpatient and outpatient services should increase 1%, Medicare's advisory panel recommended Thursday, while pay for evaluation and management in hospitals' outpatient facilities should drop to the amount provided to physicians' offices for such services. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission voted 16-1 to recommend the 1% update for inpatient and outpatient hospital services for 2013.

13 Jan 2012

CVS agrees to pay $5M to settle Medicare drug false advertising claims

After more than two years of investigation, CVS Caremark agreed on Thursday to pay $5 million to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission that the company had misrepresented the price of certain prescription drugs in one of its Medicare drug plans, causing many older consumers to pay significantly higher prices than advertised.

13 Jan 2012

Chamber president calls for entitlement reform

Tom Donohue, the president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, says Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security costs must be tamed.

13 Jan 2012

5 percent of Americans account for half of nation's health care spending

A new report from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has found that five percent of Americans are responsible for half the nation's health care spending. In the meantime, half the population spends practically nothing on health care in a year.

13 Jan 2012

First Edition: January 13, 2012

"The much celebrated, and much maligned, public option may have died in Congress, but it's alive and well in California. Unique in the nation for having public health insurance plans that are run by counties, California has plans that stretch from San Francisco to the Mexican border and cover 2.5 million residents"

13 Jan 2012

Gingrich, Romney abortion ads question conservative credentials

GOP presidential contenders Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are trading blows on abortion with a series of ads that question each candidate's conservative credentials on the issue. In the meantime, Kaiser Health News looks at the differences among the GOP candidates in how they would reform Medicare.

13 Jan 2012

Longer looks: Politicians play Whac-A-Mole with Medicare

Seven years later Robert was still mentally impaired and his personality far different than before the accident, but he knew his family, knew he had had a brain injury that upended their lives, and asked lots of questions. He carried with him at all times a reporter's notebook, in which he had written the information most important to him: his daughters' ages - 9 and 11 - and that he has "known my honey" 18 years.

13 Jan 2012

Study: Medicare Advantage Plans with perks like gym memberships attract healthier seniors

A new study, which was published by the New England Journal of Medicine, found 35.3 percent of new enrollees in a fitness membership benefit plan reported "excellent" or "very good" health, compared with 29.1 percent in the group without the gym membership benefit.

13 Jan 2012

ACO news: Cigna, Weill Cornell docs join forces; Pediatric ACO concept falls through the cracks

Yet even as the latest accountable care organization effort is announced, it appears that plans have stalled to create a Medicaid children's version of ACOs.

13 Jan 2012

Viewpoints: Recession's effect on health spending; The flaws in raising Medicare eligibility age

Health care spending in the United States increased at the slowest rate in half a century in 2009 and 2010. ... That looks like good news after decades of soaring health care spending that outpaced economic growth. The hitch: the main factor was the recession that left millions of Americans unemployed, uninsured, short of income, and unable or unwilling to spend money on health care.

13 Jan 2012

Hospital lobbyists prepare push against doc-owned facilities; SGR 'dilemma' could play into efforts to pass a 'doc fix'

A provision to loosen restriction on physician-owned hospitals found its way into the December tax extension bill, making the national hospital lobby wary that it may be included in the House-Senate negotiations for a long-term compromise. Meanwhile, as always, efforts to repeal Medicare's SGR are complicated.

13 Jan 2012

Implementation efforts continue at the state level

In Virginia, Democratic lawmakers are pushing a proposal to establish a state-based exchange. These legislators see their plan, which is built on the argument that state action would keep the federal government from being involved, will draw support from others regardless of their feelings about the health law itself. Meanwhile, Montana's high-risk insurance pool is running out of cash.

12 Jan 2012

Raising Medicare's eligibility age would save money, but also shift costs

A new Congressional Budget Office estimate found the federal government could save $148 billion over 10 years by gradually increasing the Medicare age to 67.

12 Jan 2012

Medicare News and Research

Study finds Medicare doesn't pay adequately for clot-busting stroke treatment

With new poll showing low public approval, Congress returns to D.C.:'Doc fix,' tax cuts on agenda

Premier, Horizon enter three-year national group purchasing contract

Safety nets in Australia’s Medicare questioned while expert claims $3 billion inappropriate use

Doctors need more incentives to remain committed to rural Australia: AMA

Research Roundup: Raising Medicare's eligibility age; Insurance status affects ER imaging services

S.C. GOP primary puts spotlight on Romney abortion stance

MedPAC: Raise, and also lower, Medicare reimbursements to hospitals

CVS agrees to pay $5M to settle Medicare drug false advertising claims

Chamber president calls for entitlement reform

5 percent of Americans account for half of nation's health care spending

First Edition: January 13, 2012

Gingrich, Romney abortion ads question conservative credentials

Longer looks: Politicians play Whac-A-Mole with Medicare

Study: Medicare Advantage Plans with perks like gym memberships attract healthier seniors

ACO news: Cigna, Weill Cornell docs join forces; Pediatric ACO concept falls through the cracks

Viewpoints: Recession's effect on health spending; The flaws in raising Medicare eligibility age

Hospital lobbyists prepare push against doc-owned facilities; SGR 'dilemma' could play into efforts to pass a 'doc fix'

Implementation efforts continue at the state level

Raising Medicare's eligibility age would save money, but also shift costs

Expanding access to NMR with the Fourier 80 Duo

Advancing Intracellular Delivery with LumiPore®

How ELRIG Is Helping Mid-Career Scientists Navigate Leadership, Career Change and Redundancy

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