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Viewpoints: Republicans new-found interest in the workings of the health website; fixing the problem crucial to Obama's presidency

Republicans are apoplectic about Healthcare.gov, the official Web site for the Affordable Care Act. They are trying desperately to change the subject from their disastrous government shutdown by ranting about the failures of a government Web site that cost a tiny fraction of what was lost as a result of the shutdown. Republicans are pretending that they care about the problems encountered in signing up for a system that many of them are bent on destroying (Charles M. Blow, 10/23).

25 Oct 2013

CVS Caremark receives PBM and DTM accreditation from URAC

CVS Caremark announced today that it has been awarded Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) and Drug Therapy Management accreditation from URAC, a Washington, DC-based health care accrediting organization that establishes quality standards for the health care industry.

24 Oct 2013

FDA grants orphan drug designation to Aduro's CRS-207 for treatment of pancreatic cancer

Aduro BioTech, Inc. announced today that the Office of Orphan Products Development of the Food and Drug Administration has granted orphan drug designation for CRS-207, a novel immunotherapy, for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.

22 Oct 2013

Viewpoints: HHS officials must tell Congress, citizens what is happening to marketplaces; 'rate shock' didn't materialize; problems with medical credit cards

The Affordable Care Act's botched rollout has stunned its media cheering section, and it even seems to have surprised the law's architects. The problems run much deeper than even critics expected, and whatever federal officials, White House aides and outside contractors are doing to fix them isn't working. But who knows? ... Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is even refusing to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in a hearing this coming Thursday. ... The department is also refusing to make available lower-level officials who might detail the source or sources of this debacle (10/18).

22 Oct 2013

DOH releases SPHHS study investigating prescribing of antipsychotics to District seniors

The District of Columbia Department of Health has released a study by the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services investigating prescribing of antipsychotics to District seniors.

21 Oct 2013

Hospitals try new tactics to reduce hospital falls

The nation's medical workforce grapples with preventing falls in the hospital to improve patient safety. In the meantime, seniors in some places of the country are more likely to fill prescriptions for high-risk drugs, and Miami's seniors lead the nation in filling Medicare prescriptions.

18 Oct 2013

Use of effective, risky drug therapies by Medicare patients varies across US

A new report from the Dartmouth Atlas Project shows that the use of both effective and risky drug therapies by Medicare patients varies widely across U.S. regions, offering further evidence that location is a key determinant in the quality and cost of the medical care that patients receive.

18 Oct 2013

Using mobile device to check drug info prevents adverse events, say nursing home doctors

Nearly nine out of 10 nursing home physicians said that using their mobile devices to look up prescription drug information prevented at least one adverse drug event in the previous month, according to a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Department of Biomedical Informatics study published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.

17 Oct 2013

Where seniors live affects their health care and the medications they get

The Associated Press examines how geography can make a key difference in the treatments that Medicare beneficiaries receive. Other outlets look at the annual open enrollment period for Medicare prescription drug plans. USA Today reports that thousands who rely on nursing home trust funds have had their savings mismanaged or stolen.

17 Oct 2013

First Edition: October 16, 2013

Today's headlines including stories detailing how certain health law provisions are factoring in to the continuing congressional budget stalemate.

16 Oct 2013

Viewpoints: 'False hysteria' over health law's part-time criteria; marketplaces 'flunk' initial test; Ben Carson's surprising assessment

The Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, has had a difficult launching, but the more serious challenges for the law relate not to glitch-filled Web sites but rather to its possible long-term effects on the United States economy. The law is not likely to last if it imposes a severe drag on growth and job creation, or involves large costs obscured by the legislative gimmicks used to shape the scoring of the bill by the Congressional Budget Office. Indeed, Casey B. Mulligan has discussed the negative effects of the legislation on the American labor market in a series of posts on Economix, while the policy expert Charles Blahous explains in detail why the "fiscally reckless" legislation will aggravate the already difficult federal and state fiscal situations (Philip Swagel, 10/14).

16 Oct 2013

Medicare open-enrollment begins: Seniors should carefully consider new options

Officials are cautioning seniors to stay away from the health law's new online marketplaces -- as open-enrollment season begins for Medicare managed care and prescription plans.

16 Oct 2013

First Edition: October 15, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about how the budget deal taking shape in the Senate would not derail the health law, but would include some tweaks.

15 Oct 2013

ASA launches Opioid Overdose Resuscitation card to help people who abuse prescription drugs

In response to the prescription drug abuse epidemic in the United States, the American Society of Anesthesiologists is collaborating with the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy to respond to the problem, educate the public and advance programs to help those who misuse and abuse prescription drugs.

14 Oct 2013

Research roundup: Medicare Part D in 2014; barriers to mental health care; scattered patterns of ACOs

Medicare Part D continues to be a marketplace with an array of competing plans offered at a wide range of premiums and benefit designs. In 2014, Medicare beneficiaries will have a choice of 35 stand-alone PDPs, on average, up by four from 2013. ... Beneficiaries receiving Low-Income Subsidies will have access to a modestly higher number of plans for no monthly premium in 2014 compared to 2013 ... Notable trends for 2014 include a growing share of PDPs using preferred pharmacy networks and adopting more formulary cost-sharing tiers.

12 Oct 2013

New database tracks academic medial centers' policies on physician-industry ties

U.S. medical schools have made significant progress to strengthen their management of clinical conflicts of interest, but a new study demonstrates that most schools still lag behind national standards. The Institute on Medicine as a Profession study, which compared changes in schools' policies in a dozen areas from 2008 to 2011, reveals that institutions are racing from the bottom to the middle, not to the top.

11 Oct 2013

US health care spending to grow at an average annual rate of 5.8% for 2012-22

New estimates released 9/18/13 from the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services project that aggregate health care spending in the United States will grow at an average annual rate of 5.8 percent for 2012-22, or 1.0 percentage point faster than the expected growth in the gross domestic product.

11 Oct 2013

Prescription Drug News and Research

Viewpoints: Republicans new-found interest in the workings of the health website; fixing the problem crucial to Obama's presidency

CVS Caremark receives PBM and DTM accreditation from URAC

FDA grants orphan drug designation to Aduro's CRS-207 for treatment of pancreatic cancer

Viewpoints: HHS officials must tell Congress, citizens what is happening to marketplaces; 'rate shock' didn't materialize; problems with medical credit cards

DOH releases SPHHS study investigating prescribing of antipsychotics to District seniors

Hospitals try new tactics to reduce hospital falls

Use of effective, risky drug therapies by Medicare patients varies across US

Using mobile device to check drug info prevents adverse events, say nursing home doctors

Where seniors live affects their health care and the medications they get

First Edition: October 16, 2013

Viewpoints: 'False hysteria' over health law's part-time criteria; marketplaces 'flunk' initial test; Ben Carson's surprising assessment

Medicare open-enrollment begins: Seniors should carefully consider new options

First Edition: October 15, 2013

ASA launches Opioid Overdose Resuscitation card to help people who abuse prescription drugs

Research roundup: Medicare Part D in 2014; barriers to mental health care; scattered patterns of ACOs

New database tracks academic medial centers' policies on physician-industry ties

US health care spending to grow at an average annual rate of 5.8% for 2012-22

Physicians raise concerns about prescription drug abuse across Pennsylvania

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield offers tips for playing safe with prescription drugs

First Edition: September 9, 2013

Bringing real-time analytics to downstream bioprocess monitoring

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

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