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Working of doctor's office

While undergoing an X-ray, Holly Gage, of Bowmansville, Pa., shared details about her medical concerns with the technician and asked questions about the results, only to find out the technician wasn't permitted to answer them.

12 Nov 2010

Mutual accountability on women's and children's health goals essential to Millennium Development Goal success

This year, governments, foundations, businesses, multilateral organizations, non-governmental organizations and health care professional associations publicly pledged more than $ 40 billion* to improve maternal and child health and save million of lives.

12 Nov 2010

Employer-based insurance, funding to states among future implementation issues

The Atlantic spoke with Andrew Webber, president and CEO of the National Business Coalition on Health, "a national, not-for-profit organization that represents public and private sector employers," who said: "There are a lot of different requirement issues [in the health reform law]. … To be brutally honest, do [employers] like a lot of new regulation? No, they're business people. But I like the delivery system reforms."

12 Nov 2010

GOP prepares to grill Berwick at Senate hearing next week

Bloomberg: "Medicare Administrator Donald Berwick will face critics of President Barack Obama's health-care overhaul next week, his first appearance before Congress since he was appointed in a process that bypassed the Senate. Berwick will testify at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Medicare, the health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, and the Medicaid program for the poor, the panel said today in a statement.

12 Nov 2010

Debt panel's draft would take on Medicare, raise Social Security age

President Barack Obama's bipartisan debt-reduction panel laid out a draft version of its recommendations for cutting spending and raising taxes on Wednesday, The New York Times reports. The proposal includes increasing the retirement age for Social Security and plans to reduce the growth of the Medicare program. In all, the proposals would lower deficits by $4 trillion through 2020 and "stabilize" debt. Liberal groups immediately lashed back at what they see as excessive cuts in spending (Calmes, 11/10).

12 Nov 2010

Insurance commissioners: Miss. Head calls changes 'mind boggling' and partly 'socialist'; anthem challenges Maine superintendent's no-profit ruling for individual plans

Mississippi state Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney said Wednesday that the volume of changes under the federally mandated health care reform are 'mind boggling' and partly come from 'pure socialist communist ideas.

12 Nov 2010

Bristol-Myers Squibb announces first large-scale diabetes initiative to develop self-management program

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation today announced Together on Diabetes: Communities Uniting to Meet America's Diabetes Challenge, a 5-year, $100 million initiative to help patients living with type 2 diabetes better manage their disease beyond the doors of their doctor's office in their homes and communities and for the course of their disease.

12 Nov 2010

Kaiser Permanente announces 2011 plans for Medicare-eligible beneficiaries

Kaiser Permanente has announced its 2011 plans for individual Medicare-eligible beneficiaries, reflecting its commitment to continuing participation in Medicare in all its existing service areas in nine states and the District of Columbia.

12 Nov 2010

First Edition: November 11, 2010

In today's headlines, health law advocates huddle in an effort to defend the measure against GOP efforts to undo it.

11 Nov 2010

HHS unveils new bolder tobacco control strategy

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today unveiled a new comprehensive tobacco control strategy that includes proposed new bolder health warnings on cigarette packages and advertisements. Once final, these health warnings on cigarettes and in cigarette advertisements will be the most significant change in more than 25 years. These actions are part of a broader strategy that will help tobacco users quit and prevent children from starting.

11 Nov 2010

Healthcare cost climbs for people with employer-sponsored health insurance: Thomson Reuters index

The cost of healthcare for people with employer-sponsored health insurance climbed an estimated 6.3 percent for the year ending June 30, according to a new Thomson Reuters index.

11 Nov 2010

Political ideology plays larger role than party affiliation on issue of public perception about health disparities

When it comes to public perception about health disparities in the United States, political ideology plays a surprisingly large role - more so even than party affiliation, according to new research by a Michigan State University sociologist.

11 Nov 2010

Health insurance open season questions? Here are some answers

With open season in full gear for many workers, Kaiser Health News columnist Michelle Andrews, who writes weekly on health insurance issues, answered questions submitted online by readers of The Washington Post Tuesday.

11 Nov 2010

Health law or no, most businesses likely to keep offering insurance

Kaiser Health News' Amita Parashar reports: "One of the most fundamental ideas in the new health law is that employers should offer health insurance to their workers, or else they would have to pay a penalty, beginning in 2014.

11 Nov 2010

Sen. Mcconnell to file amicus brief in support of health law challenge

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to file an amicus brief supporting a federal lawsuit challenging the health care overhaul championed by President Barack Obama, and he invited Republican Senators on Tuesday to join him.

11 Nov 2010

BCBS of Michigan alleged to have crushed pilot physical therapy program it saw as competition

USA Today: "As health care costs soared nationally, a small Michigan firm gave Ford Motor Co. a proposal to cut its physical therapy costs. The automaker signed up for an in-state pilot program, which was so successful Ford expanded it last year to cover about 390,000 employees, retirees and their families nationwide." But court "records allege Blue Cross used its position as the state's dominant insurer to try to crush TheraMatrix as it worked to also sign up Chrysler and General Motors.

11 Nov 2010

Study: Big employers unlikely to drop insurance under health law

News outlets report on the employer health insurance market.

11 Nov 2010

Ky. Health Plan audit; employee costs in Massachusetts; state reform implementation politics

An organization that manages taxpayer-funded health services for Kentucky's poor and disabled spent freely on luxury hotels, meals, salaries, lobbying and consulting, a state auditor found in a 200-plus-page report which calls for stricter accountability for Passport Health Plan, a Medicaid managed-care provider that serves 164,000 people in Louisville and more than a dozen nearby counties.

10 Nov 2010

CDC report: 50 million Americans uninsured

KBOI (Boise, Idaho)/ABC News Radio: "According to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 49.9 million people ages 18 to 64," or about 26.2 percent of the adult population, "had no medical coverage for at least part of the past 12 months. … Moreover, when children 17 and under are factored in, the number of Americans uninsured for at least part of a year span numbered 59.1 million."

10 Nov 2010

First Edition: November 10, 2010

Today's headlines include new survey results regarding employers' and the insurance coverage they provide to employees, as well as more details on health insurance open season.

10 Nov 2010