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KHN column: Health care – tell us the truth before you tell us why you are right

We need more proposals like those being made by the President's deficit reduction commission, and the Medicare reform proposal authored by Republican House members Ryan, Cantor, and McCarthy. Irrespective of whether they are the best proposals, their authors started from a place where they told the truth.

16 Nov 2010

Today's Op-Eds: Congress needs conservative leadership; reviving tort reform; can states afford to drop Medicaid?

Nothing has gone quite so awry as the massive, government-run Obama health program, and it is plain that the individual mandate, the employee mandate, the abortion funding, the tangle of outsider/insider councils like the comparative effectiveness board and the effective nationalization of healthcare under grants of authority to the Department of Health and Human Services.

16 Nov 2010

Study confirms healthy lifestyle has the biggest impact on cardiovascular health

Two large studies from Northwestern Medicine confirm a healthy lifestyle has the biggest impact on cardiovascular health. One study shows the majority of people who adopted healthy lifestyle behaviors in young adulthood maintained a low cardiovascular risk profile in middle age.

16 Nov 2010

Employees will see changes in 2011 health benefits

"Workers who have received their annual enrollment packets for insurance benefits" should expect slight changes to their plans this year due to the health care overhaul. Most employees can expect to pay more next year, due in part to the 1 to 2 percent increase in insurance costs brought about by the law.

16 Nov 2010

Medicare open enrollment period starts today

Coming changes to Medicare will benefit some recipients but will make coverage more expensive for people with higher incomes. Thanks in part to this year's health care overhaul, everything from benefits and enrollment rules to the number of choices available will be affected beginning Jan. 1.

16 Nov 2010

CMS awards $230M task order contract to CSC

CSC announced today that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of Clinical Standards and Quality awarded the company a task order to migrate key information technology systems to a new service-oriented architecture. The contract, which was awarded during CSC's fiscal 2011 second quarter, has a six-month base period and six one-year options, bringing the estimated 78-month contract value to $230 million.

16 Nov 2010

Men treated with hormone-based therapy for prostate cancer face higher risk of colorectal cancer: Study

Men treated with hormone-based therapy for prostate cancer faced a 30 percent to 40 percent higher risk of colorectal cancer, compared to patients who did not receive this treatment, according to a new study.

16 Nov 2010

Medicare cuts looming for doctors; Debt panel's health suggestions questioned

"The scheduled cuts [to doctors' reimbursements from Medicare] -- the result of a failed system set up years ago to control costs -- have raised alarms that real damage to Medicare could result if the lame-duck Congress winds up in a partisan standoff and fails to act by Dec. 1. That's when an initial 23 percent reduction would hit. ... Doctors have muddled through with temporary reprieves for years. ... there's no agreement among lawmakers and the Obama administration on how long a reprieve to grant or whether the cost -- about $1 billion per month -- should be added to the deficit or paid for with spending reductions elsewhere" (Alonso-Zaldivar, 11/13).

16 Nov 2010

Medicare's annual open-enrollment period starts in Idaho

Today marks an important day for roughly 15% of Idaho's population, it's the start of Medicare's annual open-enrollment period, the only time of the year beneficiaries can drop or change prescription drug and health care plans for 2011.

16 Nov 2010

Republicans increase challenges to health law, repeal rhetoric

With their eyes on the 2012 election, Republicans are preparing to maximize conflict with Democrats over healthcare in the new Congress and minimize potential compromises, according to GOP strategists, lawmakers and lobbyists. That strategy is setting the stage for a bitter stalemate on Capitol Hill over the next two years ... Republican leaders and strategists think a renewed battle over healthcare will help the party expand its electoral gains and drive President Obama from the White House.

16 Nov 2010

Physician-owned hospitals gear up to fight health law restrictions

Doctors are challenging provisions of the new health law that seemed to spell the demise of physician-owned specialty hospitals, a fast-growing phenomenon in states such as Texas where hospital growth is largely unregulated.

15 Nov 2010

Teva presents QNAZE Phase III study results for SAR at ACAAI Meeting

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. today announced results from a Phase III study of QNAZE (beclomethasone dipropionate [BDP]) HFA, a nasal aerosol corticosteroid in development for the treatment of seasonal allergic rhinitis (SAR), that demonstrated significantly greater symptom relief compared with placebo.

15 Nov 2010

First Edition: November 15, 2010

According to today's headlines, Republicans are spoiling for a health care fight and doctors are bracing from scheduled Medicare cuts.

15 Nov 2010

Thomson Reuters releases results of annual study identifying top U.S. hospitals for inpatient cardiovascular services

Thomson Reuters today released its annual study identifying the top U.S. hospitals for inpatient cardiovascular services. The study, now in its twelfth year, for the first time singled out 50 hospitals rather than the traditional practice of naming 100 winners.

15 Nov 2010

Talecris announces publication of A1PI studies for AAT deficiency in Respiratory Research journal

Talecris Biotherapeutics announced today the publication of combined data from two studies demonstrating that augmentation therapy with Alpha(1)-Proteinase Inhibitor (Human) (A1PI) significantly reduces lung tissue loss in patients with emphysema related to Alpha(1)-antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency.

15 Nov 2010

Support for comparative effectiveness research is gaining momentum, experts say

The Wall Street Journal: "A national push to increase research to find out which medical treatments work best for which patients is gaining momentum, even though many worry the findings may be used to ration care.

15 Nov 2010

ICON, Proteome enter alliance to provide expanded biomarker solutions

ICON plc, a global provider of outsourced development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries, and Proteome Sciences a leading provider of protein biomarker discovery, validation, and assay development services, today announced the formation of a strategic alliance to provide pharmaceutical companies with an expanded biomarker solution to allow earlier assessments in the development of new medicines.

15 Nov 2010

States and providers threaten to drop Medicaid; shortage of providers threatens Medicaid managed-care networks

After Republicans in the Texas legislature floated a radical cost-saving proposal to opt out of Medicaid last week, experts are trying to determine how serious they are, and whether other states are likely to follow suit, Kaiser Health News reports.

15 Nov 2010

Research roundup: Doctors' industry ties; Patient safety and residents' hours; Designing a medical home

Archives of Internal Medicine: Physician Professionalism And Changes in Physician-Industry Relationships From 2004 to 2009 -"During the last 6 years a number of efforts have aimed to reduce, and in some cases eliminate, certain types of physician-industry relationships (PIRs)," including policies "that forbid physicians from accepting samples and receiving food and beverages in offices, limiting company representatives' access to physicians' offices and clinical areas, and banning faculty participation in speaker bureaus and other forms of promotional activity," write the authors.

12 Nov 2010

First Edition: November 12, 2010

Today's headlines include examinations of Medicaid and state budget issues as well as the next round of the congressional health overhaul fight.

12 Nov 2010

Medicare News and Research

KHN column: Health care – tell us the truth before you tell us why you are right

Today's Op-Eds: Congress needs conservative leadership; reviving tort reform; can states afford to drop Medicaid?

Study confirms healthy lifestyle has the biggest impact on cardiovascular health

Employees will see changes in 2011 health benefits

Medicare open enrollment period starts today

CMS awards $230M task order contract to CSC

Men treated with hormone-based therapy for prostate cancer face higher risk of colorectal cancer: Study

Medicare cuts looming for doctors; Debt panel's health suggestions questioned

Medicare's annual open-enrollment period starts in Idaho

Republicans increase challenges to health law, repeal rhetoric

Physician-owned hospitals gear up to fight health law restrictions

Teva presents QNAZE Phase III study results for SAR at ACAAI Meeting

First Edition: November 15, 2010

Thomson Reuters releases results of annual study identifying top U.S. hospitals for inpatient cardiovascular services

Talecris announces publication of A1PI studies for AAT deficiency in Respiratory Research journal

Support for comparative effectiveness research is gaining momentum, experts say

ICON, Proteome enter alliance to provide expanded biomarker solutions

States and providers threaten to drop Medicaid; shortage of providers threatens Medicaid managed-care networks

Research roundup: Doctors' industry ties; Patient safety and residents' hours; Designing a medical home

First Edition: November 12, 2010

Advancing Neuroscience Research Through Collaboration and Patient-Centered Innovation

The impact of vibration on microscopy

How Omics Technologies Are Transforming Biological Research and Drug Discovery

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