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LifePoint Hospitals intends to sell private offering of Senior Notes due 2020

LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. announced today its intention to sell through a private offering $400 million in aggregate principal amount of Senior Notes due 2020. The Notes will be senior unsecured obligations of the Company and will be guaranteed by substantially all of the Company's subsidiaries that guarantee its senior secured credit facilities.

20 Sep 2010

First Edition: September 20, 2010

Today's headlines include news about the political positioning of both Democrats and Republicans on health reform, the mid-term elections and GOP plans to repeal and replace.

20 Sep 2010

Florida Hospital Fish Memorial acquires Toshiba's Xario XG ultrasound systems

Today's hospitals are under pressure to enhance patient care and streamline workflow while containing costs. To achieve this goal, Florida Hospital Fish Memorial acquired four XarioXG ultrasound systems from Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc., to create imaging consistency across various departments.

20 Sep 2010

New law brings changes to health insurance rules this week

A variety of consumer friendly health reform rules will go into effect this week, promising to make life easier for young adults, parents, children with preexisting conditions, people with chronic diseases, and people appealing claims that have been denied. Starting Thursday, insurance companies must allow young adults to remain on their parents' plans until age 26, with some conditions.

20 Sep 2010

Male circumcision shown to help prevent HIV transmission

According to a new study published in the Medical Journal of Australia, male circumcision can be seen as a “surgical vaccine” in the fight against heterosexual HIV transmission. The study based on spread of the virus in Africa showed that there was a reduced rate of transmission in regions where male circumcision was the norm.

19 Sep 2010

Caregiver Expo2010 to be held in November in conjunction with National Family Caregiver Month

The Caregiver Expo2010, presented by Alternatives for Seniors, will be held 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, November 13, 2010 at the Doubletree Hotel, in Oak Brook, Illinois. The free event is being held in conjunction with the National Family Caregiver Month observed every November. National Family Caregiver Month is a nationally recognized time to focus attention on the more than 65 million family caregivers who provide 80% of our nation's long term care services.

18 Sep 2010

La. doctors work from scratch to rebuild local health system; Mich. A.G. sues Blue Cross Blue Shield over rate changes; Wis. health programs make hefty budget request

PBS Newshour: The Newshour Health Unit, in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, explores how doctors in Louisiana "are dealing with the unique challenge of reshaping a health care system that was badly damaged." Dr. Karen DeSalvo, vice dean for Community Affairs and Health Policy at Tulane University, said the response was like creating "health care in the wild. There was nothing."

18 Sep 2010

FDA and Medicare to test joint decision-making on medical products

The FDA announced Thursday that it is beginning a pilot project with Medicare officials in an effort to get new medical products covered sooner for the nation's 45 million senior citizens. Under the proposal, the FDA would review and make approval decisions alongside the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which decides whether and how to pay for new medical products for its elderly and disabled patients once they are approved for the U.S. market," Reuters reported.

18 Sep 2010

HRA Pharma, Watson enter licensing agreement for ulipristal acetate emergency contraceptive commercialization

HRA Pharma, a privately-held, European pharmaceutical company that develops healthcare solutions in reproductive health and endocrinology and makes them available worldwide, and Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that they have entered into a licensing agreement for the commercialization of HRA Pharma's next generation emergency contraceptive ulipristal acetate in Canada.

18 Sep 2010

InVision-Plus connector reduces CLABSI infections: Report

The InVision-Plus needleless IV connector helped three different organizations sharply reduce and in some cases completely eliminate central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI), according to three poster presentations that will be presented at AVA 2010, the annual scientific meeting of the Association for Vascular Access.

18 Sep 2010

Atherotech Diagnostics publishes article on advantages of cholesterol testing

Detailed cholesterol testing for Type 2 diabetes patients is the focus of a newly published article by Atherotech Diagnostics Lab Chief Medical Officer Michael E. Cobble, M.D. The article discusses the clinical advantages of advanced cholesterol testing in reducing cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in patients with Type 2 diabetes and details several currently available advanced lipid tests, including the VAP® Cholesterol Test from Atherotech.

18 Sep 2010

EHS is now SuccessEHS

www.successehs.com, a Birmingham-based company specializing in physician practice management software systems and electronic health record (EHR) (sometimes called an electronic medical record or EMR), is pleased to announce they are changing their name, and the name of their flagship product CareRevolution™, to SuccessEHS™.

18 Sep 2010

Judge releases schedule for health overhaul lawsuit proceedings; Poll finds voters indifferent to candidates' reform positions

The federal judge overseeing a lawsuit brought by 20 states against health reform released a schedule this week that lays out how the case will proceed, The Hill's Healthwatch Blog reports.

18 Sep 2010

CBO finds generic drugs save Medicare $33 billion in 2007

A new government report finds that the use of generic medications saved the Medicare program and its beneficiaries about $33 billion in 2007, The Associated Press/BusinessWeek report. The Congressional Budget Office report "says an additional $14 billion is expected as first-time generics enter the market through 2012. Medicare Part D is Medicare's prescription drug program" (9/15).

18 Sep 2010

Federal health care reform legislation can help removing financial barriers to treat Americans

New government data released today demonstrate the continued, urgent need for more Americans to have access to drug and alcohol addiction treatment, according to an analysis by the Closing the Addiction Treatment Gap (CATG) initiative. If implemented properly, federal health care reform legislation could help remove financial barriers to treatment for millions of Americans.

17 Sep 2010

Democratic candidates spend more on ads against than for health reform

Politico: Democratic candidates are spending three times more — nearly $1 million — in advertising against health reform than for it. "Since the beginning of Congress's August recess, Democratic candidates have poured $930,000 into ads deriding the health overhaul but just $300,000 in pro-reform spots, according to Evan Tracey at Kantar Media."

17 Sep 2010

Waxman says controversial Medicare bidding program for medical equipment should proceed

CQ HealthBeat: "House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry A. Waxman said Wednesday that a controversial Medicare bidding program that would cut the costs of medical equipment such as wheelchairs and oxygen supplies should go forward under tight scrutiny. Waxman said ... he takes seriously the concerns of suppliers and some patients' groups that service and access to supplies could be undermined by the money-saving program, but said there is no evidence so far of that happening based on limited early tests of the approach."

17 Sep 2010

Ways and Means leaders introduce fraud prevention efforts

The Hill: Leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee have offered a bipartisan bill to allow the Department of Health and Human Services to exclude corporate executives from Medicare if their companies were convicted of fraud. "The bill, introduced by Reps. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) and Wally Herger (R-Calif.), would also give the HHS Office of the Inspector General the ability to exclude parent companies that may be committing fraud through shell companies."

17 Sep 2010

First Edition: September 16, 2010

In his latest Kaiser Health News column, done in collaboration with The New Republic, Jonathan Cohn writes: "It will force a lot of people to pay higher premiums. It will lavish subsidies on the private insurance industry. It will put life-and-death decisions in the hands of bureaucrats. And it will add hundreds of billions of dollars to the federal debt" (Kaiser Health News).

17 Sep 2010

IVF on the rise in Australia: Report

According to a Federal Government report there are now more births via In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) treatment than ever before in Australia. There has been a 45% rise in the number of babies born through IVF and other treatments between 2004-08, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report released today. In 2008 there were 10,509 babies born through fertility treatments in Australia.

16 Sep 2010