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Reinsurance program will help companies provide health insurance for early retirees

Kaiser Health News and USA Today explain the Obama administration's $5 billion program "to provide financial relief to companies that offer health coverage to early retirees. Officials say the effort, mandated by the new health care overhaul law, will help keep firms from ditching those benefits because of the high costs involved, a trend that has accelerated in recent years.

11 May 2010

Cancer costs double in 20 years but are still in line with overall health spending, study finds

USA Today: "The cost of treating cancer has doubled over the past 20 years, but those costs are in line with overall trends in health spending. And while more people are getting cancer as the U.S. population ages, treatment has shifted away from hospitals to outpatient settings, finds a study in Monday's edition of the journal Cancer.

11 May 2010

New law could help hospice patients continue aggressive medical treatments

Kaiser Health News staff writer Jordan Rau, in collaboration with The Philadelphia Inquirer, reports: "After an excruciating bout of chemotherapy, Linda Meisenhelder gave up fighting colon cancer and last fall entered end-of-life hospice care.

11 May 2010

Overhaul will bring changes, improve quality for Medicare Advantage plans

The Wall Street Journal: "Over the next 10 years, the new health-care law will divert some $132 billion from Medicare Advantage, according to a recent report by George Washington University's Department of Health Policy. This has sparked concern that these plans may reduce benefits, raise premiums, or both. But the impact is likely to vary from plan to plan.

11 May 2010

Consumers, officials work to sort out new health law

For at least one state, implementing health reform is starting to appear easier said than done. The Daily Record, a Baltimore legal newspaper, reports, "Maryland's new Health Care Reform Coordinating Council held its first meeting last week, resolving to find the best way to implement provisions of the landmark federal health care overhaul.

11 May 2010

Companies get help to insure early retirees

Reporting for Kaiser Health News and USA Today, KHN staff writer Christopher Weaver reports: "The White House unveiled details last week of a $5 billion program to provide financial relief to companies that offer health coverage to early retirees.

10 May 2010

Companies await health IT windfall

The Washington Post: A Virginia firm, Vangent, is positioning "itself for a surge of federal spending on health information technology" by setting up a health IT strategy group. "Vangent is likely to face stiff competition for those dollars, but company officials say they expect the firm's reputation as a health-related services provider to serve it well as it bids on contracts." The firm is also involved in civil, defense and national security work, but health services are its largest business.

10 May 2010

Watson Pharmaceuticals first-quarter net revenue up 28% to $856.5M

Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today reported a 28 percent increase in net revenue for the first quarter ended March 31, 2010 to $856.5 million, compared to $667.4 million in the first quarter 2009. On an adjusted cash basis, net income increased 25 percent to $100.3 million or $0.81 per share, compared to $80.2 million or $0.69 per share in the first quarter 2009. GAAP earnings for the first quarter 2010 were $0.57 per share, compared to $0.43 per share in the prior year period.

10 May 2010

First Edition: May 10, 2010

Today's health policy headlines include the feature coverage of aspects of health reform implementation, including how "gradfathering" will be defined in regulations and the latest details on the early retiree reinsurance program.

10 May 2010

Radnet first-quarter revenue down, net loss up

RadNet, Inc., a national leader in providing high-quality, cost-effective, fixed-site outpatient diagnostic imaging services through a network of 190 fully-owned and operated outpatient imaging centers, today reported financial results for its first quarter of 2010.

10 May 2010

NIAMS, NINDS announce 5-year, $7.5M natural history study of Duchenne muscular dystrophy

The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) are launching a five-year, $7.5 million natural history study of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (Duchenne), a degenerative genetically-linked neuromuscular disease. The study aims to validate non-invasive approaches to monitor the progression and treatment of Duchenne, and holds potential to facilitate the development of promising new therapies for people with the disease.

10 May 2010

Zilver PTX Drug-Eluting Peripheral Stent safe and effective for treating SFA lesions

Patients treated with the Zilver® PTX™ Drug-Eluting Peripheral Stent maintained clinical improvement at two years, according to interim results from the Zilver® PTX™ Global Registry presented today as a late-breaking clinical trial at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) 33rd Annual Scientific Sessions.

10 May 2010

Costs and quality of cancer care in the U.S.

A new analysis finds that the costs of treating cancer have nearly doubled over the past two decades and that the shares of these costs that are paid for by private health insurance and Medicaid have increased.

10 May 2010

General internists leaves practice sooner than internal medicine subspecialists, says ACP survey

A survey conducted by the American College of Physicians (ACP) and the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) found that 9 percent of all internists originally certified between 1990 and 1995, including a significantly larger proportion of general internists (17 percent) than internal medicine subspecialists (4 percent), are no longer working in general internal medicine or one of its subspecialties about a decade after their original certification by ABIM.

10 May 2010

Watson Pharmaceuticals reaches patent litigation settlement with Teva Women's Health

Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that its subsidiary, Watson Laboratories, Inc. has reached a settlement with Teva Women's Health, Inc. on outstanding patent litigation related to Teva's Seasonale® (levonorgestrel and ethinyl estradiol tablets USP, 0.15 mg/0.03 mg) product.

10 May 2010

AARP and coalition group urge Governor to enact legislation

Legislation that will bring a sweeping reform to the way in which for-profit nursing homes operate in Illinois and that will greatly improve the quality of care and safety for institutionalized residents passed the State Senate today, and is on its way to the Governor's desk.

10 May 2010

Proposal for regular health check ups for the mentally ill

SANE Australia has revealed data that shows that nearly 90% of patients with mental illness also suffer from chronic ailments like diabetes, heart disease etc.

9 May 2010

GP practices to get funds to employ full time nurses

There are nearly 40 percent GP practices in Australia who do not employ the services of a trained nurse. Authorities believe that there are 441,000 unnecessary hospital admissions each year only because of inability of patients to manage their chronic diseases due to lack of knowledge, or their inability to get adequate follow up care.

9 May 2010

Texas CHIP program faces budget uncertainties while Arizona Governor restores funds for health care programs for the poor

Seven years ago, state leaders working to close a $9.9 billion budget gap took a hatchet to government health insurance for children of the working poor. Thousands of children paid the price when officials tightened eligibility rules and whacked dental, vision and mental health benefits. Gradually, benefits were restored to the Children's Health Insurance Program and, this month, enrollment reached roughly the same level as in 2003.

7 May 2010

PCMA releases statement on PBM Audit Reform and Transparency Act of 2010

Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) have pioneered tools - including incentivizing the use of generic medications, e-prescribing, and mail-service pharmacies - that improve savings, access, and safety for consumers and payers. Since the key to access is affordability, payers and policymakers alike should explore broader use of PBMs' cost-savings tools and reject approaches that make prescription drugs more expensive.

7 May 2010

Medicare News and Research

Reinsurance program will help companies provide health insurance for early retirees

Cancer costs double in 20 years but are still in line with overall health spending, study finds

New law could help hospice patients continue aggressive medical treatments

Overhaul will bring changes, improve quality for Medicare Advantage plans

Consumers, officials work to sort out new health law

Companies get help to insure early retirees

Companies await health IT windfall

Watson Pharmaceuticals first-quarter net revenue up 28% to $856.5M

First Edition: May 10, 2010

Radnet first-quarter revenue down, net loss up

NIAMS, NINDS announce 5-year, $7.5M natural history study of Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Zilver PTX Drug-Eluting Peripheral Stent safe and effective for treating SFA lesions

Costs and quality of cancer care in the U.S.

General internists leaves practice sooner than internal medicine subspecialists, says ACP survey

Watson Pharmaceuticals reaches patent litigation settlement with Teva Women's Health

AARP and coalition group urge Governor to enact legislation

Proposal for regular health check ups for the mentally ill

GP practices to get funds to employ full time nurses

Texas CHIP program faces budget uncertainties while Arizona Governor restores funds for health care programs for the poor

PCMA releases statement on PBM Audit Reform and Transparency Act of 2010

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