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Bristol-Myers Squibb board authorizes common stock repurchase program

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company today announced its Board of Directors has authorized the repurchase of up to $3 billion of its common stock.

5 May 2010

Catalyst Health Solutions' first-quarter 2010 net income up 26%

Catalyst Health Solutions, Inc. announces its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2010. The Company reports quarterly net income of $17.4 million, up 26% from $13.8 million in the prior year. Quarterly earnings per diluted share increased to $0.39. Revenue for the quarter ended March 31, 2010, increased 18% to $832.3 million from $703.3 million in the prior year.

5 May 2010

Health law program may benefit early retirees, big firms

A health law program that will go into effect next month will steer $5 billion to buttress employer-sponsored health plans for retirees who are not yet old enough to qualify for Medicare and have no other options for buying coverage, The Associated Press reports.

5 May 2010

CBO: Medicare payment 'doc fix' is more expensive than expected

The debate over what to do about Medicare payments to doctors continues. Physicans have been lobbying "to repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate formula, which triggers automatic Medicare payment cuts if spending rises above a certain level," CongressDaily reports. Those cuts have been put off for years.

5 May 2010

Metropolitan Health Networks reports 2.9% increase in revenue for first-quarter 2010

Metropolitan Health Networks, Inc., a leading provider of healthcare services in Florida, today announced the financial results for their first quarter ended March 31, 2010.

4 May 2010

Theragenics reports highest quarterly consolidated revenue of $20.3 million

Theragenics Corporation®, a medical device company serving the surgical products and prostate cancer treatment markets, today announced consolidated financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2010.

4 May 2010

CVS Caremark's net revenues increase $366M to $23.8 billion for first-quarter 2010

CVS Caremark Corporation, today announced revenues, operating profit, and net income for the three months ended March 31, 2010.

4 May 2010

Pay-for-performance programs could end up widening medical disparities: RAND study

Rewarding primary care physicians for providing better care to patients could end up widening medical disparities experienced by poorer people and those belonging to racial and ethnic minorities, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

4 May 2010

Consumer Reports Health lays out next steps for consumers in variety of situations

With health reform now the law of the land, Consumer Reports Health lays out next steps for consumers in a variety of situations - those who are currently insured; Medicare and Medicaid recipients; people with pre-existing conditions; parents of children with pre-existing conditions; parents of uninsured young adults; and people who develop serious illnesses.

4 May 2010

Hartford Foundation awards $800,000 grant for training in geriatric social work

The prestigious Hartford Doctoral Fellows and Hartford Faculty Scholars programs have awarded $800,000 in combined new grants to ten researchers in the field of geriatric social work.

4 May 2010

Teva reports 31% increase in non-GAAP net income for first-quarter 2010

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. today reported results for the quarter ended March 31, 2010.

4 May 2010

Hologic commences enrollment in European trial of Gestiva for prevention of recurrent preterm birth

K-V Pharmaceutical Company announced today it has been informed by Hologic, Inc. that site initiation and patient enrollment has begun at international clinical trial sites in Europe in the ongoing trial of Gestiva™ (hydroxyprogesterone caproate injection, 250 mg/1 mL), commonly referred to as "17P," for the prevention of preterm birth in women pregnant with a single baby with a history of singleton spontaneous preterm birth.

From Hologic, Inc. 4 May 2010

Health law brings a 'host of new taxes' and billions in tax credits

The Washington Post/Fiscal Times: Tax credits and other breaks -- including $50 billion a year in subsidies for low-income people to buy insurance under the new health law -- were "worth more than $1 trillion to recipients last year. That's more than the government spent on Social Security, and nearly enough to balance the federal budget." These and other so-called "tax expenditures" could total $3 trillion by 2020.

3 May 2010

States decide on risk pools as first major health law decision

Politico reports that establishing high-risk insurance pools, the first major decision after the enactment of health care reform, "has come and gone with the decisions so far made mostly along party lines." Many Democratic governors "decided to help the Department of Health and Human Services by creating the pools themselves with federal funding.

3 May 2010

As doctors frustration with Medicare payments grows, a few opt to leave the system

American Medical News reports on doctors' frustrations with the Medicare program and looks at the practice of Juliette Madrigal-Dersch, an internist in Marble Falls, Texas, who "decided to see Medicare patients only on a private-contracting basis. That means neither she nor her patients can claim any payment from Medicare. It also means she can charge what her services actually cost, not just what the government says it will pay. She also can choose not to charge anything, as is her policy for patients age 90 and older."

3 May 2010

Pay-for-performance policies may create financial disincentives for doctors to treat obese patients

Pay-for-performance reimbursement of surgeons, intended to reward doctors and hospitals for good patient outcomes, may instead be creating financial incentives for discriminating against obese patients, who are much more likely to suffer expensive complications after even the most routine surgeries, according to new Johns Hopkins research.

3 May 2010

Watson Pharmaceuticals sued in connection with filing ANDA for generic equivalent of Trilipix

Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today confirmed that its subsidiary, Watson Laboratories, Inc. - Florida, has been sued by Abbott Laboratories and Fournier Laboratories Ireland Ltd. in connection with the filing of Watson's Abbreviated New Drug Application for choline fenofibrate delayed-release capsules in the 45 mg and 135 mg strengths.

3 May 2010

Research roundup: Managing nursing home patients, streamlining medical billing, financial disclosures

Saving Billions Of Dollars--And Physicians' Time--By Streamlining Billing Practices - "The U.S. system of billing third parties for health care services is complex, expensive, and inefficient," write the authors, who analyzed Massachusetts General Physicians Organization staffing and cost data in fiscal year 2006.

3 May 2010

Cash crisis for infertility treatment prompting couples to go for multiple embryo implantations

With the rise in costs for fertility treatments, more and more Australian women are requesting their specialists to implant more than one embryo in their wombs. This is resulting in a rise in twin and triplet births.

3 May 2010

Mass. report on insurers' financial health provides mixed portrait

"A long-awaited state report to be released today will probably add fuel to the debate about surging health costs by portraying a mixed financial picture of Massachusetts health insurers. The state's eight health insurers finished 2008 with a total surplus of $2.5 billion, a more than four-fold increase from 1999 when the study period began, according to a 17-page executive summary of the report from the Division of Health Care Finance and Policy that was obtained by the Globe."

3 May 2010

Medicare News and Research

Bristol-Myers Squibb board authorizes common stock repurchase program

Catalyst Health Solutions' first-quarter 2010 net income up 26%

Health law program may benefit early retirees, big firms

CBO: Medicare payment 'doc fix' is more expensive than expected

Metropolitan Health Networks reports 2.9% increase in revenue for first-quarter 2010

Theragenics reports highest quarterly consolidated revenue of $20.3 million

CVS Caremark's net revenues increase $366M to $23.8 billion for first-quarter 2010

Pay-for-performance programs could end up widening medical disparities: RAND study

Consumer Reports Health lays out next steps for consumers in variety of situations

Hartford Foundation awards $800,000 grant for training in geriatric social work

Teva reports 31% increase in non-GAAP net income for first-quarter 2010

Hologic commences enrollment in European trial of Gestiva for prevention of recurrent preterm birth

Health law brings a 'host of new taxes' and billions in tax credits

States decide on risk pools as first major health law decision

As doctors frustration with Medicare payments grows, a few opt to leave the system

Pay-for-performance policies may create financial disincentives for doctors to treat obese patients

Watson Pharmaceuticals sued in connection with filing ANDA for generic equivalent of Trilipix

Research roundup: Managing nursing home patients, streamlining medical billing, financial disclosures

Cash crisis for infertility treatment prompting couples to go for multiple embryo implantations

Mass. report on insurers' financial health provides mixed portrait

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