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Advantec announces partnership with Teladoc for telehealth consultations

Advantec, an innovative provider of HR, Payroll and Benefits services to small and mid-sized businesses, announced today a new partnership with Teladoc, the nation's leading provider of telehealth medical consultations.

14 Sep 2010

LA community clinics facing budget squeeze; Milwaukee may target benefits of public employees; Seattle Times documents 236 deaths in adult homes

Los Angeles Times: "Stung by a budget stalemate that is costing Los Angeles County community clinics more than $330,000 a day in reimbursements, many clinic managers have been forced to take out loans and contemplate cuts to staff and services. Without the funds from Medi-Cal, the state insurance program for low-income patients, 41 clinics statewide have applied for loans from a fund created in response to the budget impasse.

13 Sep 2010

Lawmakers, Axelrod push and pull on what health reform means to campaigns

Politico: Senior White House adviser David Axelrod said Sunday that he thinks voters will eventually warm to health care reform. He made his comments on NBC's "Meet the Press."

13 Sep 2010

As overhaul unfolds, interest in at least one change spreads across aisle

At least one aspect of the GOP's health overhaul repeal push has become bipartisan: Objections to a provision requiring businesses that file 1099 tax forms to provide line-item detail of any purchases of $600 or more in a given year, The New York Times reports. Democrats, including Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, are saying they, too, would like to change the provision.

13 Sep 2010

Less-invasive alternative to vasectomy

Pro-Vas® – the new faster, less-invasive alternative to traditional vasectomy – was featured Thursday in millions of homes and doctors' offices across the nation on "The Doctors" TV show. This nationally syndicated show highlights significant advancements in the world of health and medicine.

13 Sep 2010

Dr. Siegal & Son introduces CalciOs cookies to relieve heartburn

Dr. Siegal & Son, LLC, a new Vienna, Virginia based company launched by renowned physician and author Sanford Siegal, D.O., M.D., and his son, Matthew Siegal, the duo behind the internationally popular Dr. Siegal's COOKIE DIET brand, has introduced CalciOs cookies, a snack food that's enriched with calcium carbonate, a common source of dietary calcium supplementation that also neutralizes stomach acid and relieves occasional heartburn. U.S. and international patents are pending.

13 Sep 2010

Leukemia survivor to meet donor of bone marrow transplant

Ann Marie Del Fiacco, a 38-year-old Berwyn mother of two, owes her life to a stranger who volunteered to be a donor for her life-saving bone marrow transplant.

13 Sep 2010

Health risk assessments

At various points in our lives, we're curious about our health risks, wondering about our susceptibility for everything from high cholesterol to a deadly inherited disease. We might want to learn more about our risks when we reach a certain age or experience a bout of bad health; when we hear about a friend or co-worker coping with a dreaded illness; or read the latest headlines about disease research.

13 Sep 2010

Measuring PSA levels effective in detecting prostate cancer: Study

A new multinational study suggests that regular blood testing to measure levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA) is more effective at detecting prostate cancer in men with a genetic predisposition to the disease.

13 Sep 2010

Improving palliative care may reduce healthcare costs, improve outcomes

There may be no simple one-size-fits-all approach to improving end-of-life care in ICU settings, according to a recent study from some of the world's leading researchers in palliative care.

13 Sep 2010

Ill. prepares high risk pool; Calif. residents struggle with rising health care costs

"At first glance, the new Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan sounds like welcome relief for jobless Illinoisans who have serious medical issues and are struggling with the loss of employer financed health care. The federally financed $5 billion plan $196 million of which is earmarked for Illinois provides an affordable health insurance option to people who previously were limited to the far more expensive, state run Illinois Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan.

13 Sep 2010

Hospitals lobby for broader health IT rewards; Mobile devices infiltrate health care

The American Hospital Association stepped up its advocacy efforts to get lawmakers to revisit a program that will reward hospitals for adopting electronic medical records by expanding its opportunities for hospital systems with multiple facilities, The Hill reports.

13 Sep 2010

C-section rates on the rise

According to a California Watch analysis, profit making hospitals across the state are performing Cesarean sections at higher rates than non-profit hospitals. The analysis compiled a database of state birthing records and showed that women were at least 17 percent more likely to have a Cesarean section at a for-profit hospital than at a non-profit or public hospital from 2005 to 2007.

12 Sep 2010

Physician shortage could grow under new health law

HealthDay/Bloomberg BusinessWeek: With tens of millions of patients newly insured under the law, "[s]ome experts worry that there could be longer wait times to see a doctor, particularly in rural areas and underserved markets where primary-care physicians are in short supply. … [P]rimary-care physicians make up only 35 percent of America's physician workforce, and the pipeline of fresh talent is tapering off.

10 Sep 2010

Dartmouth study says primary care not always a cure-all

A new study by Dartmouth Health Atlas researchers contends that making primary care more widely accessible -- one of the goals of the health overhaul -- won't necessarily improve the nation's health, Reuters reports. The researchers found wide variations in the quality of care that do not always match up with the level of access to physicians.

10 Sep 2010

Doctor works to measure outcomes of provider care

Forbes profiles "the most powerful doctor you never heard of," a Yale cardiologist who does "outcomes research" in which he measures "how well doctors are doing in the real world, outside of controlled trials--what they are doing right, what they are doing wrong and what they are forgetting to do entirely."

10 Sep 2010

NACHC Conference to discuss primary care foundation in America under Affordable Care Act

Former Health and Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt will address a national conference of Community, Migrant and Homeless Health Center representatives scheduled to convene this week. The 2010 Community Health Institute (CHI) and EXPO, hosted by the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), will take place in Dallas, TX, September 10-14th.

10 Sep 2010

First Edition: September 10, 2010

In this morning's news, the Obama administration takes a hard line against insurers -- warning them not to blame the new health law for their rate hikes.

10 Sep 2010

Experts advise men to maintain record of prostate specific antigen test results for risk detection

Experts at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center advise men to keep a record of their prostate specific antigen (PSA) test results to help determine if they are at increased risk for prostate cancer.

10 Sep 2010

Study finds misclassification of risk groups for heart diseases

The widespread use of a simplified clinical tool to estimate future coronary risk could lead to the classification of millions of Americans into different risk groups than when using the original, "gold-standard" tool. Millions of patients may have been misclassified into higher-risk groups and therefore potentially over-treated, while others may have ended up in lower-risk groups and therefore potentially under-treated for heart disease. The study-, led by William Gordon from Weill Cornell Medical College in the US and colleagues, is published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine-, published by Springer.

10 Sep 2010