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Latino Coalition opposes health care bill

Hispanic groups wrote a second letter to congressional leaders to raise their concerns about provisions in the current health care bill that negatively targets minority communities. They believe that the current legislation will have a disproportionately negative impact on low-income minority groups and will lead to Medicare cuts for Hispanic seniors, increase in taxes for Hispanic small businesses and reduced wages for Hispanic workers. Congress has failed to listen to their concerns.

20 Mar 2010

U.S to face potential outbreak of hyperinflation by 2015

The National Inflation Association - http://inflation.us - today issued a warning to all Americans of a potential outbreak of hyperinflation in the U.S. by year 2015 caused primarily by the healthcare bill and rising interest payments on our national debt.

20 Mar 2010

Interest groups weigh in on reform: AHIP opposes it; Unions offer support

Politico: With the clock ticking toward an important health reform vote, major interest groups "are drawing lines in the sand and warning lawmakers that their vote will leave a mark. The groups are blasting a final round of ads into targeted districts ... and, in some cases, are threatening to support — and, more important, fund — challengers if members of Congress vote the wrong way.

20 Mar 2010

Hospital News: Insurer negotiations, exemptions at risk, and Florida money trouble

Hospitals are pushing for higher reimbursement rates - in some cases, raises of more than 20 percent - and insurers are increasingly fighting back, The Wall Street Journal reports. "Hospitals argue that low Medicare rates and cuts to Medicaid mean that hospitals have to get money from elsewhere, and increasingly that is private insurers.

20 Mar 2010

Obama emphasizes historic nature of health care vote during final rally

The Washington Post: "Thousands of people rallied loudly for passage of health-care legislation in Northern Virginia Friday as President Obama tried one final time to demonstrate public support for the health-care bill that is moving toward a Sunday afternoon vote in Congress.

20 Mar 2010

For undecided lawmakers, health care bill is personal

Politico: The decision on how to vote on the health care overhaul affects members differently than nearly any other issue. "[N]o other single issue — civil rights, Medicare, even war in this age of professional armies — quite matches the personal side of health care's stubborn details. … Everybody gets sick; everybody dies.

20 Mar 2010

NMA supports health system reform

"The National Medical Association believes the passage of health care legislation this weekend will be one of the most important steps Congress can take in securing America's future," remarked Dr. Willarda V. Edwards, president of the National Medical Association. "The NMA is hopeful that Sunday's vote will bring relief to millions of Americans who wonder what will happen to them if they get sick," she continued.

20 Mar 2010

Obama, Dem leaders confident about health reform legislation

The Wall Street Journal / Dow Jones: "House Democratic leaders expressed confidence Friday that they would have enough votes to pass health-care legislation, picking up one new 'yes' vote and promising that they would resolve lingering concerns raised by undecided Democrats." A House vote is planned for Sunday.

20 Mar 2010

Details of Democratic tweaks to health bill

News reports scour the latest health overhaul bill for specific provisions and adjustments.

20 Mar 2010

CCAGW calls upon Congress to vote against healthcare bill

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste today called upon Congress to reject any attempts to alter the nation’s healthcare system using parliamentary gimmicks and urged members to vote against the bill.

20 Mar 2010

CBO numbers buoy Democrats eyeing Sunday health reform vote

Democrats unveiled a health overhaul reconciliation bill the Congressional Budget Office says will cost $940 billion but also cut the deficit by $138 billion over the next 10 years.

20 Mar 2010

AARP urges Congressmen to support health care bill and help deliver relief to Idahoans

Hundreds of thousands of Idahoans unable to afford health care or struggling to pay soaring health care costs are watching Congress and hoping for relief. With a final showdown looming on health insurance reform legislation in Washington, D.C., AARP announced this morning it will back the bill containing key reform provisions, improving health care for older Americans and their families.

20 Mar 2010

Research roundup: Insurance crisis tough on middle class; Hospitals' profit margins on private patients up

Private-Payer Profits Can Induce Negative Medicare Margins - "Hospitals' profit margins on privately insured patients have risen dramatically in recent years, while profit margins on Medicare patients have fallen," write the authors, who all work for MedPAC.

20 Mar 2010

Today's OpEds: Wash Post, Economist support health bill, others articulate opposition

But if legislators are asked to cast an up-or-down vote in the next few days, our advice would be to vote yes. With trepidation, we would say that the benefits of acting outweigh the risks (3/19).

20 Mar 2010

Comprehensive community-based solution to help achieve 'meaningful use'

Navigating the Challenges of Meaningful Use to Identify Benefits, March 31, 2010, 2 p.m. CT, a Webinar hosted by Informatics Corporation of America, will explore how to practically implement a community-wide solution that assists its healthcare participants to achieve the proposed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s criteria for meaningful use and bridge gaps in the adoption of electronic health records by its provider community.

19 Mar 2010

Comprehensive healthcare reform: March Madness in Congress

"It's March Madness in Congress as well as on the nation's basketball courts this week, so let's look at the past performance charts to see how the two teams have performed on the big challenge of comprehensive healthcare reform.

19 Mar 2010

Community-driven approaches needed for reducing cancer-death disparities

Cancer death rates for African-Americans far exceed non-Hispanic Caucasians in the United States, and only community-driven approaches to reducing health disparities will lessen the gap, says Edward Partridge, M.D., president-elect of the American Cancer Society (ACS) National Board of Directors and director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Comprehensive Cancer Center.

19 Mar 2010

White paper describes health and economic burden of diabetes on Americans

PositiveID Corporation announced today that it has published a white paper entitled “Fixing the Black Hole in Diabetes Management,” which describes the health and economic burden of diabetes on Americans and our economy.

19 Mar 2010

First Edition: March 19, 2010

The headlines reflect yesterday's flurry of activity as House Democratic Leaders unveiled their $940 billion health-care compromise bill and steamed toward a Sunday vote. All the while, Republican leaders plotted was to stall this progress and nullify the measure.

19 Mar 2010

New report on the state of U.S. mobile health market

CSMG, the strategy division of TMNG Global, a leading provider of professional services, products and services to the converging communications, media and entertainment industries, today released its report on the state of the U.S. mobile health market, entitled: mHealth: Taking the Pulse.

19 Mar 2010