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Health Research Institute presents top 10 issues in the upcoming year

PricewaterhouseCoopers' Health Research Institute's Top 10 Health Industry Issues in 2010, puts healthcare cost control at the head of the list as the overarching theme for the year ahead.

17 Dec 2009

Dangers of excess radiation exposure: Stricter measures needed to prevent unnecessary scans

MedSolutions (www.medsolutions.com), a leading provider of medical cost management services, today commended two new studies highlighting the dangers of excess radiation exposure from CT scans and other diagnostic imaging tests.

17 Dec 2009

Quantros launches new healthcare IT consulting division

Quantros, Inc., a leading provider of safety and quality software and professional services solutions for the healthcare industry, announces the creation of a new healthcare IT consulting division.

17 Dec 2009

Healthcare sector achieves modest revenue growth in 2008

Health care sector revenue increased by 5.7 percent in 2008 to $1.75 trillion, up from $1.66 trillion in 2007, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau. This sector is classified under the North American Industry Classification System as NAICS 62.

17 Dec 2009

Portable bladder volume ultrasound now included in 2009 CDC guidelines for the prevention CA-UTIs

Verathon®, maker of BladderScan® bladder volume instruments is pleased to announce that portable bladder volume ultrasound is now included in the new 2009 CDC guidelines for the Prevention of Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CA-UTIs).

17 Dec 2009

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announces $27 million to help older individuals with chronic conditions

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced the availability of $27 million to help older individuals with chronic conditions to improve their health and reduce their use of costly medical care.

17 Dec 2009

The White House reject Dean's challenge to Senate health bill

USA Today: A White House spokesman today said President Obama rejects the call by former Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean to defeat the current Senate health care bill. Dean, "a physician who also was Vermont governor, said on national television Wednesday he believed legislation in the Senate would now benefit the insurance industry more than it helps Americans struggling to gain health coverage or pay for it."

16 Dec 2009

Obama: Government 'will go bankrupt' without health reform

ABC News: "President Obama told ABC News' Charles Gibson in an interview that if Congress does not pass health care legislation that will bring down costs, the federal government 'will go bankrupt.'"

16 Dec 2009

Obama 'cautiously optimistic' on reform after meeting with Senate Democrats

President Obama told Senate Democrats Tuesday in an hour-long meeting that they are on the "precipice" of health reform and said that he was "cautiously optimistic" that health reform would get done, the Los Angeles Times reports. "President Obama, acknowledging that he will have to accept serious compromises in the passage of a healthcare overhaul, insisted today that he would not let the public down on an issue that he had made the centerpiece of his first-year domestic agenda."

16 Dec 2009

Hospital, physician lobbyists fought Medicare buy-in proposal

The Washington Post offers a look at how hospital and physician lobbyists adamantly fought the Medicare buy-in proposal, which would have allowed people age 55 to 64 to buy Medicare coverage. Such efforts led to the proposal's disappearance within six days.

16 Dec 2009

Major Medicare fraud crackdown in 3 states

The Associated Press: "Federal agents arrested 26 suspects in three states Tuesday, including a doctor and nurses, in a major crackdown on Medicare fraud totaling $61 million in separate scams. Arrests in Miami, Brooklyn and Detroit included a Florida doctor accused of running a $40 million home health care scheme that falsely listed patients as blind diabetics so that he could bill for twice-daily nurse visits.

16 Dec 2009

On and off Capitol Hill, politicians are taking positions on health bill

Roll Call: "Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Tuesday said she does not believe that the Senate Democratic health care reform bill will garner her vote, despite significant changes that are likely to be made to rid the bill of a public insurance option and an expansion of Medicare. Democrats have regarded Collins, along with fellow moderate Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe, as potentially persuadable on the bill.

16 Dec 2009

Senate Democrats trying to push health reform bill ahead

The Associated Press: "History may be calling but time's running out to act by Christmas, so Senate Democrats are coming to terms with the idea they won't get everything they want from health care overhaul. ... The public plan liberals hoped for appeared dead in the Senate, as did a Medicare buy-in scheme offered as a fallback."

16 Dec 2009

Reid assures Medicare Part D 'doughnut hole' will be closed

CBS News: "With the clock ticking on Senate Democrats' efforts to draw up a health care bill they all can agree on before the end of the year, Senate leaders on Monday said they would commit to providing seniors with better prescription drug coverage through Medicare." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pledged to close a gap -- known as the "doughnut hole" -- in Medicare's drug coverage.

16 Dec 2009

Lieberman assures Democrats of his support but ties with party are fraying

The Wall Street Journal reports that Lieberman's "use of his swing vote to help quash a proposed expansion of Medicare marked the latest act in his deteriorating relationship with the Democratic Party. Cheered nine years ago by Democrats as their vice-presidential nominee, Mr. Lieberman later left the party and now is an object of vilification among many in the party's base because of his positions on health care."

16 Dec 2009

ACI survey: 48% of Americans oppose the Senate bill

Consumers oppose the current Senate Healthcare legislation by a two-to-one margin. In a nationwide survey conducted by the American Consumer Institute Center for Citizen Research (ACI), 48% of Americans oppose the Senate bill, while 24% support it.

16 Dec 2009

Liberals agitated by compromise, but appear to back health reform

Politico reports that liberals are accruing a long list of reasons to be upset about the health reform negotiations: "A single-payer plan, a public option, a state 'opt-out' of the public option, a trigger and a Medicare buy-in — all ideas pushed by Democrats and blessed by [President] Obama at various times but now gone from the bill."

16 Dec 2009

Poll: Public cooling to health reform as debate drags on

"As the Senate struggles to meet a self-imposed, year-end deadline to complete work on legislation to overhaul the nation's health-care system, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds the public generally fearful that a revamped system would bring higher costs while worsening the quality of their care," The Washington Post reports. "A bare majority of Americans still believe government action is needed to control runaway health-care costs and expand coverage to the roughly 46 million people without insurance."

16 Dec 2009

Amendment to allow drug importation fails in Senate

A bipartisan plan to allow Americans to buy cheaper prescription drugs from suppliers in other countries, such as Canada, failed Tuesday in the Senate. The Wall Street Journal reports the two top supporters of the plan, Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and John McCain, R-Ariz., said shopping overseas via the Internet and mail-order companies could save consumers up to $80 billion over a decade if their amendment were added to the health overhaul legislation.

16 Dec 2009

Cost-effective alternative to original Medicare or Medicare supplement plan for Syracuse-area residents

At a time when many people with Medicare in Syracuse are increasingly concerned about finding affordable health insurance, they now have a new Medicare Advantage option for 2010.

16 Dec 2009