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Texas Rep. Brady ready to brawl for ways & means top spot

Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, announced he will seek the chairmanship of this powerful House panel. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., was expected to have a smooth path to that position.

27 Sep 2014

Medicaid expansion concept gains momentum in some initially reluctant states

Reuters reports that this development has to do with financial pragmatism -- especially in GOP-led states that were at the forefront of opposition to the health law. The Associated Press provides a status check on Indiana's expansion request.

27 Sep 2014

GSA and NAM select reporters for Journalists in Aging Fellows Program

The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) and New America Media (NAM) have selected 19 reporters for the Journalists in Aging Fellows Program, now in its fifth year.

26 Sep 2014

West Virginia home health community takes part in Save Home Health rally

Representatives of the West Virginia home health community – including Parkersburg area clinicians, family members and advocates as well as national leaders – today took part in a Save Home Health rally to commend special guest Congressman David McKinley (WV-1) and speak out against unprecedented Medicare cuts of 14 percent to home health services that went into effect on January 1 as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

24 Sep 2014

Health law, Medicare remain hot topics in campaign commercials

Politico reports that, although the health law and other related issues may not be the flashpoints they were in other recent election years, they still have muscle on the campaign trail.

19 Sep 2014

State highlights: States want home care worker wage changes delayed; Ga. delays nursing home rate hike

State officials that argued against providing overtime and minimum wage protections to the nation's 2 million home care workers are asking the Department of Labor to push back a Jan. 1 start date for the policy to take effect. State Medicaid officials concerned that their costs will rise are asking for a delay and tweaks to the policy, even though the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finalized the rule a year ago.

15 Sep 2014

Research roundup: Prevention services for seniors; drug shortages

This policy brief reports the findings of a systematic review conducted by the Community Health Innovations in Prevention for Seniors (CHIPS) project. ... Clinical preventive services such as colorectal cancer screening and pneumococcal immunization can help reduce rates of premature death and disability. Yet, many older adults are not receiving the full set of clinical preventive services that have been proven effective and are considered "high value" in terms of their costs per life saved. Rates are particularly low among racial and ethnic minority older adults compared to national goals.

15 Sep 2014

Teen cannabis users 60% less likely to complete school or get a degree

Individuals who are daily users of cannabis before age 17 are over 60% less likely to complete high school or obtain a degree compared to those who have never used the drug, new research published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal shows.

11 Sep 2014

State highlights: Scrutiny on for-profit surgery centers after Joan Rivers' death; Kaiser agrees to $4 million fine

A selection of health policy stories from New York, California, the District of Columbia, North Carolina and Georgia.

11 Sep 2014

Picwell’s first recommendation engine uses predictive analytics to rate health plan options

Picwell, the first recommendation engine to use predictive analytics to rate consumer health plan options according to individual needs, today announced its official launch.

10 Sep 2014

State, Congressional candidates go on the record with health policy issues

The physician who is campaigning to become Kansas's Lieutenant Governor talks health care payment models while candidates in Virginia, Massachusetts and Connecticut take on policies ranging from over-the-counter birth control to the interaction between the health law and Medicare.

10 Sep 2014

CareConnectors, VRI develop new software framework to provide mobile health application

CareConnectors™, developers of the PatientGraph™ Platform and VRI today announced they are developing a new software framework that will provide mobile health application developers with a unified, validated, monitoring data sharing and exchange interface for home telehealth monitoring.

9 Sep 2014

Democrats look for state gains to help positions on Medicaid, health law

Even if Democrats lose seats on Capitol Hill, they believe they can make inroads in state offices that will help them expand Medicaid and extend the health care law.

9 Sep 2014

Viewpoints: End-of-life discussions; seniors missing their vaccinations; health law's new political calculations

There is reason to hope that a degree of sanity may be returning to the touchy issue of advance planning for medical care at the end of life.

8 Sep 2014

State highlights: Democrats consider letting states curb health costs; obesity in America

Borrowing a Republican idea, a group including former senior Obama and Clinton advisers is unveiling a novel proposal to let states take the lead in controlling health costs.

8 Sep 2014

First Edition: September 5, 2014

Today's headlines include reports of hacker activity at the healthcare.gov health insurance website.

5 Sep 2014

Study compares harms of marijuana use with alcohol use

The study found that for high school seniors, alcohol consumption led to unsafe driving and compromised relationships with peers, while marijuana consumption was found to compromise relationships with authority figures.

1 Sep 2014

New study reveals psychosocial health benefits for older adults who volunteer

Older adults who stay active by volunteering are getting more out of it than just an altruistic feeling - they are receiving a health boost!

29 Aug 2014

State highlights: Heroin deaths rise in N.Y.; TennCare computer system delay; Colo. races to win $87M to integrate care;

A heroin crisis gripping communities across the country deepened in New York last year, with more people in the city dying in overdoses from the drug than in any year since 2003. In all, 420 people fatally overdosed on heroin in 2013 out of a total of 782 drug overdoses, rising to a level not seen in a decade in both absolute numbers and as a population-adjusted rate, according to preliminary year-end data from the city's health department (Goodman, 8/28).