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Democrats look to Medicare to help finance reform

The Associated Press: "Medicare is looking like a big fat piggy bank for health care overhaul. President Barack Obama and the Democrats want to pay for much of their plan to cover the uninsured by cutting hundreds of billions from the Medicare budget over the next 10 years. From its inception, the health plan for seniors has been kept afloat by taxes out of workers' paychecks. Now, Medicare savings would count toward helping uninsured working-age children and grandchildren afford their own coverage."

29 Sep 2009

90-day supply program to improve overall healthcare

Walgreens (NYSE:WAG) today launched a broad initiative for 90-day prescriptions that promotes delivery of maintenance and chronic care medication through its national network of more than 7,000 community pharmacies and employer worksite centers.

29 Sep 2009

SUNY Stony Brook implements PatientKeeper ePrescription and Pay for Performance

PatientKeeper®, Inc., the leading provider of Physician Information Technology, announced today that the physicians at State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook will be using PatientKeeper ePrescription™ and PatientKeeper Pay for Performance (P4P)™, expanding their deployment of the PatientKeeper’s physician-focused applications.

29 Sep 2009

Oculus launches Microcyn Skin & Wound HydroGel OTC

Oculus Innovative Sciences, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures and markets a family of products based upon the Microcyn Technology platform, which is intended to treat chronic and acute wounds, today launched Microcyn Skin & Wound HydroGel for both the U.S. professional and over-the-counter markets. The Microcyn HydroGel received FDA 510(k) marketing clearance in May of this year.

29 Sep 2009

Campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience to end insurance abuse

Citizens and health care providers who are fed up with the state of our health care system will risk arrest at a New York Aetna health insurance office on Tuesday morning. The sit-in is the first action in part of a larger mobilization to end insurance abuse and build support for real reform – Medicare for All, a single payer plan.

29 Sep 2009

Changes to Louisiana's healthcare system can promote standardized care for patients

Before Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana's healthcare system was strained, with a quarter of the population living below the poverty line and an estimated 20 percent uninsured. Healthcare for this population was provided through the state-run Charity Hospital and financed through Medicaid DSH (Disproportionate Share Hospital) dollars.

29 Sep 2009

Republicans switch tact on Medicare for current health debate

Republicans, have switched sides, and now accuse Democrats of trying to cut Medicare. Meanwhile, Dems are vexed by the affordability issue.

29 Sep 2009

GAO finds that a Federal program is missing problem nursing homes

Federal investigators report that a government-run program designed to bring "extra scrutiny to poorly performing nursing homes" is missing "hundreds of troubled facilities" that could qualify the closer look.

29 Sep 2009

Dialysis patients often not told about transplant options, Newspaper finds

"Thousands of kidney patients in the United States start dialysis without first being told of kidney transplants that would be cheaper and lead to longer lives, according to a four-month newspaper investigation published Sunday," The Associated Press reports.

28 Sep 2009

Payment of healthcare through technology will ease the stress on overburdened healthcare workers

With all the noise being made about healthcare reform the past few months, focusing on everything from public option vs. insurance agencies and what will and will not be covered, what's slowly coming into focus is that it is not that healthcare is necessarily in need of an overhaul, but the way in which Americans pay for it.

28 Sep 2009

First edition: September 28, 2009

A look at today's headlines reveals that specific issues regarding the health overhaul effort continue to get significant attention and trigger debate.

28 Sep 2009

Increment in 2010 PET reimbursement may increase the demand for Cardiac PET imaging

Positron Corporation, a molecular imaging solutions company focused on Nuclear Cardiology, predicts a significant rise in demand for Cardiac PET in 2010 with a proposed cut in SPECT reimbursement of 46% and an increase in PET reimbursement of 22%, issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

28 Sep 2009

Fourth-quarter and full year fiscal 2009 results announced

United American Healthcare Corporation (Nasdaq: UAHC) today announced financial results for the Company's fiscal fourth quarter and full year ended June 30, 2009.

28 Sep 2009

Pelosi tries to unite divided Democratic factions in House

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is facing a difficult task in the House: herding the different Democratic factions to fashion a single health care bill.

28 Sep 2009

Progress on the Baucus Bill is in the eye of the beholder

The New York Times: "Senate Democrats on Friday preserved the guts of their proposal to reinvent the health care system, but Republicans scored political points on several issues, like the effects of the bill on older Americans. The Democrats beat back Republican attacks on the legislation as the Senate Finance Committee deferred some of the most contentious issues to next week."

28 Sep 2009

NCPA commends U.S. Senate Finance Committee's approval of the Cantwell amendment

The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) today commended the U.S. Senate Finance Committee for approving by unanimous, voice vote an amendment by U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) to lower health care costs through common-sense disclosure requirements for any pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) participating in the health insurance exchanges envisioned in Chairman Max Baucus’ (D-MT) America’s Healthy Future Act.

26 Sep 2009

Cantwell amendment will raise cost of prescription drugs: PCMA

“America’s pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) believe strongly in the principle of transparency and empowering payers to make informed health-care purchasing decisions resulting in lower prescription drug costs and higher quality. Regrettably, today’s amendment moves the health care system in the opposite direction.”

26 Sep 2009

Biden emerges as health care messenger

The vice president took the stage Wednesday for the administration's health reform campaign with a talk with seniors at Leisure World in suburban Maryland. The Associated Press reports: "Vice President Joe Biden sought to reassure nervous seniors Wednesday that they won't see cuts in their Medicare benefits if the nation's health care system is revamped. ...

26 Sep 2009

New research offers significant insights into the long-term impact of a major disaster on routine surgical services

New research published in the September issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons offers important insights into the long-term impact of a major disaster on routine surgical services in a hospital. In the study, researchers at Ochsner Health System, New Orleans, LA, showed that although Hurricane Katrina resulted in a significant loss of surgical staff and an increase in the number of uninsured patients undergoing operations, greater cost efficiencies were achieved.

25 Sep 2009

Pelosi continues push for public plan in house bill

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stepped up her push for a publicly run health plan that has divided congressional Democrats, saying it could 'save enormous amounts of money,'" The Wall Street Journal reports. "Congressional aides said including a government-run plan for people under 65 in the health overhaul could save as much as $100 billion, if such a plan were to pay health-care providers the low rates used by Medicare, the federal health program for the elderly."

25 Sep 2009