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Clear Choice Health Plans awards a five-year contract to The TriZetto Group

Clear Choice Health Plans, Inc. (OTCBB:CCHN) announced that the company and Adaptis, Inc., its business process outsourcing (BPO) vendor, have mutually agreed to terminate their business relationship and that the Company has entered into a five-year contract for BPO services with The TriZetto Group, Inc., an information technology and services company focused on the health care industry.

5 Sep 2009

Spectrum's ZEVALIN expanded label receives FDA approval for treating non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma

Spectrum Pharmaceuticals (NasdaqGM:SPPI), a commercial-stage biotechnology company with a focus in oncology, today announced ZEVALIN® (ibritumomab tiuxetan), a CD20-directed radiotherapeutic antibody, received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an expanded label for the treatment of patients with previously untreated follicular non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL), who achieve a partial or complete response to first-line chemotherapy.

5 Sep 2009

New report released to highlight health insurance reform for senior women

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will travel to Maine today and formally release a new report on the importance of health insurance reform for older women (ages 55-64) and senior women (ages 65 and older).

4 Sep 2009

The American Association for Homecare deems OIG report as misleading

In a study released yesterday, the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) ignored the substantial costs of services related to providing power wheelchairs, including complex rehab, to seniors and people with disabilities who require mobility assistance.

4 Sep 2009

Real American Brands to start medical transportation business

Real American Brands, Inc. (PINKSHEETS: RLAB) announced today that the company has approved plans to pursue and operate an emergency and non-emergency health services transportation division, to be developed in close consultation with transport and medical personnel who have broad experience in the field.

4 Sep 2009

Medicare advantage rates could go up, while Part D 'exceeding expectations'

"Despite near-zero inflation and recessionary conditions, health insurers in 2010 face another year of double-digit increases in the charges they pay for hospital services, physicians, drugs, and other healthcare costs," U.S. News and World Report writes in a news column.

4 Sep 2009

Minnesota offers model for cost-effective health care

In the second of two reports, NPR examines how Minnesota provides lessons on how to create a more cost-effective health care delivery system. "Many agree that the [fee-for-service] system for doctors and hospitals doesn't work ... and is a major driver in rising health care costs. The health care bills before Congress may do little to change that. But on the state level, Minnesota may have found its own way to move doctors off of the fee-for-service treadmill."

4 Sep 2009

Oncotype DX multigene expression test for breast cancer patients

In an effort to provide breast cancer patients with prompt, critical information about treatment options for use at their first visit with the medical oncologist, a number of leading U.S. surgeons request Genomic Health's Oncotype DX molecular test at the time of surgery or biopsy.

4 Sep 2009

Complaint filed against Coventry for violating the Exchange Act

Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP (“Coughlin Stoia”) today announced that a class action has been commenced on behalf of an institutional investor in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland on behalf of purchasers of the common stock of Coventry Health Care, Inc. (“Coventry” or the “Company”) between February 9, 2007 and October 22, 2008, inclusive (the “Class Period”), seeking to pursue remedies under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”).

4 Sep 2009

Pzifer to pay $2.3 billion in medicare/medicaid fraud settlement

The Obama administration announced a landmark $2.3 billion health care fraud settlement with Pfizer, Inc. Wednesday, which is expected to change drug companies' promotion of off-label use of medicines.

4 Sep 2009

U.S. Department of Labor register apprenticeship programs organized by BlueCross BlueShield

The U.S. Department of Labor has registered information technology apprenticeship programs organized by BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina with Apprenticeship Carolina(TM), a division of the S.C. Technical College System.

3 Sep 2009

Criminal pricing of Merck’s HIV/AIDS drug Isentress challenged by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation

As part of its ongoing campaign to lower drug prices and increase access, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) today unveiled its latest advocacy campaign challenging Merck and Co. Pharmaceuticals over the steep price of its key HIV/AIDS drug, Isentress (raltegravir). The first phase of the public awareness campaign includes a postcard mailer, scheduled to arrive this week in the mailboxes of residents of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, where Merck is headquartered.

3 Sep 2009

Alliance for Health Reform to brief reporters on the hurdles to a meaningful health reform bill

This briefing, for reporters only, will look at some of the important issues that must be settled if President Obama is to sign a meaningful health reform bill this year.

3 Sep 2009

Reliable and relevant information needed to rein in the costs of federal health-care programs, says study

For economists and policy-makers to understand the true value of the costs and savings of preventive health programs for chronic disease, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) should incorporate long-term clinical outcomes data and look beyond the 10-year window when making cost estimates, says a team of University of Chicago researchers in today's issue of Health Affairs.

3 Sep 2009

Health insurers ask employees to lobby Congress to weaken health reform

Consumer Watchdog today asked California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown to investigate major health insurers that have asked their workers to lobby Congress -- during business hours -- to weaken health reform. United Healthcare and Wellpoint have launched national campaigns to individually "assist" employees in writing and calling members of Congress.

3 Sep 2009

Pfizer pleads guilty of defrauding Medicare, Medicaid and other government-funded health care programs

Pfizer, Inc. announced today it has agreed to plead guilty to criminal conduct and to pay more than $2 billion in criminal and civil fines, penalties and damages to settle allegations made in multiple whistleblower lawsuits that the pharmaceutical giant defrauded Medicare, Medicaid and other government-funded health care programs in connection with its market practices for four of its drugs. The settlement is the largest qui tam settlement in U.S. history.

3 Sep 2009

TAHU recommends revision of proposed healthcare plan

The Texas Association of Health Underwriters (TAHU) released a statement on behalf of more than 1700 insurance agents from across the state of Texas outlining their recommendation for a revision to the proposed healthcare plan.

3 Sep 2009

New electronic medical device for treating leg pain

ReBuilder Medical Technologies, Inc. (Pink Sheets: RBRM) a provider of electronic treatments for the pain resulting from peripheral neuropathy and Peripheral Artery Disease today announced that it has released a new way to deliver the impulses of the ReBuilder for pain.

3 Sep 2009

Gentiva Health Services acquires Rush Home Care

Gentiva Health Services, Inc. (Nasdaq: GTIV), a leading provider of comprehensive home health services, announced today that it has completed its acquisition of Rush Home Care, Inc. (d/b/a Magna Home Health), a part of the Rush Health System, located in central Mississippi and west central Alabama. The purchase was funded from Gentiva's existing cash reserves.

3 Sep 2009

The AARP seeks a more neutral image after shedding thousands of members

AARP, the seniors' lobby, has shed as many as 60,000 members in two months over its implicit support for health reform that some members say could lead to Medicare cuts, USA Today reports. The group will launch a campaign next week in hopes of regaining ground with seniors and reestablishing a politically neutral image.

3 Sep 2009