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Roundup: State employee benefit battles heat up; Wis. Gov. to remake Medicaid program; Mass. cost controls

The Legislature is close to wrapping up its work on the $25 billion state budget bill after the Senate made minor changes to the plan late Sunday before approving it by a lopsided margin. ... the spending plan for the budget year that starts July 1 would eliminate more than 2,000 state jobs and includes cuts in most state departments and agencies.

21 Jun 2011

Mayo Clinic announces collaboration on genotyping test for Warfarin sensitivity

Mayo Clinic today announced that it has reached an agreement with Rheonix, Inc. to collaborate on the performance of a genotyping test for warfarin sensitivity in clinical and research settings. The genotyping test will be available for all patients of Mayo Clinic and is the subject of ongoing research for improved anticoagulation therapy. Additionally, the test will be offered through Mayo Clinic’s reference laboratory, Mayo Medical Laboratories, to clients throughout the world.

20 Jun 2011

Benitec’s pain program validated by independent study

Benitec Ltd (ASX:BLT), a world leader in RNA-based gene silencing for human therapeutics, announced that China-based researchers have proved the concept behind Benitec's in house neuropathic pain program.

20 Jun 2011

Free ADAP 2.0 software upgrade with Biochrom's EZ Read 400 research reader

Busy laboratory environments require a microplate reader with the flexibility to cover many assay types, and software that delivers fast, reliable analysis. With this in mind, Biochrom are offering a free software upgrade from ADAP 2.0 Basic to ADAP 2.0 Plus with purchases of the EZ Read 400 research reader until 30 September 2011. For further information, visit www.biochrom.co.uk.

From Biochrom Ltd. 20 Jun 2011

Medicare targets 5 Fla. hospitals for patient readmissions; Task force suggests changes for Jackson Memorial in Miami

Five of Florida's major public and non-profit hospitals scored so poorly on return rates for Medicare patients that they will get preference this summer in a grant program to fix the problem, government documents show.

20 Jun 2011

No substitute for physical, face-to-face contact in sexual relationships

Although sex and infidelity are now only a keyboard away, at the end of the day, there is no substitute for physical, face-to-face contact in our sexual relationships. That's according to a new study by Diane Kholos Wysocki, from the University of Nebraska at Kearney, and Cheryl Childers, from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas.

20 Jun 2011

Home-based care increasingly seen as alternative to nursing homes

The health law includes provisions to assist people who want to stay in their homes longer. Meanwhile, the Chicago Sun-Times reports on knowlege gaps among adult children who may become caregivers to aging parents.

20 Jun 2011

GOP fight against Planned Parenthood expands as Wis. prepares to cut funding

What started out as an amendment on the House floor to defund Planned Parenthood has made its way to key battleground states in the 2012 presidential election, with Wisconsin poised to become the fourth state to choke off funding for the women's health provider.

20 Jun 2011

Breakthrough treatment for Cystic Fibrosis sufferers with 'Celtic Gene'

An international research team led by Queen's University have developed a ground breaking treatment for Cystic Fibrosis sufferers. The new drug will benefit sufferers who have the 'Celtic Gene', a genetic mutation which is particularly common in Ireland.

20 Jun 2011

Urinary incontinence after child birth increases risk of postpartum depression

Women with urinary incontinence after giving birth are almost twice as likely to develop postpartum depression as those without incontinence, according to a new study led by Wendy Sword, a professor in McMaster University's School of Nursing.

20 Jun 2011

Activists, advocacy groups rev up behind their causes, revisit health law positions

As Tea Partiers roll through Iowa on a bus tour, single-payer advocates rally outside the annual convention of the health insurer trade group, America's Health Insurance Plans. Meanwhile, as the American Medical Association's House of Delegates meets in Chicago, its members will revisit the organzation's position on the individual mandate.

20 Jun 2011

Genetic biomarker may help identify patients at increased risk of bypass surgery

Outcomes of bypass surgery to repair blocked arteries in the legs tend to be better in the roughly one-in-five people who have inherited a specific genetic variation from both parents, according to a study presented at the late-breaking clinical trials session of the Vascular Annual Meeting in Chicago on June 18, 2011.

20 Jun 2011

September will mark the end of HHS mini-med waiver program

The Department of Health and Human Services announced Friday that it will stop accepting applications for waivers from the health law's minimum coverage requirements.

20 Jun 2011

Contaminated cocaine may lead to public health epidemic

Doctors warned of a potential public health epidemic in a recent report on patients in Los Angeles and New York who developed serious skin reactions after smoking or snorting cocaine believed to be contaminated with a veterinary medication drug dealers are using to dilute, or "cut," up to 70% of the cocaine in the U.S.

20 Jun 2011

Small health facilities, solo practices face health IT challenges

As part of the federal government's push to get hospitals and clinics to adopt electronic medical records, it's subsidizing IT training classes across the country. ...

20 Jun 2011

The complexities of Medicare's doctor pay dynamics

The Medicare physician payment formula is often attacked as a budget gimmick that holds down federal spending on paper, even though everyone knows the cuts it imposes will never come into effect.

20 Jun 2011

Medicare, Medicaid increasingly become hot topics in debt-ceiling talks

The future of these entitlement programs will be in play this week as negotiations continue, with both parties beginning to make concessions and hint that a deal could emerge.

20 Jun 2011

Hospitals hope to make primary care docs salaried employees

In one of the first concrete steps to remake the way medical care is delivered, hospitals are competing to hire primary-care physicians, trying to lure them from their private practices to work as salaried employees alongside specialists (Sun, 6/19).

20 Jun 2011

Neogen announces acquisition of VeroMara

Neogen Corporation announced today that it has acquired the assets of the VeroMara seafood testing laboratory from its parent company, GlycoMar Ltd.

20 Jun 2011

Meditation increases concentration and decreases stress

The nation's current healthcare crisis has added a new dimension to the old saying, "Prevention is the best medicine." With rising co-pays, high deductibles, confusion over coverage, and prescription drug headaches, healthcare consumers recognize that getting sick is more complicated than ever.

20 Jun 2011