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Vote count: Obama's lobbying convinces some holdouts to back overhaul, but others still resist

The Washington Post: "President Obama claimed his first convert" - Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, - "on health-care reform Wednesday, as senior Democrats, labor unions and an array of interest groups intensified their efforts to sway wavering lawmakers before a climactic vote in the House this weekend" (Montgomery and Kane, 3/18).

19 Mar 2010

Governor Rendell kicks off 18th birthday celebration for CHIP

Governor Edward G. Rendell today kicked off the 18th birthday celebration for CHIP, Pennsylvania's Children's Health Insurance Program.

19 Mar 2010

House Democrats continue push for weekend House vote on health reform measure

House Democratic leaders continued efforts to pick-up support for health reform in the House while also tinkering around the edges of the overhaul legislative package -- all in anticipation of a Sunday vote in the House.

19 Mar 2010

Members of IAM strongly oppose key provisions of health care reform

Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) delivered a bipartisan thumping to both political parties as well as the White House in an online survey of workers' attitudes. But there can be no mistaking their strong opposition to key provisions of health care reform.

19 Mar 2010

CBO finds heath overhaul will cost $940 billion over 10 years but trim deficit

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., says the Congressional Budget Office has finished its analysis of the latest Democratic health overhaul bill, Politico is reporting. According to Hoyer, the plan will cost $940 billion over 10 years and will trim the federal deficit by $130 billion in the first 10 years and $1.2 trillion in the second 10 years (Budoff-Brown, 3/18).

19 Mar 2010

Pelosi, Obama defend procedure to pass reform

Roll Call: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) dismissed as a 'nonissue' a procedural maneuver House Democrats are eyeing to pass their health care overhaul in the wake of comments by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) that the move would be 'disingenuous' and harm Congressional credibility. House Democrats are considering a process that would allow them to avoid a separate vote on the unpopular Senate version of reform by deeming that measure passed once they approve a package of changes to it.

19 Mar 2010

Report cites rise in uninsured middle-class Americans

A report released Wednesday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Barely Hanging On: Middle-Class and Uninsured, looks at the rise in the level of uninsured middle-class people in the last eight years.

19 Mar 2010

GOP strategy: Delay, block, repeal

As Democrats focus on advancing health overhaul legislation in the House, Senate Republicans are plotting ways to delay or block the effort, Politico reports. "Republican aides have been mining the Senate's arcane parliamentary rules for an attack that aims at striking elements both broad and narrow from the bill, weakening the measure and ultimately defeating it."

19 Mar 2010

Advertising, fundraising money talks in health care debate

NPR's Julie Rovner fact-checked several of the television ads being run about the health care debate. She found fault with several major ads, including ones sponsored by American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the liberal group Americans United for Change, National Republican Campaign Committee, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy for America, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

19 Mar 2010

As reform hangs in balance, policy benefits continue to be discussed

NPR reports on the immediate effects of the proposed health care bill, and that Congressional Democrats are focusing on those benefits in messages to constituents. "The White House is trying to shift the conversation away from the messy legislative process — which Republicans are keying on — and instead focus on what the health care overhaul would do for families and businesses."

19 Mar 2010

Wellpoint draws flak for infulfilled promise to help uninsured

The health insurance company WellPoint delivered on only about one-fifth of a $30-million pledge to help the uninsured, the Los Angeles Times reports.

19 Mar 2010

A right to health care? wrong!

Years of debating liberal friends and colleagues has brought me to an understanding: This question is at the core of the debate. The absurd notion of a “right” to health care underlies the movement towards socialized medicine. If this right does exist, it becomes a moral imperative to guarantee it for all, i.e. “universal coverage.”

18 Mar 2010

As the nation focuses on quality and cost of health care, AMA-convened PCPI celebrates milestone and looks to future

Celebrating its 10 year anniversary today at its meeting in the nation’s capital, the AMA-convened Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (PCPI) highlighted its achievements to date and took a proactive look at future efforts to measure and improve the quality of patient care.

18 Mar 2010

Broad application of bipolar diagnosis in children may do more harm than good

Troubled children diagnosed with bipolar disorder may fare better with a different diagnosis, according to researchers at The Hastings Center.

18 Mar 2010

Reforming healthcare

President Obama and his chief allies in Congress are at the final stages of structuring the historic year-long process of reforms in the health care legislation with changes in subsidies, taxes and assurance of better health care plans.

18 Mar 2010

Health care fraud, prescription theft lead to significant losses

ABC News: "A four month 'Nightline' investigation into Medicare fraud makes one thing perfectly clear: this is a crime that pays and pays and pays. The federal government admits that a staggering $60 billion is stolen from tax payers through Medicare scams every year. Some experts believe the number is more than twice that.

18 Mar 2010

Lawsuit shows insurer targeted HIV patients for 'rescission'

A court case has revealed that the insurer Fortis, now called Assurant Health, automatically targeted customers diagnosed with HIV for fraud investigations geared toward finding reasons to revoke their coverage, Reuters reports. After a computer algorithm initiated the investigations, "their insurance policies often were canceled on erroneous information, the flimsiest of evidence, or for no good reason at all, according to the court documents and interviews with state and federal investigators."

18 Mar 2010

CBO is straining under the weight of health care requests

The Congressional Budget Office is feeling the strain of dealing with the high-profile requests for scoring health care legislation as Democrats move toward releasing a reconciliation bill, "a stressor that may have contributed to the recent incorrect scoring of a draft House provision," Politico reports.

18 Mar 2010

States weigh taxes to help fund Medicaid—and raise federal contributions

Reporting for Kaiser Health News, Andy Miller looks at four states -- Georgia, Wisconsin, Iowa and Tennessee -- that are weighing new taxes on hospitals to help finance their beleaguered Medicaid programs.

18 Mar 2010

Humedica, Anceta unveil health care data solutions at AMGA 2010 Annual Conference

Humedica, a next-generation clinical informatics company, and Anceta, the healthcare informatics subsidiary of the American Medical Group Association, today announced the launch of Humedica MinedShare™ Ambulatory as well as AMGA’s Anceta Collaborative Data Warehouse at the AMGA 2010 Annual Conference, taking place now through March 20 in New Orleans.

18 Mar 2010