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Workforce issues: Health care jobs boom in Nevada; Florida nurses lobby for safer hospital staffing

News outlets report on the health care workforce, including the thriving job market in Nevada and an effort to institute mandatory staffing ratios for nurses in Florida hospitals.

20 Feb 2010

Health care fraud: Massachusetts hospital to pay $2.79M for settling False Claims Act allegations

Mercy Hospital Inc. (d/b/a Mercy Medical Center) of Springfield, Mass., has agreed to pay the United States $2,799,462 to settle claims that it violated the False Claims Act between 2005 and 2006 by failing to provide, or failing to document that it provided, the minimum number of hours of rehabilitation therapy required under Medicare guidelines, the Justice Department announced today.

20 Feb 2010

Obama plans to offer own health bill before summit as parties stake claims

President Obama will offer "comprehensive" health reform legislation in advance of next week's planned summit with Republicans, The New York Times reports. "Democratic officials said the president's proposal was being written so that it could be attached to a budget bill as a way of averting a Republican filibuster in the Senate. The procedure, known as budget reconciliation, would let Democrats advance the bill with a simple majority rather than a 60-vote supermajority."

20 Feb 2010

Stalled health bills could lead to increase in hospital mergers

Some analysts expect an increase in hospital mergers if health care overhaul remains stalled and the head of the Cleveland Clinic discusses why he thinks an overhaul won't lower health costs.

20 Feb 2010

P4P programs may be effective in incentivizing low performing physicians: Study

Pay-for-performance (P4P) programs are payment models that reward workers for meeting certain performance measures for quality and efficiency. In the healthcare setting, P4P programs use a variety of methods to reward physicians financially for achieving targets, including fee differentials and bonuses.

20 Feb 2010

Sebelius issues sharp rebuke against health insurance premium hikes across U.S.

News outlets paid close attention to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' release of a new report detailing double-digit insurance premium hikes for individual plans in six states across the country.

20 Feb 2010

Florida faces fight over Medicaid reform expansion; In Kansas, cuts hurt a mental health clinic

Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration may broaden that state's Medicaid-reform pilot program to include 19 more counties to save more than $58 million by requiring Medicaid beneficiaries enroll in managed-care plans, Health News Florida reports.

19 Feb 2010

ALEC congratulates Idaho State Representatives for sponsoring Idaho Health Freedom Act

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)—the nation's largest nonpartisan individual membership association of state legislators—congratulates Idaho State Representatives Jim Clark, Lynn Luker, and Raul Labrador for their successful sponsorship of HB 391, the Idaho Health Freedom Act, which was passed by the Idaho House of Representatives by a vote of 52 to 18 last week.

19 Feb 2010

Express Scripts turning prescription discount business into nonprofit

Anticipating "more people will need access to discount prescriptions no matter what ultimately happens in Washington" with health reform, Express Scripts' Rx Outreach program will become a nonprofit, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

19 Feb 2010

A selection of today's opinions and editorials

All of us who have been at this task before understand three important realities: One, no president who has launched such an effort unsuccessfully has ever been able to relaunch; two, the Senate legislation, at least, has been the product of much bipartisan effort over the last several years, even though no Republican senators voted for it, and three, the status quo costs and quality of this country's health care system are totally unacceptable -- to the health care industry and to those who depend on it (Dave Durenberger, 2/18).

19 Feb 2010

Passage of DSSA will restrict Americans’ access to nutritional supplements, says Hotze Enterprises

On Feb. 4, Senators John McCain and Byron Dorgan introduced the Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010 (DSSA), that if passed, will restrict Americans’ access to nutritional supplements. Hotze Enterprises, a world leader in the alternative health care industry, is strongly opposed to this legislation being passed, and encourages consumers to take action.

19 Feb 2010

Petzel takes oath to lead nation's largest integrated health care system

Dr. Robert A. Petzel has taken the oath of office as the Under Secretary for Health within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), stepping up to lead the nation's largest integrated health care system.

19 Feb 2010

New book explores economic, demographic and cultural aspects that threaten healthcare and AMCs

Arthur Feldman, M.D., Ph.D, Magee Professor and Chairman, Department of Medicine at Jefferson Medical College, has written a new book, Pursuing Excellence In Healthcare: Preserving America's Academic Medical Centers, one of the first textbooks since the works of Abraham Flexnor in 1910 to take a comprehensive look at the issues facing academic medicine.

19 Feb 2010

Mental health care for federally incarcerated offenders through telemedicine

A bold new initiative soon to be implemented in federal prisons in Ontario will help to address the treatment needs for federal offenders with mental health issues.

19 Feb 2010

First Edition: February 19, 2010

Today's headlines highlight a White House plan to "get specific" on health reform, an analysis showing a nationwide jump in Medicaid enrollment and more on the firestorm surrounding health insurance premium increases.

19 Feb 2010

Permitting private health insurance may not obviously weaken public health system

A single payer, fully government funded health care system has often been equated with core Canadian values. It is often argued that a single insurer, the government, is critical to the integrity of the system. Permitting private health insurance, it is claimed, would weaken the public system.

19 Feb 2010

WHO urges medical aid agencies to remain in Haiti as health care system is rebuilt

On Wednesday, the WHO "urged medical aid agencies to stay in Haiti as long as possible while health care is rebuilt following last month's devastating earthquake," Agence France-Presse reports.

19 Feb 2010

HHS releases report highlighting health insurance premium increases

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today unveiled a new report, Insurance Companies Prosper, Families Suffer: Our Broken Health Insurance System. The report highlights health insurance premium increases in states across the country and comes shortly after Anthem Blue Cross announced plans to raise rates on its California customers by as much as 39 percent, even after its parent company took in a profit of $2.7 billion in the previous quarter. The complete report is available at www.HealthReform.gov.

19 Feb 2010

MetLife Mature Market Institute provides history of generations born since early 1900s

A series of publications from the MetLife Mature Market Institute provide a history of the generations born since the early 1900s. There are almost as many members of Gen Y (born 1977-1994) in the U.S. in comparison to the largest group, the Baby Boomers.

19 Feb 2010

NIA supports FDA initiative to reduce radiation overexposure from medical imaging

National Imaging Associates (NIA), a Magellan Health Services company, today applauded the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its leadership and progress in addressing the issue of radiation overexposure through its Initiative to Reduce Unnecessary Radiation Exposure from Medical Imaging.

19 Feb 2010

Health Care News and Research

Workforce issues: Health care jobs boom in Nevada; Florida nurses lobby for safer hospital staffing

Health care fraud: Massachusetts hospital to pay $2.79M for settling False Claims Act allegations

Obama plans to offer own health bill before summit as parties stake claims

Stalled health bills could lead to increase in hospital mergers

P4P programs may be effective in incentivizing low performing physicians: Study

Sebelius issues sharp rebuke against health insurance premium hikes across U.S.

Florida faces fight over Medicaid reform expansion; In Kansas, cuts hurt a mental health clinic

ALEC congratulates Idaho State Representatives for sponsoring Idaho Health Freedom Act

Express Scripts turning prescription discount business into nonprofit

A selection of today's opinions and editorials

Passage of DSSA will restrict Americans’ access to nutritional supplements, says Hotze Enterprises

Petzel takes oath to lead nation's largest integrated health care system

New book explores economic, demographic and cultural aspects that threaten healthcare and AMCs

Mental health care for federally incarcerated offenders through telemedicine

First Edition: February 19, 2010

Permitting private health insurance may not obviously weaken public health system

WHO urges medical aid agencies to remain in Haiti as health care system is rebuilt

HHS releases report highlighting health insurance premium increases

MetLife Mature Market Institute provides history of generations born since early 1900s

NIA supports FDA initiative to reduce radiation overexposure from medical imaging

Achieving and maintaining ISO/IEC 27001 and BS 10012 certifications

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer

Examining how pain could play a direct protective role in the gut

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