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Aetna inks three-year agreement with HHC

Aetna announced today that it has reached an agreement with the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) to offer Aetna members in New York City in-network access to in-patient and out-patient services from HHC’s 11 acute care hospitals, six Diagnostic and Treatment Centers and four nursing homes.

2 Nov 2009

House Democratic leaders pushing for vote on health reform

Speaker Nancy Pelosi could hold a vote on the final House of Representatives health care reform legislation this week.

2 Nov 2009

GOP is preparing its strategy, version of health overhaul legislation

The Republican Party is set to reveal an alternative health care reform bill to the Democratic ones in Congress just as the House prepares to take up Democratic legislation.

2 Nov 2009

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, OPR launch an innovative oncology treatment initiative

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Oncology Physician Resource announced today the launch of an innovative oncology treatment initiative aimed at enhancing the quality of care for patients with certain types of cancer.

2 Nov 2009

Sanofi Pasteur presents Menactra vaccine safety data at the IDSA

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of sanofi-aventis Group, presented Safety of a Quadrivalent (A,C,Y,W-135) Meningococcal Vaccine When Given to Infants with Other Pediatric Vaccines at the 47th Annual Meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) this past weekend.

2 Nov 2009

AllOne Health partners with Connectyx Technologies Holdings to provide health information on the Web

AllOne Health(SM) and Connectyx Technologies Holdings Group, Inc. (Pink Sheets: CTYX) today announced a partnership that will allow consumers to view and manage health information on the Web, via portable USB storage devices and through their mobile phones, with one, secure step. A package including both companies' products will be sold in retail stores across the U.S. in December.

2 Nov 2009

McCain's health care adviser is losing his own coverage

Sen. John McCain's top health care adviser in the presidential campaign is about to lose his health care coverage, providing a face to a common dilemma.

2 Nov 2009

Insurers, other interest groups prepare for final health reform votes

Insurance companies are arguing that the health reform legislation progressing in Congress would increase premium costs for many Americans. Meanwhile, some of the coalitions have begun to splinter.

2 Nov 2009

A return to the doctor's house call may aid health care reform

Dr. Peter Boling provides house calls for some of Richmond's oldest and sickest patients as a geriatrician and head of general medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center. The Associated Press/Richmond Times Dispatch reports that "he is on a mission: To convince Congress that the old-fashioned house call could be a fresh answer to the modern-day health care reform dilemma.

2 Nov 2009

Today's opinions and editorials

When conservatives scream about socialized medicine and death panels, you should tune them out. But lately conservatives have been making an argument you should hear. It's about whether we can believe Congress when it promises to raise taxes or cut spending--and, as such, whether we can believe that health care reform can actually be fiscally responsible (Jonathan Cohn, 11/2).

2 Nov 2009

Heart, cancer doctors get break on scheduled Medicare pay cuts

Heart and cancer doctors will get a smaller fee cut next year from Medicare, the U.S. government program for the elderly, than the Obama administration first sought in a move to shift money to family physicians," Bloomberg reports. Earlier this year, Medicare officials said they would cut 10 percent of payments for the two specialties. Now, they plan on making the reductions over four years, instead.

2 Nov 2009

CBO: Few Americans would sign up for public health insurance plan

The New York Times: "More and more, the Great Health Care Debate of 2009 is a numbers game. And the longer the debate goes on, the squishier the numbers seem to get. For months, many leading Democrats, including President Obama, have pushed for the creation of a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers. A main argument was that a public plan would save people money. It would not be under pressure to earn profits, pay high private-sector salaries or deny needed care."

2 Nov 2009

Obama's health reform political maneuvers may prove successful

"After months of plodding work by five Congressional committees and weeks of back-room bargaining by Democratic leaders, President Obama's arms-length strategy on health care appears to be paying dividends, with the House and the Senate poised to take up legislation to insure nearly all Americans," The New York Times reports.

2 Nov 2009

States will implement many health reform initiatives

"The debate over whether to let states opt out of any government-run health insurance plan overlooks a key facet of the health-care measures being assembled in Congress: When Washington is done, the shape of any new health-care system is likely to be finalized in Lansing and Boise and Baton Rouge," The Washington Post reports.

2 Nov 2009

Results of review by Marwood Group Advisory released by Amedisys

Amedisys, Inc., one of America's leading home health and hospice nursing companies, today released the results of a review conducted by Marwood Group Advisory, LLC (Marwood). Several months ago Amedisys engaged Marwood, one of the nation’s preeminent health care consulting firms, to provide an independent analysis of the Company’s procedures, controls, clinical infrastructure, corporate compliance processes, technology offerings and future strategies.

2 Nov 2009

Arrayit Corporation joins federal government in their efforts to help control health care costs

Arrayit Corporation is pleased to join the federal government in their efforts to help control health care costs by leveraging Arrayit's leading edge health care platform.

2 Nov 2009

New on-line job resource center launched by NAWC

The National Alliance of Wound Care (NAWC(®)), the largest, multi-disciplinary, wound care credentialing and association organization, announced today, the launch of their wound care specialty on-line Job Resource Center in conjunction with their newly redesigned website at, www.nawccb.org.

2 Nov 2009

First Edition: November 2, 2009

Today's headlines feature insights into President Obama's behind-the-scenes role in advancing the Democrats' health overhaul efforts in Congress, plus more analysis of the public insurance option.

2 Nov 2009

Dietary cholesterol is not a primary factor for coronary heart disease

Contrary to the established view, current data suggest that dietary cholesterol is not a primary factor of or causes heart disease - with the possible exception of the genetic forms of familial hypercholesterolemias. For instance, recent clinical trials evaluating the effect of cholesterol-lowering drugs on the development of chronic heart failure, diabetes and stroke have yielded disappointing results.

2 Nov 2009

Former Connecticut Governor delivers address on health reform before Muslim Coalition of Connecticut

Lowell Weicker, Jr., former three-term U.S. Senator and Governor of Connecticut and President of the Board of the Trust for America's Health (TFAH), delivered an address on health reform before The Muslim Coalition of Connecticut. The following are excerpts from the speech:

2 Nov 2009