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Money for early retirees and insurers' customer service

Consultants are pushing big companies to apply quickly for money from a $5 billion fund to help cover retiree health costs as part of the new health law, The Wall Street Journal reports.

17 Jun 2010

Federal government seeks power to exclude those involved with health fraud from working again with Medicare

Independent federal investigators hoping to rein in Medicare fraud are asking Congress for broad new authority to boot offending corporate executives from the insurance program. The change is designed to control Medicare claims fraud by punishing culpable owners, managers and other corporate higher-ups, and not just the convicted companies.

17 Jun 2010

Health on The Hill – June 15, 2010

Kaiser Health News staff writer Mary Agnes Carey and the Los Angeles Times' Noam Levey talk with KFF's Jackie Judd about recent events in Congress. For instance, the Senate is debating ways to reverse a 21 percent cut in Medicare physician payments that began on June 1.

16 Jun 2010

Dietary guideline on sodium puts Americans at risk

The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture may increase health risks, including obesity, by ignoring sound science as they announce recommendations to reduce sodium consumption to 1,500 mg per day, says the Salt Institute.

16 Jun 2010

First Edition: June 16, 2010

Today's health policy headlines focus on the latest Senate developments regarding the Medicare 'doc fix' as well as continuing health reform implementation news.

16 Jun 2010

New public service advertisements to spread preventive medical testing awareness

Men are 24 percent less likely than women to have visited the doctor within the past year, according to new data released today by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. In addition, men are about 30 percent more likely than women to be hospitalized for preventable conditions such as congestive heart failure and complications from diabetes, according to new AHRQ data.

16 Jun 2010

CombiMatrix Diagnostics receives final licensure documentation and approvals to begin Medicare billing

CombiMatrix Corporation announced today that its laboratory services subsidiary, CombiMatrix Diagnostics, has received the final licensure documentation and approvals from Medicare in order to begin billing for its suite of array-based diagnostics tests.

15 Jun 2010

New regulation on 'grandfathered' health plans

The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury today issued a new regulation that makes good on President Obama's promise that Americans who like their health plan can keep it.

15 Jun 2010

CNPP, HHS host media conference call to discuss Advisory Report of Dietary Guidelines

TODAY, the Department of Agriculture's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion and the Department of Health and Human Services, will host an embargoed media conference call to discuss the release of the Report of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010.

15 Jun 2010

MRSA survivors unite across the globe to raise awareness and educate public on prevention

MRSA Survivors Network with MRSA survivors, family members and other victims of healthcare-acquired infections unite across the globe and on World MRSA Day, October 2, 2010 in a grassroots movement to raise awareness and push for more mandated reporting of infections, MRSA screening laws, funds to raise awareness and educate the public on prevention, which will save lives.

15 Jun 2010

HHS issues interim rules for grandfathered health plans

The government suggested that under a highly complicated interim rule released today more than half of employer-sponsored health plans could lose their special status that shields them from some aspects of the new health overhaul. The administration outlined "a number of ways health plans could lose their grandfathered status. Plans that substantially eliminate benefits to diagnose or treat a particular condition would lose the status, for instance.

15 Jun 2010

Ingen Technologies' new SMART Nasal Cannula unveiled at Alpha-1 19th National Education Conference

Ingen Technologies, Inc., a medical device manufacturer with an emerging new medical product line for the respiratory market worth an estimated $4 billion in the U.S. and $8 billion globally, unveiled their new SMART Nasal Cannula in Orlando-Florida last week at the Alpha-1 19th Annual National Education Conference.

14 Jun 2010

New report provides state-by-state analyses of substance abuse, mental illness patterns

A new report providing state-by-state analyses of substance abuse and mental illness patterns reveals that despite wide variations among the states in the types and levels of behavioral health problems they experience -- every state suffers from these problems. For example, among those aged 12 and older, Iowa had less than one third the current illicit drug use rate of Rhode Island (4.1 percent vs. 13.3 percent) - yet Iowa's population aged 12 and older was among the group of states with the nation's highest levels of people participating in binge drinking in the past month (27.2 percent).

14 Jun 2010

Study confirms impact of febrile neutropenia on chemotherapy delivery in NHL

Data presented at the 15th European Hematology Association (EHA) congress in Barcelona, highlights the impact of febrile neutropenia (FN) on chemotherapy delivery in non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) patients. The IMPACT NHL study showed that unplanned hospitalisations, delays in chemotherapy and reductions of chemotherapy dose leading to suboptimal relative dose intensity (RDI) of chemotherapy were more frequent in patients who experienced FN than those who did not.

14 Jun 2010

HHS announces grants to support States' efforts to implement, evaluate patient safety approaches

The Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality today announced grants to support efforts by States and health systems to implement and evaluate patient safety approaches and medical liability reforms. The demonstration and planning grants are part of the patient safety and medical liability initiative that President Obama announced during a September 9, 2009 address to a joint session of Congress.

14 Jun 2010

FRC praises decision of federal Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability

Family Research Council praised today's decision by the federal Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability to reject any change in current blood donation rules. Current policy provides that men who have had sex with men at any time since 1977 are permanently "deferred" from acting as blood donors, because of the high rates of HIV infection in that population. The panel, which offers non-binding advice to the federal Department of Health and Human Services, voted 9-6 on Friday afternoon against recommending any immediate change in the policy.

14 Jun 2010

HHS announces grants to implement and evaluate patient safety approaches, medical liability reforms

11 Jun 2010

Researchers to present advanced treatment strategies for eye diseases at NEI symposium

The National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is bringing together premier researchers who translate molecular and genetic approaches from the laboratory to visual system diseases in the clinic.

11 Jun 2010

FRC supports new blood donation policy

Tomorrow (Friday, June 11), Family Research Council Senior Fellow Peter Sprigg will testify before the Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability (ACBSA) of the Department of Health and Human Services.

11 Jun 2010

N.Y. dermatologist to pay $2.75M to resolve Medicaid, Medicare fraud allegations

A settlement between the United States and Lawrence D. Jaeger, D.O., of Community Medical and Dermatology Center and Advanced Dermatology of New York, has resolved a whistleblower lawsuit that alleged Jaeger submitted false claims to Medicare and the New York Medicaid program.

11 Jun 2010

Health and Human Services News and Research

Money for early retirees and insurers' customer service

Federal government seeks power to exclude those involved with health fraud from working again with Medicare

Health on The Hill – June 15, 2010

Dietary guideline on sodium puts Americans at risk

First Edition: June 16, 2010

New public service advertisements to spread preventive medical testing awareness

CombiMatrix Diagnostics receives final licensure documentation and approvals to begin Medicare billing

New regulation on 'grandfathered' health plans

CNPP, HHS host media conference call to discuss Advisory Report of Dietary Guidelines

MRSA survivors unite across the globe to raise awareness and educate public on prevention

HHS issues interim rules for grandfathered health plans

Ingen Technologies' new SMART Nasal Cannula unveiled at Alpha-1 19th National Education Conference

New report provides state-by-state analyses of substance abuse, mental illness patterns

Study confirms impact of febrile neutropenia on chemotherapy delivery in NHL

HHS announces grants to support States' efforts to implement, evaluate patient safety approaches

FRC praises decision of federal Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability

HHS announces grants to implement and evaluate patient safety approaches, medical liability reforms

Researchers to present advanced treatment strategies for eye diseases at NEI symposium

FRC supports new blood donation policy

N.Y. dermatologist to pay $2.75M to resolve Medicaid, Medicare fraud allegations

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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