Health and Human Services News and Research

RSS

Deaf and hard-of-hearing patients seeking treatment at OIP to receive interpreters for effective communication

Patients who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, who seek treatment at the Orthopedic Institute of Pennsylvania, will receive qualified interpreters when needed for effective communication as required by federal law under a Settlement Agreement reached with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

18 Feb 2010

Detroit home health agency owner pleads guilty over Medicare fraud

Detroit-area resident Muhammad Shahab pleaded guilty today for his role in organizing a Detroit-area home health care fraud scheme, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer of the Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Barbara L. McQuade; Special Agent in Charge Andrew G. Arena of the FBI's Detroit Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Lamont Pugh III of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General's (HHS-OIG), Chicago Regional Office.

18 Feb 2010

AMGA commends Senator for ensuring EMR incentive payments for medical groups

The American Medical Group Association (AMGA) applauds Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) for her efforts to assure fairness in payment of electronic medical record (EMR) incentive payments under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

18 Feb 2010

White House hints at new health bill as GOP sees possible upside in summit

White House officials "hinted on Tuesday that President Obama might post his own [health care] bill on the Internet before the bipartisan health care summit he is planning" next week, The New York Times reports. "In the nearly a year since Congress began debating a health care overhaul, Mr. Obama has yet to make his own priorities explicit. He said at the outset that he would set broad parameters for the measure and leave the details to lawmakers." Obama said last week that hoped to post to the Internet a merged bill that would address costs and expand coverage.

17 Feb 2010

AHF to protest Merck’s Isentress pricing and policies at CROI

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) will host a protest Wednesday morning, February 17 at 8:00am targeting Merck and Co. Pharmaceuticals over the pricing and policies for its key HIV/AIDS drug, Isentress, the most expensive first-line AIDS treatment in the US, during the 17th Conference of Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in San Francisco.

17 Feb 2010

Postmenopausal women undergoing combination hormone therapy at increased risk of heart disease: WHI confirms

New analyses from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) confirm that combination hormone therapy increases the risk of heart disease in healthy postmenopausal women. Researchers report a trend toward an increased risk of heart disease during the first two years of hormone therapy among women who began therapy within 10 years of menopause, and a more marked elevation of risk among women who began hormone therapy more than 10 years after menopause. Analyses indicate that overall a woman's risk of heart disease more than doubles within the first two years of taking combination HT.

17 Feb 2010

Budget cuts hit health care services in Minnesota, Oklahoma and California

Gov. Tim Pawlenty's proposal to cut a net of $347 million from programs for sick, aged, disabled and jobless people is akin to the advice an ailing George Washington got from his doctors 210 years ago, one critic said Monday: Bleed him, in hope of a cure. Pawlenty would eliminate the General Assistance program in which about 20,000 disabled and very-low-income people receive an average of $175 a month.

16 Feb 2010

Adding rosemary extracts in ground beef can reduce cancer-causing agents

The addition of rosemary extract to ground beef actually reduces cancer-causing agents that can form upon cooking, according to a recent study in the Journal of Food Science, published by the Institute of Food Technologists.

16 Feb 2010

New program launched for HIV-positive men

The nation's largest surrogacy agency announced today that the number of babies born to HIV-positive clients is expected to more than double in 2010 as its program for HIV-positive men using their own sperm to create embryos continues to expand in the U.S. and abroad.

16 Feb 2010

Governor Pawlenty's proposed budget will hurt hospitals and people in Minnesota

Governor Tim Pawlenty's budget proposal announced today will severely hurt Minnesota's hospitals and the citizens they serve. His proposed budget would reduce payment rates for patients in state health programs, cut spending on medical education and put adults without children now covered by MinnesotaCare into the growing ranks of the uninsured. The current budget proposal would only make things worse in both the short term and the long term. If the governor's budget is adopted, hospitals will more than likely need to layoff more skilled workers and cut much-needed services.

16 Feb 2010

Altarum Institute awarded $19.6M ARRA funds to serve as lead agent in establishing M-CEITA

Ann Arbor-based Altarum Institute has been awarded a grant of $19,619,990 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to serve as the lead agent in establishing Michigan’s health information technology regional extension center, the Michigan Center for Effective IT Adoption (M-CEITA, www.mceita.org). The grant will be administered through the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and managed and sponsored by Altarum. It is expected to create over 100 new jobs in Michigan.

16 Feb 2010

Anthem Blue Cross announces delay in increase of insurance rates: HHS secretary issues statement

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issued the following statement today after Anthem Blue Cross announced that they are delaying raising their rates:

15 Feb 2010

Researchers use $1.3M grant from NIH to study on obesity and Type 2 diabetes

A team of Northern Arizona University-led researchers is using nearly $1.3 million in new funding from the National Institutes of Health to continue with the world's longest-running study on obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

15 Feb 2010

The President's health summit invite to lawmakers: 'Bring comprehensive legislation'

The Washington Post: "In a letter to lawmakers, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the half-day meeting at Blair House would include the top Democratic and Republican congressional leaders and the ranking members in committees that deal with health care. Outlining the format for a session some Republicans have derided as little more than political theater, the Obama advisers said both parties would be allowed to invite four other members each to the discussion, to begin at 10 a.m. and be televised live" (Shear, 2/13).

15 Feb 2010

IMAI formally offered to purchase equity position in pharmaceutical operation

International Merchant Advisors, Inc. announced today that the company has formally offered to purchase an equity position in a pharmaceutical operation that is focused on selling in the chronic pain management medical sector.

15 Feb 2010

Obama administration to announce $975 million in health IT grants

The Obama administration is awarding $975 million in grants to help states and health care providers adopt health information technology. The grant money being announced Friday comes from the economic stimulus legislation passed by Congress last year and is part of the administration's push to get doctors, hospitals and others to move from paper to computerized record-keeping.

15 Feb 2010

MAXIMUS announces the acquisition of Canadian-based DeltaWare Systems

MAXIMUS, a leading provider of government services, announced today that it has acquired Canadian-based DeltaWare Systems, Inc. (DeltaWare), a premier developer of health administration management systems for the government health care market. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

15 Feb 2010

Administration rejects Anthem Blue Cross' defense of premium hike

WellPoint Inc., the parent company of Anthem Blue Cross of California, is defending its rate hike for customers with individual health insurance, but critics, including the Obama administration, are dubious.

15 Feb 2010

Diabetic retinopathy: 5.3M U.S adults suffer

Despite major progress in diagnosis and treatment, diabetic retinopathy remains the major cause of blindness in adults under 60 in the U.S., said Thomas C. Lee, director, Retina Institute in The Vision Center at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, associate professor of clinical ophthalmology at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California and attending physician at Doheny Eye Institute.

12 Feb 2010

HHS Secretary issues statement after receiving letter from WellPoint

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issued the following statement after receiving a letter from WellPoint Incorporated. The letter came after Sebelius called on Anthem Blue Cross to publicly justify its decision to raise premiums for its California customers by as much as 39 percent. WellPoint Incorporated is the parent company of Anthem Blue Cross and earned $2.7 billion in the last quarter of 2009.

12 Feb 2010