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First Edition: June 3, 2011

Reporting for Kaiser Health News, Marilyn Chase writes: "Memorial, a 278-bed hospital in this city 55 miles north of San Francisco, sued California to try to stop the payment reductions. Now it is part of a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that could redefine states' responsibilities on Medicaid services and ultimately determine whether Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown can go forward with cuts he says are vital to closing the state's budget gap.

3 Jun 2011

IOM finds flaws in Medicare payments to hospitals, doctors

Medicare uses inaccurate, unreliable data to pay doctors and hospitals, the National Academy of Sciences said Wednesday. Although Medicare is a national program, it adjusts payments to health care providers to reflect regional differences in wages, rent and other costs.

3 Jun 2011

HHS inspector general: $3.4 billion recovered in first half of 2011

HHS' inspector general's office tallied $3.4 billion in expected recoveries through its audits and investigations in the first half of fiscal 2011, according to its semiannual report to Congress. The office recovered $3.1 billion in the year-ago period.

3 Jun 2011

AHRQ: States see improvements in health care quality, but disparities persist

States are seeing improvements in health care quality, but disparities for their minority and low- income residents persist, according to the 2010 State Snapshots, released today by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

3 Jun 2011

U.N.-led joint report examines HIV/AIDS among young people ages 10-24

An estimated 2,500 young people are infected with HIV every day worldwide, and young women and adolescent girls are most at risk of contracting the disease because of biological and social factors, according to a report released on Wednesday by a group of international agencies, RTT News reports.

3 Jun 2011

Insight into beneficial epilepsy treatments for children with autism

Physicians will have a better guide for more effectively managing treatment of children experiencing seizures related to autism with the results of a study by researchers at Arizona State University and the University of Texas-Houston.

3 Jun 2011

Psychology researchers find interesting wrinkle in gambling decision- making process

Psychology researchers at the University of Alberta have found an interesting wrinkle in the decision- making process people use when gambling: People confronted with risky choices respond differently when they rely on past experiences, rather than when they just focus on the odds of winning or losing.

3 Jun 2011

New report: Life science tools market to reach over $80B by 2016

The life science tools market will reach over $80 billion by 2016, according to a new report on companiesandmarkets.com. The life science tools market has shown steady growth over the last couple of years despite the economic downturn.

3 Jun 2011

Medicaid no longer paying for hospital mistakes

Left a sponge inside the patient? Transfused the wrong blood type? Don't look for the federal government to pay for fixing the mistake. Medicaid will no longer pay hospitals or doctors for certain preventable illnesses and injuries, such as operating on the wrong body part, the Health and Human Services Department said Wednesday.

3 Jun 2011

UC review finds rate of rtPA treatment for ischemic stroke in the U.S. doubled since 2005

In a review of nationwide hospital databases, University of Cincinnati (UC) emergency medicine and neurology researchers have found that the rate of treatment with the standard therapy for acute ischemic stroke patients has doubled since 2005.

3 Jun 2011

Study to determine how vitamin D affects cardiac structure, functions in blacks with hypertension

A Wayne State University School of Medicine physician researcher has received a $1.9 million National Institutes of Health grant to study the role of vitamin D in halting and reducing subclinical cardiac damage in African-Americans suffering from high blood pressure.

3 Jun 2011

UNICEF appealing for $6M to continue water treatment in Zimbabwe

UNICEF on Wednesday said it needs $6 million to continue treating water in Zimbabwe, which does not have the funds to do it on its own, Deutsche Presse-Agentur/M&C reports.

3 Jun 2011

E coli outbreak in Germany continues

As the current virulent Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) outbreak in Germany spreads, experts from The European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) are concerned not only about the pressure health facilities are being put under, but also the use of antibiotics and broader implications for preparedness across Europe to cope, both now and in the future.

3 Jun 2011

New research aims to improve treatment of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases

New research at the University of Leicester to contribute to more effective drug design. A cutting-edge research project at the University of Leicester is aiming to improve the treatment of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

3 Jun 2011

Health law gets mixed reception in Ohio federal appeals court

A panel of federal appellate judges heard oral arguments Wednesday regarding whether the Obama administration can — under the Constitution — require Americans to buy health insurance. A key issue for the judges to determine is whether the plaintiffs have legal standing to sue after one said she recently purchased coverage from her employer. The case was initially brought by the Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center.

3 Jun 2011

'Switching off' critical disease causing gene can reestablish Rett syndrome in adult animals

An IRSF funded study published today in the journal Science has shown that the childhood disorder Rett syndrome, can be reestablished in adult animals by "switching off" a critical disease causing gene in healthy adult animals.

3 Jun 2011

House Republicans use Ag spending bill to push back against certain health measures

The Republicans have used an agriculture appropriations bill to send several messages: They don't want the government to require school meals that are more nutritional but also more expensive, they don't want the government to prod food companies to restrain marketing to children, and they don't want the Food and Drug Administration to regulate any substance based on anything but "hard science".

3 Jun 2011