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Viewpoints: Revamping health law regs -- again; Arkansas decision on Medicaid reverberates nationwide

The Obama administration wrote a new chapter Wednesday in the "if you like your health plan, you can keep it" chronicles, decreeing that plans it once derided as "junk" or "substandard" can remain in effect until October 2017 -- long after the next presidential election. The point, administration officials say, is to help those in the market for individual or small-group plans make a smoother transition into Obamacare (Jon Healey, 3/5).

7 Mar 2014

Georgia's Pre-K Program produces positive outcomes for children

Scientists from UNC's Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute today reported that Georgia's Pre-K Program produces significant positive outcomes for children, regardless of family income level or English language skills. FPG's research on nearly 1,200 children reveals strong results in language, literacy, math, and general knowledge for students enrolled in the state's universal pre-k program.

7 Mar 2014

Treating long wait-times dictate long-term success of spinal cord stimulation therapy

Success rates soared to 75% for patients who waited less than 2 years for a spinal cord stimulator (SCS) implant, compared with 15% for patients whose implants happened 20 years after the onset of pain, according to a retrospective analysis.

7 Mar 2014

Doctors' unconscious biases does not affect high BP treatment for minority patients, says study

Doctors' unconscious biases favor whites but do not affect high blood pressure treatment for their minority patients, according to a University of Colorado Boulder study, even though a previous study by the same research group found that doctors' biases are reflected in lower ratings by African-American patients.

7 Mar 2014

Highlights: Va. mental health budget; Calif. nursing home Bankruptcy; nurses' practice in Minn.

Lawmakers in Richmond are deep in budget negotiations and will soon decide which parts of the mental health-care system will receive a funding boost. The House and Senate proposals have a number of differences, and what emerges will likely be a mash-up of the two (Shin, 3/5).

7 Mar 2014

LSUHSC model of care provides mental health services in areas after by Gulf Oil Spill

A model of care developed by the Department of Psychiatry at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Medicine to provide mental health services after the Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Spill reduced both mental health and general medical symptoms.

7 Mar 2014

Epigenetics has much to offer in future treatment and prevention of dental disease, says dentist

A visit to the dentist could one day require a detailed look at how genes in a patient's body are being switched on or off, as well as examining their pearly whites, according to researchers at the University of Adelaide.

7 Mar 2014

Medicaid expansion: With Arkansas 'private' plan authorized for another year, officials now focus on possible fixes

After surviving an effort earlier this week to defund it, supporters of the state's private option are now working on alterations that will smooth its future. Meanwhile, the back-and-forth over whether to pursue the expansion continues in Virginia and Utah.

7 Mar 2014

Prescriptions for benzodiazepines with opioid analgesics may lead to medication-related deaths

Prescriptions for benzodiazepines are rising in primary care, and their frequent combined use with opioid analgesics may be contributing to medication-related deaths, a finding that goes largely unreported, according to Stanford researchers.

7 Mar 2014

White House says risk corridors will be budget neutral; key health law official resigns

In news on the implementation of the health overhaul, administration officials seek to rebut Republican charges that the risk corridors will be a "bailout" for the insurance industry. Meanwhile, Gary Cohen, who helped oversee many of the rules for rolling out the law, is leaving the government.

7 Mar 2014

Neuroscientist hopes to paint fuller picture of minds and bodies in Neuroscape lab

How does an autistic child take in information when he sits in a classroom abuzz with social activity? How long does it take someone with multiple sclerosis, which slows activity in the brain, to process the light bouncing off the windshield while she drives?

7 Mar 2014

Arizona sued over abortion restrictions

Abortion providers filed suit Wednesday to block new state regulations that limit the use of the most common abortion drugs. Meanwhile, two more Texas abortion clinics are closed as a result of that state's restrictions, bringing total closures to 12.

7 Mar 2014

Postsurgical pain scores were highly correlated with overall patient satisfaction during hospital stays

Postsurgical pain scores were highly correlated with reports of overall patient satisfaction during hospital stays, in a new finding that was true for some types of surgery more than others.

7 Mar 2014

Research: Expanded smoking cessation benefits should give more people opportunity to quit

People on Medicaid in the U.S. are 68 percent more likely to smoke than the general population. New research in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine suggests that expanded smoking cessation benefits offered under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) should give more people the opportunity to quit.

7 Mar 2014

Groups, insurers, officials mobilize for health law enrollment push

March 31 is the deadline for signing up for insurance, and young adults and minorities are among the groups being targeted.

7 Mar 2014

E-cigarettes: New route to conventional smoking and nicotine addiction for teenagers

E-cigarettes, promoted as a way to quit regular cigarettes, may actually be a new route to conventional smoking and nicotine addiction for teenagers, according to a new UC San Francisco study.

7 Mar 2014

Obama administration announces new round of health law rule changes

Among the wide-ranging set of changes, the one drawing the most attention is the administration's decision to allow some consumers to keep health coverage into 2017 that does not comply with the overhaul's minimum standards.

6 Mar 2014

Feds to probe troubled state exchanges

The Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, will look at what went wrong with several state exchanges, including Oregon's, which failed to deliver despite large infusions of federal money.

6 Mar 2014

House votes to delay individual mandate

The House took its 50th vote to change the health law, passing a bill that would delay the individual mandate to carry health insurance for one year. The measure will likely never be taken up in the Democrat-led Senate.

6 Mar 2014

Boston Heart Diagnostics announces commercial launch of FDA-cleared MPO test

Boston Heart Diagnostics Corporation, a pioneer in integrating next-generation diagnostics into personalized nutrition and lifestyle programs for patients with or at risk for heart disease, announced the commercial launch of an FDA-cleared MPO (myeloperoxidase) test, a key biomarker for inflammation. Studies show that MPO levels are useful predictors of near-term (one to six months) risk of heart attack or stroke.

6 Mar 2014

Healthcare News

Viewpoints: Revamping health law regs -- again; Arkansas decision on Medicaid reverberates nationwide

Georgia's Pre-K Program produces positive outcomes for children

Treating long wait-times dictate long-term success of spinal cord stimulation therapy

Doctors' unconscious biases does not affect high BP treatment for minority patients, says study

Highlights: Va. mental health budget; Calif. nursing home Bankruptcy; nurses' practice in Minn.

LSUHSC model of care provides mental health services in areas after by Gulf Oil Spill

Epigenetics has much to offer in future treatment and prevention of dental disease, says dentist

Medicaid expansion: With Arkansas 'private' plan authorized for another year, officials now focus on possible fixes

Prescriptions for benzodiazepines with opioid analgesics may lead to medication-related deaths

White House says risk corridors will be budget neutral; key health law official resigns

Neuroscientist hopes to paint fuller picture of minds and bodies in Neuroscape lab

Arizona sued over abortion restrictions

Postsurgical pain scores were highly correlated with overall patient satisfaction during hospital stays

Research: Expanded smoking cessation benefits should give more people opportunity to quit

Groups, insurers, officials mobilize for health law enrollment push

E-cigarettes: New route to conventional smoking and nicotine addiction for teenagers

Obama administration announces new round of health law rule changes

Feds to probe troubled state exchanges

House votes to delay individual mandate

Boston Heart Diagnostics announces commercial launch of FDA-cleared MPO test

Exploring the nanoscale: How AFM is transforming cosmetic science

Innovating Texture and Culture in Plant-Based Foods

Advancing brain microphysiological systems (bMPS)

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