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Bipartisan commission: States should lead efforts to cut health costs

State leaders have significant power to curb rising health care costs and they should lead the effort, advises a commission co-chaired by two former governors. Meanwhile, a Massachusetts state report concludes that more than a third of health-care spending in that state each year may be wasteful.

10 Jan 2014

Longer reads: Hospice drains Medicare; false Obamacare 'horror stories;' growing up without vaccines

Hospice patients are expected to die: The treatment focuses on providing comfort to the terminally ill, not finding a cure. To enroll a patient, two doctors certify a life expectancy of six months or less. But over the past decade, the number of "hospice survivors" in the United States has risen dramatically, in part because hospice companies earn more by recruiting patients who aren't actually dying, a Washington Post investigation has found. Healthier patients are more profitable because they require fewer visits and stay enrolled longer (Peter Whoriskey and Dan Keating, 12/26).

9 Jan 2014

More insurers extend premium payment deadlines

The relaxed timetables reflect efforts by the insurance industry, as well as the Obama administration, to "coax" people towards "cementing" their 2014 coverage, reports Bloomberg News. In addition, a Commonwealth survey finds more people are shopping on the new health insurance marketplaces. News outlets also report developments from Minnesota, California, Oregon, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Michigan.

9 Jan 2014

Thirty-one students complete Maddie's Online Graduate Certificate in Shelter Medicine

Thirty-one veterinarians and veterinary students have just completed the Maddie's Online Graduate Certificate in Shelter Medicine. These new certificate holders are now the first in the world to complete the fully online program offered by the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine.

9 Jan 2014

First Edition: January 9, 2014

Today's headlines include reports about how the politics of the health law continue to play out on Capitol Hill.

9 Jan 2014

K2M receives FDA clearance to market CAYMAN Minimally Invasive plate system

K2M, Inc., the largest privately held spinal device company in the world focused on developing innovative solutions for the treatment of complex spinal pathologies and minimally invasive procedures, today announced it has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market CAYMAN Minimally Invasive, the latest addition to the company’s CAYMAN product family of plate systems already featuring CAYMAN Anterior, CAYMAN Buttress and CAYMAN Lateral.

9 Jan 2014

Full-service restaurant chains serve foods high in calories, fat

Food prepared away from home is typically higher in calories and lower in nutrition than food prepared at home, but it now makes up more than one-third of all calories purchased in the United States. Consumers tend to view full-service restaurants as providing healthier, higher quality food than fast-food restaurants, but some studies have found much higher calorie, fat, and sodium levels in food at full-service restaurants.

9 Jan 2014

Monitoring air pollution now possible with technological advances in air quality measurement methods

Launching a natural research experiment in Kathmandu, Nepal, this month using advanced monitoring methods to assess health risk from air pollution, environmental health scientist Rick Peltier at the University of Massachusetts Amherst hopes to demonstrate for the first time in a real-world setting that air pollution can and should be regulated based on toxicology variables rather than simply on the volume of particles in the air.

9 Jan 2014

Bio-inspired biodegradable surgical glue repairs defects of heart and blood vessels

Gecko Biomedical, a French medical device company developing 'bio-inspired' biodegradable surgical glues and patches for wound closure, announces that the Company's co-founders have published data demonstrating the potential of its paradigm-shifting technologies for minimally invasive reconstructive heart surgery.

9 Jan 2014

More standardised methods needed for extemporaneous preparation of paediatric medicines

More standardised methods are needed for the extemporaneous preparation of paediatric medicines, indicates a doctoral dissertation examined at the University of Eastern Finland. Hospital pharmacies modify adult medicines for children when there are no suitable paediatric medicines available. Medicines intended for adults can be modified for children into oral suspensions, oral powders or capsules the contents of which are emptied for use.

9 Jan 2014

Federal report finds electronic health records push lacks key safeguards

Although the federal government is spending more than $22 billion to encourage hospitals and doctors to adopt electronic health records, it has failed to put safeguards in place to prevent the technology from being used for inflating costs and overbilling, according to a new report by a federal oversight agency (Abelson and Creswell, 1/8).

9 Jan 2014

Evolva to set up Level-1 American Depositary Receipt programme

Evolva Holding SA has appointed BNY Mellon, the global leader in investment management and investment services, to set up a Level-1 American Depositary Receipt programme.

9 Jan 2014

UCSB psychology professor finds that weight-stigmatizing messages may have the opposite effect

If you're one of the millions of people who count losing weight among their top New Year's resolutions, you might want to pay careful attention to some new findings by UC Santa Barbara psychology professor Brenda Major.

9 Jan 2014

IQWiG publishes new clinical practice guidelines for treating people with COPD

On 3 January 2014 the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care published the results of a literature search for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines on the treatment of people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

9 Jan 2014

Physician Associates Orlando Health awarded recognition by NCQA as Level-3 Patient Centered Medical Home

Physician Associates, a part of Orlando Health, has been awarded recognition by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) as a Level-3 Patient Centered Medical Home.

9 Jan 2014

State highlights: Blue Shield Of Calif. rate hike called 'excessive'; Fla. Medicaid contract problems

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones criticized Blue Shield of California for an "unreasonable" rate hike affecting about 81,000 individual policyholders. ... But he and other state officials don't have the authority to reject changes in premiums. Jones said the latest rate hike amounted to an average increase of 32 percent over a two-year period (Terhune, 1/7).

9 Jan 2014

Adults with private or no health insurance coverage have lower levels of psychological distress

The Affordable Care Act, dubbed 'ObamaCare', has proven to be one of the most controversial legislative acts of the Obama presidency. New research, published in Stress & Health explores the psychological relationship between patients and health insurance coverage, finding that adults with private or no health insurance coverage experience lower levels of psychological distress than those with public coverage.

9 Jan 2014

Viewpoints: Health law debate on contraceptive coverage; Cuccinelli: No investigators for Medicaid fraud; 50 years after the famed report on smoking

The Little Sisters of the Poor, an organization of Roman Catholic nuns that runs nursing homes around the country, is testing the contraceptive coverage mandate of the Affordable Care Act. Last week, we're sorry to say, the nuns won a temporary reprieve from Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Under the law, most employers are required to provide their employees with health insurance that covers birth control. But the Obama administration agreed to a compromise for nonprofit religious groups that object to contraception, exempting them from paying for such coverage. Instead, insurers agreed to absorb the cost. All the religious organization has to do is fill out a simple form attesting to its situation. Unfortunately, even that was too much for the Little Sisters of the Poor (1/7).

9 Jan 2014

AccentHealth buys Caervision's Asthma and Allergy waiting room television network

AccentHealth, the leading patient education company at the Point-of-Care, announced today it has purchased the Asthma and Allergy waiting room television network of Caervision Corp. The new doctor office locations will become part of the AccentHealth network and will carry AccentHealth's award-winning health education programming produced by CNN.

9 Jan 2014

Researchers investigate how workplace environment in primary care settings affects NPs' ability

More than a dozen states have passed legislation expanding the role of nurse practitioners (NPs) so they can help fill the shortage of primary care providers in the U.S. But a new study from Columbia University School of Nursing, published in the Journal of Professional Nursing, suggests that the organization and culture in health care settings often impedes the full utilization of NPs so that state laws expanding scope of practice may not be sufficient to relieve the nation's primary care crisis.

9 Jan 2014

Healthcare News

Bipartisan commission: States should lead efforts to cut health costs

Longer reads: Hospice drains Medicare; false Obamacare 'horror stories;' growing up without vaccines

More insurers extend premium payment deadlines

Thirty-one students complete Maddie's Online Graduate Certificate in Shelter Medicine

First Edition: January 9, 2014

K2M receives FDA clearance to market CAYMAN Minimally Invasive plate system

Full-service restaurant chains serve foods high in calories, fat

Monitoring air pollution now possible with technological advances in air quality measurement methods

Bio-inspired biodegradable surgical glue repairs defects of heart and blood vessels

More standardised methods needed for extemporaneous preparation of paediatric medicines

Federal report finds electronic health records push lacks key safeguards

Evolva to set up Level-1 American Depositary Receipt programme

UCSB psychology professor finds that weight-stigmatizing messages may have the opposite effect

IQWiG publishes new clinical practice guidelines for treating people with COPD

Physician Associates Orlando Health awarded recognition by NCQA as Level-3 Patient Centered Medical Home

State highlights: Blue Shield Of Calif. rate hike called 'excessive'; Fla. Medicaid contract problems

Adults with private or no health insurance coverage have lower levels of psychological distress

Viewpoints: Health law debate on contraceptive coverage; Cuccinelli: No investigators for Medicaid fraud; 50 years after the famed report on smoking

AccentHealth buys Caervision's Asthma and Allergy waiting room television network

Researchers investigate how workplace environment in primary care settings affects NPs' ability

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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