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Big Bend Hospice chooses Allscripts Homecare software solution to improve patient outcomes

Big Bend Hospice, Inc., a leading hospice agency located in Tallahassee, Fla., has chosen Allscripts Homecare software solution to improve the delivery of critical clinical information in the home, enabling the agency to focus on patient needs and better patient outcomes.

24 Dec 2013

Chinese experts publish consensus on spine and spinal cord injury

The early management of acute thoracolumbar spine and spinal cord injury is one of the most difficult tasks when treating trauma cases. To standardize the evaluation and treatment of acute thoracolumbar spinal injury, the Chinese Association of Spine and Spinal Cord Injury organized a group of Chinese experts to collectively discuss the draft of "An Expert Consensus on the Evaluation and Treatment of Acute Thoracolumbar Spine and Spinal Cord Injury".

24 Dec 2013

Administration extends enrollment one day after crush of website customers

More than a million people signed onto the federal health website Monday as consumers rushed to sign up for coverage to begin Jan. 1.

24 Dec 2013

3 states take divergent paths on health care for poor

Media outlets look back at the decisions made by Minnesota, Wisconsin and Texas leaders about expanding coverage to the poor under the health law and what that will mean for residents living just above the poverty line.

24 Dec 2013

Holiday reads: Squabbling families, the psychology of Santa, holiday stress and chocolate chip cookies

[T]his time of year the Internet is ripe with lists on how to avoid or mitigate family conflicts. At big gatherings, familiarity may not always breed contempt, but it sure can breed festering emotional wounds. Leonard Felder, a Los Angeles psychologist, has found that about three-quarters of us have at least one family member who annoys us. But why is it that the same minor jabs and annoying tics that are harmless coming from friends prompt epic screaming matches when uttered by relatives? ... Here are four theories as to why our families drive us nuts, and it would be nice of you to pay attention for once in your life (Olga Khazan, 12/23).

24 Dec 2013

Healthcare workers' hands contaminated with C. difficile after routine care, study shows

A new study finds nearly one in four healthcare workers' hands were contaminated with Clostridium difficile spores after routine care of patients infected with the bacteria. The study was published in the January issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.

24 Dec 2013

Capsules: Catastrophic Obamacare policies prove hard sell so far; explaining Obama's move to allow some 'catastrophic' health coverage plans

Now on Kaiser Health News' blog, Phil Galewitz examines catastrophic insurance policies: "The Obama administration's decision this week to allow people to buy catastrophic-level policies if their individual health plans had been canceled comes amid reports that few people have bought these less expensive policies sold in new online insurance marketplaces" (Galewitz, 12/20).

24 Dec 2013

Paired exchange and incompatible kidney transplant program launched by UAB

Ann Marie Reynolds, a 32-year-old who has been in and out of hospitals fighting chronic kidney disease since she was a teenager, had a less than 1 percent chance of receiving a kidney without the University of Alabama at Birmingham's groundbreaking organ donation system that helped her and two other hard-to-match patients get kidneys in a three-way, incompatible kidney exchange earlier this year.

24 Dec 2013

Young adults remain a focus of insurance marketplace outreach

The success of the Affordable Care Act's online marketplaces may depend on people like [26-year-old] Lizzie Bunnen. If healthy adults her age don't sign up, the risk is that predominantly older and sicker members will drive up costs and threaten the portals' future. With the Dec. 23 deadline approaching for January coverage, and at the end of March for all 2014 enrollment, the clock is ticking on what many believe is one of the health law's biggest challenges.

24 Dec 2013

Who do Americans want care from? Doctors or other practitioners?

Doctors who provide personalized care get organized into a new group while a new survey seems to suggest American prefer getting their care from a doctor instead of nurse practitioners or physician assistants.

24 Dec 2013

First Edition: December 24, 2013

Kaiser Health News staff writer Julie Appleby, working in collaboration with NBC News, reports: "If you buy one of the less expensive insurance plans sold through the health law's marketplaces, you may be in for a surprise. Some plans will not pay for a doctor visit before you meet your annual deductible, which could be thousands of dollars" (Appleby, 12/23).

24 Dec 2013

White House to health insurance consumers: You've got another day to sign up

The White House has decided to allow an extra 24 hours for people to sign up for insurance on HealthCare.gov, through the end of the day Tuesday, to receive coverage beginning on Jan. 1, according to a senior official familiar with the change. The official deadline for getting insurance remains 11:59 p.m. on Monday. But because of record traffic on the website Monday morning, officials wanted to reassure the public - and themselves - that people who sought coverage in good faith would be covered (Shear, 12/23).

24 Dec 2013

Viewpoints: Impact of 'meddling with' health law; antibiotics on farms; 'Let thirtysomethings' join Medicare

[A]ll of these last-minute policy shifts confuse people who were already struggling to understand a complex new system, ... The cumulative effect is that at least some people - we hope not many - will misunderstand their responsibilities under the law or be deterred from seeking coverage. The biggest danger is that the Obama administration is encouraging politicians to meddle in the health-care system every time a few vocal constituents get upset about its requirements (12/21).

24 Dec 2013

Medical consultation increases for Medicare patients before cataract surgery

Preoperative consultations before cataract surgery became more common for Medicare patients despite no clear guidelines about when to require such a service, hinting at unnecessary use of health care resources, according to a study published by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.

24 Dec 2013

Two different rulings on health law's contraceptive rule

A judge in Oklahoma ruled against the insurance coverage requirement, while a Washington judge ruled against a Catholic Church challenge.

24 Dec 2013

State highlights: Minn. to cut elderly Medicaid benefits; Calif.'s Insurance Commissioner finds fault with Obamacare, seeks re-election

Starting in January, thousands of low-income elderly Minnesotans could lose government benefits intended to help them stay in their homes and out of nursing care. In an effort to constrain runaway Medicaid spending, Minnesota is implementing stricter rules that will make it harder for senior citizens to qualify for home-based services, potentially leaving them with reduced care or no care at all (Serres, 12/21).

24 Dec 2013

Racial divide for breast cancer survival widens

Despite numerous advances in the screening and treatment of breast cancer, black women are still far more likely to die of the disease than white women.

24 Dec 2013

Gov. Kasich gets green light for Medicaid expansion from state Supreme Court

Elsewhere, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signs bill to postpone changes to BadgerCare, and Pennsylvania officials seek support for Gov. Tom Corbett's "Healthy Pennsylvania" plan.

24 Dec 2013

Physicians study mothers' breast milk to determine correct amounts of nutrients for premature infants

Physicians in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in the Maxine Dunitz Children's Health Center launched a pilot study in which mothers' breast milk is analyzed to determine whether premature infants are receiving the correct amounts of nutrients they need to thrive.

24 Dec 2013

Monday's deadline to buy health law insurance coverage leaves many scrambling

People who want policies in place by Jan. 1 face a deadline today, but a series of changes in how the health law is being implemented has complicated the process for consumers and insurers.

24 Dec 2013