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D.C.'s Obamacare insurance exchange hits technology snag

The District of Columbia's online health exchange will not be able to immediately calculate a person's subsidy to help them buy coverage or sign up for Medicaid when the health law exchange opens Oct. 1. Instead, such determinations will be done offline as officials try to fix the problems.

27 Sep 2013

House and Senate negotiators reaching agreement on compounding pharmacy legislation

The measure would apply uniform national standards to pharmacy compounding while enacting a track-and-trace system to ensure the safety of drugs throughout the supply chain.

27 Sep 2013

Health law's success or failure to unfold in individual stories

How people judge the health law will depend on whether they get insurance that proves affordable and adequate through the new exchanges, The Washington Post reports. In the meantime, a Kaiser Family Foundation survey finds that three out of four California residents of modest income believe wrongly that they're not eligible for government help to buy insurance.

27 Sep 2013

Low health insurance premiums may come with high deductibles

News accounts looks at the price data for the new insurance marketplaces released by the administration Wednesday and note that consumers need to consider costs beyond the premiums. That's because some lower-cost policies may have stiffer copayments and deductibles layered on top of their monthly costs.

27 Sep 2013

ACS, ASMBS disappointed with CMS' decision on bariatric surgery for Medicare patients

Despite strong opposition from leading surgical and medical groups, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has ruled it will no longer require Medicare patients to undergo bariatric surgical procedures at accredited facilities.

26 Sep 2013

Alliqua enters into distribution agreement with Carolon Health Care Products

Alliqua Inc., a biomedical company offering a suite of drug delivery technologies and wound healing solutions, has entered into an agreement with Carolon Health Care Products through which it will gain both new sales distribution pathways and established customers.

26 Sep 2013

Affinity Health Plan's Medicare Advantage plans to be expanded into five counties

On October 1, 2013, Affinity Health Plan's Medicare Advantage plans, currently offered in the five boroughs of New York City, will become available in Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland and Orange counties.

26 Sep 2013

First Edition: September 26, 2013

Today's headlines include details regarding the ongoing congressional battle over the future of the health law in the context of avoiding a government shutdown, as well as the developments on the ground as the Oct. 1 launch of the health law's insurance marketplace nears.

26 Sep 2013

Celebrities join to mark the first Day of the Ex-Smoker

The day of celebration is to congratulate all ex-smokers, whether they are amongst the 400,000 who have signed up to kick the habit with the European Commission's "Ex-Smokers are Unstoppable" campaign, or have quit using other means.

26 Sep 2013

Viewpoints: Health law premium rates reveal 'mostly good news' but renew critics arguments; 'Cruz-ing for a bruising;'

President Obama, President Clinton, and Senator Ted Cruz all spent a lot of time talking about Obamacare on Tuesday. But the real news came just as the day was ending, right at midnight, when the Department of Health and Human Services released data on insurance premiums available through the new Obamacare marketplaces. Several states had already released their data. With this report, HHS provided premium information for most of the rest. Overall, the numbers are pretty consistent with previous reports, albeit with some new and interesting wrinkles. It seems like mostly good news, though the law's critics would argue it vindicates some of their arguments, as well (Jonathan Cohn, 9/25).

26 Sep 2013

Consumer Reports launches web-based tool that offers personalized guidance on health insurance

Consumer Reports, the nonprofit consumer service organization empowering consumers for more than 75 years, today announced the launch of HealthLawHelper.org, an innovative web-based tool that offers personalized guidance to help consumers better understand how they may be affected by the Affordable Care Act.

26 Sep 2013

Ohio State's Heart and Vascular Center names Garret FitzGerald as recipient of Schottenstein Prize

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center's Heart and Vascular Center has named Dr. Garret FitzGerald, professor of Medicine and Pharmacology; chair of the Department of Pharmacology and director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics at the Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania, the recipient of the 2013 Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Prize in Cardiovascular Sciences.

26 Sep 2013

People on health related social networking sites more likely to abstain from smoking

Smoking is a major public health problem, killing approximately 443,000 people every year in the United States. Quitting smoking can have a profound effect on a person's health, but it is also one of the hardest addictions to kick. A recent paper published in the Journal of Communication found that people who engage in health specific social networking sites found it easier to quit smoking.

26 Sep 2013

Federal appeals court mulls whether businesses can be exempt from birth control Mandate

The court is considering a case in which two brothers who own businesses in Ohio say the requirement to cover the cost of contraceptives to their employees would violate their Roman Catholic beliefs.

26 Sep 2013

European and Brazilian Society of Cardiology join to deliver key cardio messages

Rio de Janeiro, 28 September 2013 - As the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the Brazilian Society of Cardiology (BSC) team up to deliver key cardio messages at the 68th BSC Congress in Rio de Janeiro (28 September to 1 October 2013), new research underscores the essential role of cardiology specialists in Brazil.

26 Sep 2013

State highlights: N.M. officials seek less Medicaid money next year

The agency managing New Mexico's largest health care program is asking for less -- not more -- state money to operate in the upcoming budget year. It's the first time in more than a decade the Human Services Department isn't seeking an increase in state aid for Medicaid, which provides health care for a fourth of New Mexico's population (Massey, 9/24).

26 Sep 2013

Study evaluates reliability of scale to assess toxicity for patients receiving radiation therapy

The North Shore-LIJ Health System Department of Radiation Medicine presented a novel study to evaluate the reliability of different systems used by caregivers to assess toxicity for patients receiving radiation therapy. The study will be presented at the 55th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Therapeutic Radiation Oncology in Atlanta, GA.

26 Sep 2013

Outreach efforts, especially for young adults and minorities, take center stage

The Detroit Free Press looks at the challenges in getting the message about the new insurance programs out to the uninsured, while in Florida, some officials are defying the governor's decision to curb federal outreach efforts.

26 Sep 2013

Tackling commercial sexual exploitation, sex trafficking of minors in the U.S.

Commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of minors are serious problems in the United States with long-term adverse consequences for children and society as a whole, and federal agencies should work with state and local partners to raise awareness of these issues and train professionals who work with youths to recognize and assist those who are victimized or at risk, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council.

26 Sep 2013

Designing safer titanium dioxide for human use

Using a particular type of titanium dioxide - a common ingredient in cosmetics, food products, toothpaste and sunscreen - could reduce the potential health risks associated with the widely used compound. The report on the substance, produced by the millions of tons every year for the global market, appears in the ACS journal Chemical Research in Toxicology.

26 Sep 2013

Healthcare News

D.C.'s Obamacare insurance exchange hits technology snag

House and Senate negotiators reaching agreement on compounding pharmacy legislation

Health law's success or failure to unfold in individual stories

Low health insurance premiums may come with high deductibles

ACS, ASMBS disappointed with CMS' decision on bariatric surgery for Medicare patients

Alliqua enters into distribution agreement with Carolon Health Care Products

Affinity Health Plan's Medicare Advantage plans to be expanded into five counties

First Edition: September 26, 2013

Celebrities join to mark the first Day of the Ex-Smoker

Viewpoints: Health law premium rates reveal 'mostly good news' but renew critics arguments; 'Cruz-ing for a bruising;'

Consumer Reports launches web-based tool that offers personalized guidance on health insurance

Ohio State's Heart and Vascular Center names Garret FitzGerald as recipient of Schottenstein Prize

People on health related social networking sites more likely to abstain from smoking

Federal appeals court mulls whether businesses can be exempt from birth control Mandate

European and Brazilian Society of Cardiology join to deliver key cardio messages

State highlights: N.M. officials seek less Medicaid money next year

Study evaluates reliability of scale to assess toxicity for patients receiving radiation therapy

Outreach efforts, especially for young adults and minorities, take center stage

Tackling commercial sexual exploitation, sex trafficking of minors in the U.S.

Designing safer titanium dioxide for human use

Membrane proteins in focus: Turning high-risk targets into routine workflows

How metabolic phenotyping can detect viral infections in minutes

Directed enzyme evolution and the Nobel Prize: Making enzymes evolve in the lab

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