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Congressional accord preserves Medicare doctor pay

The deal averts for one year a 26.5 percent cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients. It also repeals the long-term care provision of the 2010 health overhaul.

3 Jan 2013

Philippine President signs family planning bill into law

"The Philippine President has signed into law a family-planning bill that was blocked by the Catholic Church for more than a decade," Al Jazeera reports (12/28). "President Benigno Aquino III signed into a law a bill that promotes contraception and sex education in schools," the Wall Street Journal writes.

3 Jan 2013

2013 brings health law deadlines, challenges to states

News coverage of how states are planning for the health law include details of state health insurance exchanges.

3 Jan 2013

Psychiatric patients at risk of hospitalization due to protected records

Medical centers that elect to keep psychiatric files private and separate from the rest of a person's medical record may be doing their patients a disservice, a Johns Hopkins study concludes.

3 Jan 2013

Wall Street Journal looks at European efforts to fight TB

The Wall Street Journal examines efforts to fight tuberculosis (TB) in Europe, writing, "All along the edges of Western Europe, new and hard-to-defeat strains of tuberculosis are gaining a foothold, often moving beyond traditional victims -- alcoholics, drug users, HIV patients -- and into the wider population."

3 Jan 2013

House follows Senate and passes bill to avert 'fiscal cliff'

The measure, which awaits the president's signature, puts off large cuts in federal spending and increases taxes. But it delays efforts to revamp entitlement programs.

3 Jan 2013

More work ahead in TB drug development, treatment delivery

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval of the tuberculosis (TB) drug Sirturo, also known as bedaquiline, "appears to be just the first step in an exciting renaissance for TB drug development," Mark Harrington, executive director of Treatment Action Group (TAG), writes in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog.

3 Jan 2013

Washington Post examines India's efforts to fight child malnutrition

"Stung by the realization that it faced a child malnutrition crisis worse than in most African countries, India is finally waking to the scale of the problem," the Washington Post reports in an article examining the country's efforts to combat child malnutrition.

3 Jan 2013

Hospitals, nursing homes, pharmacies face changing marketplace

A report by federal health care inspectors in November said the U.S. nursing home industry overbills Medicare $1.5 billion a year for treatments patients don't need or never receive.

3 Jan 2013

New Wiley handbook offers well-designed approach to imaging musculoskeletal trauma

Imaging Musculoskeletal Trauma: A Handbook for the Clinic, published by Wiley, offers a well-designed approach to imaging musculoskeletal trauma.

3 Jan 2013

President Obama nominates Sen. John Kerry for Secretary of State

"President Barack Obama has nominated Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) for Secretary of State," the Huffington Post reports, noting, "Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War veteran and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, will replace Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton."

3 Jan 2013

3 years after devastating earthquake, Haiti remains in fragile state

"On the eve of the third anniversary of the earthquake that devastated Haiti in January 2010, the country remains in a fragile state," a New York Times editorial states.

3 Jan 2013

Cost/quality relationship in health care still poorly understood: Study

A new study examines -- and finds little clear -- on the relationship between health care quality and cost.

3 Jan 2013

New Congress means new key health care leaders, as one steps away

The 113th Congress will be the first one in 40 years to convene without California Congressman Pete Stark as a member. Stark was defeated in November by a fellow Democrat under new California voting rules. Stark may not be a household name. But he leaves a long-lasting mark on the nation's health care system.

3 Jan 2013

Opinion pieces, editorial address murders of polio workers in Pakistan

Several newspapers published opinion pieces regarding the recent murders of polio vaccination workers in Pakistan.

3 Jan 2013

UMDNJ-School of Osteopathic Medicine establishes Biomarker Discovery Center

Following recent discoveries by its researchers that could significantly change the diagnosis and treatment of a number of diseases, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)-School of Osteopathic Medicine has established the Biomarker Discovery Center on its Stratford campus.

3 Jan 2013

Paul Farmer appointed as U.N. Special Adviser for Haiti cholera efforts

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "has appointed renowned United States physician Paul Farmer to help galvanize support to eliminate cholera in Haiti, where the disease has already claimed over 7,750 lives," the U.N. News Centre reports.

3 Jan 2013

Minn. health system merger complete, largest in Twin Cities in decade

A merger of two health systems in Minnesota completed Tuesday creates a health care organization in the Twin Cities with 20,000 employees and 1,500 doctors.

3 Jan 2013

Ineffective communication contributes to poor drug adherence

Even the best medicines in the world can be rendered ineffective if they are not taken as prescribed. The problem known as medication "non-adherence" is a major health issue in the United States, contributing to worse outcomes for people who have diabetes and other chronic diseases.

3 Jan 2013