Healthcare News

RSS

Harkin's retirement leaves hole in Senate health care leadership -- and parties are scrambling

The retirement of Sen. Tom Harkin -- a key health care figure in the Senate -- has both parties scrambling to field someone to fill the seat.

29 Jan 2013

Roundup: Feds say Ariz. overbilled them $12M on Medicaid; Insurer v. co-op coverage fight in Md.

Arizona failed to properly document efforts to enroll children in its Medicaid program for years and overcharged the federal government nearly $12 million, auditors found in a report expected to be released today. In addition to recommending that Arizona repay the federal government $11.7 million, the report by the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggests the review of an additional $18.8 million as questionable billing.

29 Jan 2013

Study: 1 in 5 hospitalists reports that workload puts patients at risk for serious complications

Nationwide, more than one-quarter of hospital-based general practitioners who take over for patients' primary care doctors to manage inpatient care say their average patient load exceeds safe levels multiple times per month, according to a new Johns Hopkins study. Moreover, the study found that one in five of these physicians, known as hospitalists, reports that their workload puts patients at risk for serious complications, or even death.

29 Jan 2013

Abbott Vascular designates Montreal Heart Institute as a Center of Excellence

The Montreal Heart Institute has just been designated as a Center of Excellence by Abbott Vascular for the percutaneous treatment of mitral valve failure with their MitraClip system. The MHI has therefore become a reference centre for this procedure for all hospitals across Canada and many other hospitals in North America.

29 Jan 2013

DRCRF announces recipients of Nov. 2012 Damon Runyon Fellows

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on supporting innovative early career researchers, named 15 new Damon Runyon Fellows at its fall Fellowship Award Committee review.

29 Jan 2013

Benefits of GPS for people with dementia

As part of the norwegian research project "Trygge Spor", more than fifty dementia sufferers have been using GPS for periods varying from several weeks to up to a year. The results show that localisation technology helps achieve an increased sense of security, freedom and quality of life, both for sufferers and their next of kin.

29 Jan 2013

New, preference-based navigation intervention improves screening rates for colon cancer

A mailing or phone call to help patients get screened for colorectal cancer significantly increases their chances of actually getting tested, according to a study published in the January issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention by researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson.

29 Jan 2013

IOF-ESCEO Pre-Clinical Symposium to be held on April 18 in Rome, Italy

Investigators with an interest in pre-clinical and translational musculoskeletal research are invited to attend the 3rd IOF-ESCEO Pre-Clinical Symposium to be held on April 18, in Rome, Italy.

29 Jan 2013

UAB dietitian suggests five foods for healthier eating

With the hectic hustle and bustle of daily life — managing family, career, home and more — it is no wonder that creativity in the kitchen can fall to the wayside. To help people get out of a food rut and eat healthier this year, a dietitian from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) suggests adding five foods to the grocery cart.

29 Jan 2013

Viewpoints: Debating P4P; ‘Tactical retreat' by GOP; The virtues of across-the-board spending cuts

Instead of granting automatic pay increases, N.Y. City's public hospital system will pay them based on how well they reduce costs, increase patient satisfaction and improve the quality of care. The Health and Hospitals Corporation, which runs the city's 11 public hospitals, deserves praise for an ambitious proposal that will need to be refined as it is put into practice.

28 Jan 2013

Poll: 6 in 10 oppose cutting Medicare to lower deficit

A new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation has found that most of the public wants deficit reduction, but they want it without cutting major social programs like Medicare and Medicaid. On health care, the public favors requiring drug makers to give the government 'a better deal' on medications for low-income seniors and making higher-income seniors pay more for coverage to reduce the deficit. Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the Foundation.

28 Jan 2013

Some states reconsider funding for mental health care

In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School killings in Connecticut, state lawmakers and governors talk about boosting mental health care.

28 Jan 2013

GOP vows to stick to principles, including Medicare and Medicaid

News outlets covered the winter meeting of the Republican National Committee, where party members said they needed to adjust their tone, but not their conservative positions, including on entitlements.

28 Jan 2013

Senate hearing urges action on Obama mental health care agenda

Democrats and Republicans expressed concerns about gaps in the system at the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

28 Jan 2013

Lawmakers target fiscal cliff's provision aiding Amgen for elimination

The fiscal cliff legislation approved earlier this month excluded Amgen's Sensipar, which is used by kidney dialysis patients, from Medicare price controls for an additional two years.

28 Jan 2013

New ESF position paper identifies needs and steps to improve teaching skills in higher education

A new position paper, The Professionalisation of Academics as Teachers in Higher Education, has been published today by the European Science Foundation.

28 Jan 2013

Germany commits to providing 1B euros to Global Fund through 2016

"Germany will give one billion euros $1.3 billion to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the country's minister for economic cooperation and development Dirk Niebel said Thursday" during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, CNN reports.

28 Jan 2013

'Vaccine diplomacy' could reduce disease burden on Korean Peninsula

"North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in a New Year's Day speech, called for reductions in international tension and an end to confrontation with South Korea, while raising the prospect of reunification between the North and South," Peter Hotez, president and director of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, notes in a Los Angeles Times opinion piece, asking, "Could 'vaccine diplomacy' work on the Korean peninsula?."

28 Jan 2013

Paper says hospitals that do treat patients with anemia have better outcomes

Up to one-third of patients undergoing surgery in Ontario have a treatable form of anemia but are not optimally treated for it.

28 Jan 2013

Health law's Medicaid expansion raises possibilities, problems for states

California Gov. Jerry Brown describes implementing the expansion as "incredibly complex," while Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder sees it an opportunity to address gaps in the mental health system. In Arizona, meanwhile, the expansion is framed as an immigration issue.

28 Jan 2013