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AbilTo, Aetna announce new program to help members with diabetes combat depression

The combination of depression and diabetes is common and potentially dangerous. People with depression can find it hard to make the lifestyle changes needed to manage diabetes. If not well managed, diabetes often leads to additional health issues, like heart, circulatory and kidney disease. Today, Aetna and AbilTo are announcing a new program to help members with diabetes combat depression and take control of their diabetes.

9 Aug 2012

Roundup: Seeking medical malpractice alternatives part of Mass. cost control law; Low-Income Health Program signs up 400k in Calif.

It may not seem like big news, but if you've followed the long-running, stubborn and mostly dug-in debate over reforming medical malpractice in the U.S., you know that when doctors and lawyers issue a joint news release, something is really going on. ... Formally, it's called "Disclosure, Apology and Offer" and it's a key provision of the new state health cost law. Massachusetts doctors and lawyers have agreed to work side by side on this less hostile (and potentially cost-saving) approach to dealing with medical errors and malpractice.

9 Aug 2012

Strategies that encourage lifestyle modifications could help manage hypertension

While many public health officials and healthcare providers view reducing sodium intake as the primary strategy to lower blood pressure, a 2010 expert Roundtable indicates that strategies that encourage lifestyle modifications could yield better results, concludes an article published today in the peer-reviewed journal Nutrition Today.

8 Aug 2012

First Edition: August 8, 2012

Today's headlines include a variety of stories that reflect how health policy issues are playing on the campaign trail.

8 Aug 2012

APCER Pharma updates and enhances its website

APCER Pharma Solutions, Inc., the truly global provider of strategic and outsourced services for clinical safety, pharmacovigilance, medical affairs, and regulatory operations, announced today that it has updated and enhanced its website.

8 Aug 2012

UAB program helps reduce incidence of HIV/AIDS in the U.S.

In the year since the University of Alabama at Birmingham emergency department began offering HIV screening for all patients ages 19-64, doctors say 20,000 tests were performed and 72 cases of HIV infection were diagnosed.

8 Aug 2012

GW School of Nursing aims to increase number and diversity of professionals

The George Washington University School of Nursing was recently awarded a three year grant totaling nearly $1 million from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration in support of the school's Success in Nursing Education project, which aims to increase the number and diversity of nursing professionals, specifically African-American, Asian, Hispanic, Native American, male and economically disadvantaged students in the Washington D.C., and rural Virginia areas.

8 Aug 2012

Roundup: Ky. judge to hear Christians-only health insurer case

A judge has scheduled a hearing for later this month in a longstanding dispute between Kentucky and a Christians-only health care plan. The case pits the Kentucky Department of Insurance against Medi-Share, a Florida-based cost-sharing ministry that helps to pay medical bills for churchgoers across the country.

8 Aug 2012

Medicaid and CHIP succeed in providing health insurance coverage for children

Significantly more children get health insurance coverage after increases in federal matching funds to states for Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), according to new research from the University of Michigan.

8 Aug 2012

Malawi launches week-long campaign to test 250,000 people for HIV

"Malawi on Monday launched a week-long campaign to test 250,000 people for HIV in what health authorities called a crucial intervention in a country ravaged by AIDS," Agence France-Presse reports.

8 Aug 2012

Presidential candidates use tough ads to court single women voters

The competition for these votes has led President Obama's campaign ads to highlight GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's positions on issues such Planned Parenthood funding as well as other women's health and contraception issues.

8 Aug 2012

Medicaid official outlines state flexibility in health law's Medicaid expansion

Politico Pro reports that Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services official Cindy Mann outlined Monday how states could choose to expand their coverage under the health law and then later drop it if they choose. This is the first time states will be allowed to drop such new coverage. Meanwhile, Modern Healthcare reports on how employers might be impacted if states opt not to expand their Medicaid programs.

8 Aug 2012

New blog from USAID to feature U.S. Government's action on child survival

Noting more than one month has passed since the Child Survival Call to Action event in Washington, D.C., during which stakeholders came together in support of the UNICEF-led initiative "A Promise Renewed," USAID Senior Adviser Nicole Schiegg introduces a new tumblr blog from the agency that will feature U.S. action on child survival in a post on USAID's "Impact" blog.

8 Aug 2012

RXMap helps increase medication adherence for older Americans

In a recent poll of Americans 65 years old and older, researches found that 51% take at least five different prescription drugs regularly. Fifty seven percent of those polled admit that they forget to take their medications.

8 Aug 2012

Melinda Gates dedicates Tällberg Foundation prize money to Rotary International

"The global effort to eradicate polio received a SEK 1 million [about $150,000] boost today as Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, dedicated the monetary award she accepted from the Tällberg Foundation to Rotary International -- a humanitarian service organization that has made a polio-free world its top priority," according to a Gates Foundation press release.

8 Aug 2012

Viewpoints: Medicaid is key to health law success; OPM weighs changes to FEHB

The Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that 30 million Americans still will be left without health insurance in 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that largely upheld President Obama's healthcare plan. The part of the plan that was not upheld by the high court, however, contains the key to lowering that number.

8 Aug 2012

Study: ER overcrowding a problem for care at Calif. hospitals serving many minorities

A new study says California hospitals in areas with large minority populations are disproportionately affected by overcrowding at ERs -- often leading to ambulance diversion, delayed care and poorer health outcomes for patients.

8 Aug 2012

Mass. Governor signs health care cost-containment bill tying growth to state economy

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick signed a bill Monday that lawmakers hope will rein in health care costs by tying health care cost growth to how fast the state economy grows. But, Moody's said the law could hurt the state's hospital credit ratings since the hospitals' revenue growth would be hampered.

8 Aug 2012

Kansas considers disbanding information exchange board; Minn. rebates lower than expected

The board responsible for overseeing the digital exchange of Kansans' health records is scheduled to face Wednesday its biggest decision since it was formed two years ago - whether to dissolve itself and turn its regulatory authority over to a state agency with the goal of saving money. The decision comes at the same time that health information exchange is beginning in Kansas.

8 Aug 2012

Thomson Reuters abstracting and indexing services accept Elsevier’s PM&R for coverage

Elsevier, a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, is pleased to announce that The Journal of Injury, Function and Rehabilitation (PM&R), the official scientific journal of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AAPM&R), has been accepted for coverage by Thomson Reuters abstracting and indexing services, including the Journal Citation Reports.

8 Aug 2012