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Medicaid expansion will be key part of Supreme Court's health law consideration

The high court's announcement that it would review the law was not a surprise, but the specific issues it will examine have triggered some shockwaves. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court attention to the health law also has moved the issue of the overhaul back to the forefront of many campaigns.

18 Nov 2011

UK to offer master's degree in music therapy

The University of Kentucky will be the first higher education institution in the Commonwealth of Kentucky to offer a graduate degree in music therapy. The program, housed at the UK School of Music, was officially approved by the state's Council on Postsecondary Education earlier in November and will start accepting graduate students in the spring of 2012.

18 Nov 2011

Medicaid officials struggle with surge in long-term care needs

The company's naming of David J. McNichols comes as a consulting firm for the state is evaluating the current system of delivering care to Medicaid and PeachCare beneficiaries in Georgia. WellCare has part of that multibillion-dollar business, along with two other managed care companies. The state pays the three firms a total of more than $2.5 billion a year to serve the Medicaid and PeachCare populations.

18 Nov 2011

CMS delays Florida MLR decision; Conn. exchange board under fire

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services officials have given themselves 30 more days to decide on Florida's request to slow the phase-in of a requirement that insurers spend a minimum of 80 percent of each premium dollar on expenses related to improving the quality of health care.

18 Nov 2011

NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia opens Center for Acute Respiratory Failure

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center has officially opened the Center for Acute Respiratory Failure, which offers, among other services, expertise in using lung bypass technology to help adult patients whose lungs are rapidly shutting down.

18 Nov 2011

Multi-drug resistant bacteria widespread in Europe, report says

Multi-drug resistant bacteria "are increasing their grip in Europe with rates of drug resistance in one type of bacteria reaching 50 percent in the worst-hit countries, health officials said Thursday," Reuters reports.

18 Nov 2011

Flying Start NHS increases clinical skills development, confidence in newly qualified practitioners

Newly qualified nurses, midwives and allied health professionals who took part in an online course during their first year of employment reported increased clinical skills development and confidence. However the survey on the Flying Start NHS programme, published in the December issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing, found that mentors needed more training and time to provide support.

18 Nov 2011

Doctors, aid workers warn of disease threats to displaced persons in Somalia

Inter Press Service examines how doctors and aid workers in and around Mogadishu, Somalia, "are warning that famine victims in internally displaced camps have become vulnerable to contagious diseases like cholera and measles, as conditions here are ripe for an outbreak."

18 Nov 2011

Kenya readies to step up fight against trachoma

AllAfrica.com reports on trachoma -- a chronic bacterial infection spread by direct contact with eye, nose and throat secretions from others who are infected -- in Kenya, profiling Kajiado County where the disease has reached the blinding stage in 3.4 percent of patients, "making it a serious public health problem in that region and many other similarly remote areas with little access to health care and screening."

18 Nov 2011

University of Haifa leads new computerized medical information systems research project

University of Haifa leads a new international computerized medical information systems research project, funded by the EU with total budget of €6 million.

18 Nov 2011

Future research critical to ending AIDS epidemic

Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC: Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention and a founding member of the Global Health Technologies Coalition, writing in The Hill's "Congress Blog," welcomes Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's November 8 announcement of "an additional $60 million for implementation of a combination of prevention strategies in four sub-Saharan African countries and evaluation of their impact," adding that "this funding can only be viewed as a down payment on the work that needs to be done."

18 Nov 2011

Report by aid watchdog group finds many international donors lack transparency

IRIN examines the results of a report by the aid watchdog group Publish What You Fund that examines "whether donors publish information about their budgets, their allocation and procurement policies, or audit reports on their own performance" and "finds that most international aid donors are still not open enough about their aid programs, and some offer no information at all."

18 Nov 2011

Outside groups launch TV ads warning about Medicare cuts

Americans United for Change, AFSCME, SEIU and MoveOn.org are among the groups targeting GOP lawmakers regarding proposals to cut Medicare. Meanwhile, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is striking back with ads of its own warning about government-run health care.

18 Nov 2011

RNF to offer new grant funding opportunity for Evidence-Based Practice research

The Rehabilitation Nursing Foundation (RNF) is offering a new grant funding opportunity for Evidence-Based Practice research that address the clinical practice, educational or administrative dimensions of rehabilitation nursing.

18 Nov 2011

Debt panel deliberations involve gloom, doom and blame

As indications continue to suggest the super committee stalemate continues, the panel members and other lawmakers are pointing fingers and assigning blame. Health programs -- including Medicare -- continue to be a sticking point. News outlets also examine how the threatened cuts that would kick in if the panel doesn't find success would impact the health sector.

18 Nov 2011

NYU Langone cardiovascular experts present new research findings at AHA 2011

Experts from the Cardiac & Vascular Institute at NYU Langone Medical Center presented new research findings at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2011 held November 12-16, 2011 in Orlando, Florida.

18 Nov 2011

Examining funding in light of new evidence on HIV prevention, treatment strategies

In this Huffington Post opinion piece, Nancy Birdsall, president of the Center for Global Development, reports on a World Bank- and USAID-sponsored debate she moderated last week as part of a series on HIV/AIDS issues, the topic of which was "Countries should spend a majority of what is likely to be a flat or even declining HIV prevention budget on 'treatment as prevention.'"

18 Nov 2011

NSU faculty and students provide schoolchildren with hearing aids in BVI

Students and faculty from Nova Southeastern University recently completed their second medical mission in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), where they provided schoolchildren with hearing aids and audiology services.

18 Nov 2011

Longer looks: The Supreme Court and health law politics; Obama and drug shortages

There are eighty-two Planned Parenthood affiliates nationwide, operating nearly eight hundred clinics. Planned Parenthood says that one in five women in the U.S. has been treated at a Planned Parenthood clinic. Critics of Planned Parenthood, who are engaged in a sustained attack on the organization, say that most of those women are going to the clinics to have abortions, paid for, in violation of the Hyde Amendment, with taxpayer money.

18 Nov 2011

North Georgia to get mental health pilot program; Kansas City providers decry Blue Cross rate cut

Georgia officials are designing a system for 31 counties that will combine a crisis telephone service and authorization and payment under one roof. In Kansas City, insurance officials say payment cuts bring reimbursement in line with other rates.

18 Nov 2011