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With Medicare, other health issues in flux, lawmakers and lobbyists struggle to decide next steps

Six health care lobbyists told Politico Pro that much of their strategic planning depends on the Supreme Court's upcoming health law decision and the November elections. But some lawmakers are signalling hope that this is the year to address Medicare's "doc fix" problem.

11 May 2012

Discrepancies between recommendations and implementation for management of cardiovascular risk factors

There are discrepancies between the recommendations for the management of cardiovascular risk factors and their implementation in clinical practice. In the latest issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, Christof Prugger and his fellow authors present the results of the EUROASPIRE I, II and III surveys in the Münster region of Germany.

11 May 2012

SAVE THE PATIENT to host ‘Community Health’ on CAN-TV

Continuing its efforts to educate, inform and empower the people of Chicago, SAVE THE PATIENT, a not-for-profit patient-focused organization, is hosting its 25-minute live call-in show, "Community Health," on Chicago Access Network (CAN-TV) on Monday, May 14 at 6:00 PM on Channel 21.

11 May 2012

Safer indoor sex work spaces promote health and safety of street-involved women

Safer indoor sex work spaces provide important and potentially life-saving benefits to sex workers including reduced exposure to violence and HIV and improved relationships with police, according to a study published by the Gender and Sexual Health Initiative of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) and the University of British Columbia.

11 May 2012

Fighting childhood obesity in America through health nutrition education

A health nutrition education program to fight childhood obesity in America is a possible outcome of a study by a University of Oklahoma researcher and a colleague. The study looked at factors affecting a child's decision when choosing healthy or unhealthy snacks.

11 May 2012

Steps toward a permanent Medicare 'doc fix'?

Rep. Allyson Schwartz, D-Pa., and Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev., introduced the latest bill Wednesday aimed at reforming how Medicare pays healthcare providers and to prevent a scheduled, Jan. 1, 2013 cut to physician reimbursement rates. The bipartisan measure would replace Medicare's current pay formula.

11 May 2012

Pregnant White women more likely to smoke cigarettes

A new report shows that 21.8 percent of pregnant White women aged 15 to 44 currently (within the past 30 days) smoked cigarettes.

11 May 2012

When to retire? Health costs enter into the decision

With the value of many 401(k)'s and homes taking a beating during the recession and with energy and health care prices climbing, many who dreamed that retirement was just around the corner have reluctantly kicked their retirement plans down the road.

11 May 2012

Ariz., Iowa Republicans tweak abortion, contraception bills

GOP legislators have backed down from some of the anti-abortion and anti-contraception coverage measures they wanted.

11 May 2012

AACN launches enhanced versions of ECG interpretation, EPCCO

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) has launched enhanced versions of its popular ECG interpretation and pediatric critical care E-Learning courses, conveniently delivering the latest clinical information, tools and resources to nurses and other healthcare professionals.

11 May 2012

Policy responses needed to address global water security

In his Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) blog "The Internationalist," Stewart Patrick, senior fellow and director of the CFR Program on International Institutions and Global Governance, writes about the first U.S. Intelligence Community Assessment of Global Water Security, which "predicts that by 2030 humanity's 'annual global water requirements' will exceed 'current sustainable water supplies' by 40 percent."

11 May 2012

Citywide ban on public smoking can impact maternal and fetal health

A citywide ban on public smoking in Colorado led to significant decreases in maternal smoking and preterm births, providing the first evidence in the U.S. that such interventions can impact maternal and fetal health, according to an article in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

11 May 2012

Drug manufacturers draw attention for politics and pain killers

Politico examines the relationship between industry-group PhRMA and congressional Republicans in the post-health-reform-debate landscape.

11 May 2012

MSF says additional resources needed to improve ART access in Burma

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), the largest provider of antiretroviral treatment (ART) in Burma, also known as Myanmar, are calling for the gap between the need for and access to ART in the country to be closed, the Guardian reports.

11 May 2012

HHS announces big pay boost for some Medicaid docs

HHS says the increase, required by the health law, would raise primary care doctors' payments for treating Medicare patients, on average, 34 percent.

11 May 2012

Foreign aid for health services not significantly displaced, analysis says

In an article published in the May 8 edition of PLoS Medicine, Rajaie Batniji, an affiliate of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and Eran Bendavid of FSI's Stanford Health Policy, found that a 2010 Lancet study by researchers at the University of Washington that "concluded that about half the money given to international governments for providing health care services isn't used as intended" is "flawed" and "should not be used to guide decisions about how much money to give and who should get it," according to a Stanford University news story.

11 May 2012

Republican govs like free-market insurance exchanges but skewer 'Obamacare'

Many governors find themselves in an awkward spot since opposing the health care law is GOP orthodoxy. In the meantime, Iowa lawmakers approved a bill requiring licensure of advisers who help people navigate health insurance options.

11 May 2012

House passes cuts to health care, other programs to protect Pentagon funding

The Republican-led House has agreed to replace deep budget cuts scheduled to hit the Pentagon in January with a series of reductions in funding for food stamps, Medicaid and regulation of the financial sector. The House approved the package that would save $242.8 billion over 10 years on a party-line 218 to 199 vote. No Democrats supported the package; sixteen Republicans opposed it.

11 May 2012

Nepalese government launches 'ambitious' plan to end malaria, IRIN reports

"The Nepalese government has launched an ambitious plan to curb the spread of malaria in high-risk parts of the country, where some 3,000 people were infected last year," IRIN reports. Through the program, which began on May 1 and "is the first nationwide push to end malaria," the "health ministry will distribute [anti-malarial] drugs at their local offices, and through their representatives in rural areas," IRIN writes.

11 May 2012

Viewpoints: Can Medicare taxes really fund student loans?; Daschle on diabetes and kids

In the case of the student loans, the Democrats' bill would require certain Americans -- high-income partners in small businesses that provide professional services, such as engineering or lobbying -- to pay payroll taxes on their share of the firm's profits. That's a long way of saying the bill would eliminate a tax-avoidance strategy that some small firms use to reduce their contributions to Social Security and Medicare.

11 May 2012