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Roundup: San Diego launches new HIV testing effort; Study finds economy hurt by Mass. health law; Texas schools turning to safe sex curriculum

The Centers for Disease Control says 20 percent of Americans with HIV don't know they're infected, and those people are responsible for about half of all new infections. A new effort in San Diego is trying to reduce those numbers by making HIV testing more widespread.

17 Sep 2011

Emergency mosquito control operations in flood affected Pennsylvania counties

The Department of Environmental Protection announced today it will begin conducting emergency mosquito control operations in 18 counties affected by flooding.

17 Sep 2011

New York Times examines international response to Somali famine

"Twenty years after the central government collapsed," Somalia is facing drought, food insecurity and conflict larger in scale than when famine conditions hit the nation in the 1990s, "[a]nd given the world's limited interest in a major intervention, that is not likely to change anytime soon," the New York Times reports in a news analysis on the situation.

17 Sep 2011

MedPAC prepares 'doc fix' proposal with full cost offset

The plan takes the commission into an area it generally tries to avoid: how to pay for such a major change to the Medicare system. Its suggestion is to pay for the SGR fix by reducing payments to specialists and imposing cuts on other parts of the health care sector.

17 Sep 2011

VA extends retroactive traumatic injury benefits to Servicemembers

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is extending retroactive traumatic injury benefits to Servicemembers who suffered qualifying injuries during the period Oct. 7, 2001 to Nov. 30, 2005, regardless of the geographic location where the injuries occurred.

17 Sep 2011

Research roundup: Personalized info helps consumer decision-making; Racial disparities in knee replacement

Comparison Friction: Experimental Evidence From Medicare Drug Plans – Defining comparison friction as "the wedge between the availability of comparative information and consumers' use of it," the authors determined that providing prescription drug pricing information, even though it was free and accessible in other ways, increased the amount of "plan-switching" in the group to 28 percent compared to 17 percent in another that did not get the individual information.

17 Sep 2011

Medicaid officials push Florida to improve patient care, reach agreement 'in principle' with Texas

Texas and Florida have requested waivers from the federal government to restructure their Medicaid programs.

17 Sep 2011

MedPAC recommendations may jeopardize access to care: ACS

Yesterday, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) reviewed draft recommendations related to the flawed and unsustainable Medicare Physician Payment system. The American College of Surgeons (ACS) is pleased that the MedPAC has recognized the need to eliminate the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) and move towards a reimbursement system that is based on quality of care.

17 Sep 2011

List of top-performing hospitals includes small and rural hospitals

Small and rural hospitals headed the list of top performing hospitals in using evidence-based processes closely linked to positive patient outcomes, according to the Joint Commission's annual report on quality and safety, Improving America's Hospitals.

17 Sep 2011

Power wheelchairs are not 'government waste', they give freedom and independence to people with disabilities

"The public would be better served if policymakers left their desks in Washington and met with us in our homes, where every day is a struggle."

17 Sep 2011

Chad faces food security and health challenges, but opportunity exists for improvement, U.N. official says

U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Chad Thomas Gurtner "says Chad faces daunting food security and health challenges" but that "peace and growing stability in Chad bodes well for the country's future," VOA News reports.

17 Sep 2011

An evening of grace and glamour to benefit people living with HIV/AIDS in Orange County

AIDS Services Foundation Orange County (ASF) will literally roll out the red carpet for its signature fund raising event – Red Ball II on Saturday, September 24 at the Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach at 6 p.m.

17 Sep 2011

Prevention is global health community's greatest challenge in fight against chronic diseases

"A new pandemic has emerged and is beginning to overshadow all others," "The chronic-disease pandemic will be the 'face' of global health in the coming decades ... an insidious pandemic for those who are affected, causing slow and subtle declines in health over years."

17 Sep 2011

Congressional cuts to global health R&D spending would hinder preparations for new pandemic threats

The movie "'Contagion' is fiction, but truth closely trails behind. It tells an effective story of why we need new vaccines, tests, drugs, and other tools to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases to address existing and emerging global health threats," Kaitlin Christenson, coalition director of the Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC), writes in an opinion piece in The Hill's "Congress Blog."

17 Sep 2011

UK taxpayers may bail out failing NHS hospitals in a £5 billion rescue mission

Many failing NHS hospitals across the UK will be bailed out by the taxpayer in a £5 billion rescue mission, according to a leading figure.

17 Sep 2011

Perry attacks Romney on Mass. health plan, similarities to Obama

In a campaign swing through Iowa, GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry drew distinctions between himself and Mitt Romney, another Republican presidential candidate, by highlighting the similarities between the federal health law and the Massachusetts health plan that became law while Romney was the state's governor.

17 Sep 2011

MedPAC proposal for additional reimbursement cuts to clinical laboratories are unsustainable: ACLA

The proposal now under consideration by the Medicare Payment Advisory Committee to slash Medicare reimbursement rates for clinical laboratory services as part of a broader effort to fix the Medicare physician-payment system would threaten the economic survival of many clinical labs. That was the message of a letter signed by ACLA President Alan Mertz and sent today to MedPAC Chairman Glenn Hackbarth.

17 Sep 2011

Blue Cross plans push HHS to release regs by early 2012

"Health plans don't have the information they need to carry out some important health reform changes – and they don't have enough time to get the work done either, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association says.

17 Sep 2011

CLASS Act criticism continues, but new report sees 'fixes'

Though conventional wisdom and partisan positions suggest the program is fiscally "out of whack," experts say there are multiple ways to try to make it more sound.

17 Sep 2011

U.N. expresses concern over flooding in Pakistan; UNICEF says 2.5M children affected

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday expressed concern over widespread flooding in Pakistan and "pledged the United Nations' continued commitment to supporting the government in its efforts to respond to the humanitarian needs of the more than five million people in the affected areas," the U.N. News Centre reports.

17 Sep 2011

Healthcare News

Roundup: San Diego launches new HIV testing effort; Study finds economy hurt by Mass. health law; Texas schools turning to safe sex curriculum

Emergency mosquito control operations in flood affected Pennsylvania counties

New York Times examines international response to Somali famine

MedPAC prepares 'doc fix' proposal with full cost offset

VA extends retroactive traumatic injury benefits to Servicemembers

Research roundup: Personalized info helps consumer decision-making; Racial disparities in knee replacement

Medicaid officials push Florida to improve patient care, reach agreement 'in principle' with Texas

MedPAC recommendations may jeopardize access to care: ACS

List of top-performing hospitals includes small and rural hospitals

Power wheelchairs are not 'government waste', they give freedom and independence to people with disabilities

Chad faces food security and health challenges, but opportunity exists for improvement, U.N. official says

An evening of grace and glamour to benefit people living with HIV/AIDS in Orange County

Prevention is global health community's greatest challenge in fight against chronic diseases

Congressional cuts to global health R&D spending would hinder preparations for new pandemic threats

UK taxpayers may bail out failing NHS hospitals in a £5 billion rescue mission

Perry attacks Romney on Mass. health plan, similarities to Obama

MedPAC proposal for additional reimbursement cuts to clinical laboratories are unsustainable: ACLA

Blue Cross plans push HHS to release regs by early 2012

CLASS Act criticism continues, but new report sees 'fixes'

U.N. expresses concern over flooding in Pakistan; UNICEF says 2.5M children affected

Revolutionizing Life Science: An Interview with SCIEX on ASMS, the SCIEX 7500+ System, and AI-Driven Quantitation

From Discovery Biology to ELRIG Chair

Breathing New Life into Diagnostics: Plasmion's SICRIT Technology

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