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Feds recover record amounts from fraudulent Medicare claims

Federal authorities say they recovered $4.1 billion in health care fraud judgments last year, a record high which officials on Monday credited to new tools for cracking down on deceitful Medicare claims.

15 Feb 2012

Senate Republicans ask Supreme Court to strike mandate

In a brief filed Monday, 43 Senate Republicans said that if the Supreme Court allows the mandate to buy health insurance in the Democrats' health law to stand, then Congress could require Americans to buy almost anything.

15 Feb 2012

USAID improves health through access to clean water in Timor-Leste

In this post in USAID's "IMPACTblog," Carlos dos Reis, foreign service national environmental health officer for Timor-Leste, reports on a trip to the country's remote district of Oecusse with U.S. Ambassador Judith Fergin and USAID/Timor-Leste Mission Director Rick Scott to "inaugurate the new clean water supply system built with the support of USAID."

15 Feb 2012

Fewer people getting health insurance through employer

Fewer people - 44.6 percent of all Americans - are getting health insurance through their employer, a new Gallup poll finds. In other news, as health care costs increase, giving birth at home is becoming a more attractive option despite doctors' concerns.

15 Feb 2012

Humana, NextGen Healthcare to increase adoption and exchange of EHRs

NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Quality Systems, Inc., and leading provider of healthcare information systems and connectivity solutions, announced today it has entered into an agreement with Humana Inc. to accelerate the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) and the exchange of critical health and billing information among health care providers.

15 Feb 2012

Medworxx announces expansion into the U.S.

On the heels of a year marking 36% growth in hospital beds served, Medworxx Inc., a leader in clinical patient flow solutions, announced today its expansion into the USA.

15 Feb 2012

Smart sensors can enable orthopaedicians to collect objective, quantifiable information

Imagine a smart sensor customized to provide vital, real-time information about a patient's recent orthopaedic surgery. Instead of relying on X-rays or invasive procedures, surgeons will be able to collect diagnostic data from an implantable sensor.

15 Feb 2012

Updated tool to track NTD funding, identify gaps

The Neglected Tropical Disease Control Program (NTD Control Program), funded by USAID and managed by Research Triangle Institute International (RTI International), has released an updated version of its NTD Funding Gap Analysis Tool (NTD-FGAT), which "helps users accurately estimate the costs and funding gaps of public health programs" and "is intended as a supplementary instrument to improve resource and strategic planning in an already existing national NTD plan," according to the Global Network for NTDs' "End the Neglect" blog.

15 Feb 2012

Health professionals should routinely recommend chemo websites for cancer patients

Doctors and nurses may be underestimating the value placed on internet chemotherapy information by cancer patients and missing out on opportunities to discuss this information with them, new research finds today.

15 Feb 2012

Study to examine relationship between oral and silent reading in children

When a beginning reader reads aloud, her progress is apparent: Hunched over a book, little index finger blazing the way, she moves intently from sound to sound, word to word. I do not like green eggs and ham! I do not like them, Sam-I-am! But when that same child reads silently, it's much harder to measure how much she is reading -- or understanding. Yet as she advances through school, teachers will expect her to learn increasingly through silent rather than oral reading.

15 Feb 2012

Critics find much to fault in Obama budget

Republicans say the budget doesn't do enough to restrain entitlement spending. Health care industry groups, meanwhile, call proposed payment cuts unfair and unworkable.

15 Feb 2012

Obama 2013 budget would cut $360 billion from Medicaid and Medicare

The budget released Monday would trim spending on federal health-care programs by about $360 billion over the next decade, primarily by reducing payments to drug companies and other providers. Starting in 2017, Obama also proposes to raise Medicare premiums for new retirees and seniors with higher incomes, start charging co-payments for home health-care services, and penalize patients who buy Medigap policies to take care of Medicare co-payments and deductibles.

15 Feb 2012

Debate shifts on contraception rule

While congressional Republicans say the fight isn't over on the administration's birth control mandate, the measured support for President Obama's compromise from some Catholic groups and a few Republicans has tamped down the political furor.

15 Feb 2012

U-M competes with 16 other colleges in 9th annual Gift of Life Campus Challenge

The University of Michigan is aiming to take down its instate rivals and save lives at the same time. U-M and 16 of the state's other colleges and universities are competing in the ninth annual Gift of Life Campus Challenge, a competition to see which school can sign up the most people to the Michigan Organ Donor Registry by Feb. 23. When signing up online, new donors can select which school to credit.

15 Feb 2012

Patient satisfaction not linked with health status

Newly released research has linked higher patient satisfaction scores with greater healthcare costs and increased risk of mortality. Despite the growing reliance on satisfaction scores as a tool for evaluating physician performance, "research suggests a tenuous link between patient satisfaction and healthcare quality and outcomes," according to the study published online Feb. 13 in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

15 Feb 2012

Davos meeting highlights link between nutrition, health and development

"While the headlines out of the World Economic Forum (WEF) meetings in Davos primarily focus on getting (or keeping) the global economy on track, it's a welcome development when nutrition and health information also rise to the top of the priorities list, reminding world leaders of the inextricable link between nutrition, health and well-being of the people on our planet and that of our global economy," Klaus Kraemer, director of Sight and Life, a not-for-profit nutrition think tank, writes in GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog.

15 Feb 2012

Bird flu controversy an opportunity to set a higher tone for public debate

In this Huffington Post opinion piece, Leslie Gerwin, associate director of law and public affairs at Princeton University, reflects on the recent controversy over whether to research and publish data about potentially dangerous strains of the H5N1 bird flu virus, writing, "I am disturbed that so much coverage of this dispute -- so deserving of sober consideration -- is fixated on fear mongering."

15 Feb 2012

Fewer health care dollars would flow to states under Obama budget plan

The president wants to phase out a Medicaid provider tax that Malloy has used to help balance his budget. The White House also wants to "blend" Medicaid rates with the rates received from the federal government for a health program for children. That could mean fewer federal health dollars for Connecticut.

15 Feb 2012

President Obama releases FY13 budget proposal with overall decrease for GHI

"President Barack Obama on Monday proposed a $3.8 trillion budget for fiscal 2013 that aims to slash the deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years," the Associated Press reports, and provides an agency-by-agency breakdown of the proposed budget.

15 Feb 2012

Many women 'want and need' gift of reproductive health this Valentine's Day

"This Valentine's Day, perhaps it's time to celebrate with a gift many of the world's women desperately want and need: reproductive health," Robert Engelman, president of the Worldwatch Institute, writes in this Huffington Post "Global Motherhood" opinion piece.

15 Feb 2012