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Obama would pay jobs plan tab with Medicare, Medicaid cuts and tax hikes

The jobs packaged unveiled Thursday by President Barack Obama includes a "pay for" plan that relies in part on trims to Medicare and Medicaid - a provision that Republicans may use to undermine his political messages during the upcoming campaign season.

9 Sep 2011

LA Times: Gov. Perry and Texas' struggling health care system

When Texas went to court last year to block President Obama's healthcare overhaul, Gov. Rick Perry pledged to do everything in his power to "protect our families, taxpayers and medical providers."

9 Sep 2011

In deficit reduction debate, some stakeholders point to Medicare

The American Hospital Association is lobbying to raise the program's eligibility age from 65 to 67 as a means of heading off additional cuts to Medicare hospital payments. Meanwhile, some conservatives view the program's fiscal challenges as the problem that stands above all others.

9 Sep 2011

Health law gains win as court blocks two legal challenges

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals issued two opinions yesterday in which it concluded that neither the Commonwealth of Virginia nor Liberty University had legal standing to sue the government in an attempt to block the health law's individual mandate.

9 Sep 2011

AARP strategist moves on to health care coalition

After 27 years at AARP, John Rother will move on to head up the National Coalition on Health Care. He says his new position will give him a platform to take on health care costs, as issue he views as central to the nation.

9 Sep 2011

SAMHSA awards new grants to behavioral health systems serving American Indian/Alaskan Native communities

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is announcing seven new grants for a total of up to $6.4 million over up to three years to provide tribal and urban American Indian and Alaskan Native communities resources to plan and design a holistic, community-based system of care to support mental health and wellness for their children, youth and families.

9 Sep 2011

Deficit reduction, entitlement programs become key buzz words as debt panel sets to work

The 'super committee' held its first meeting this week, kicking off its mission with a note of bipartisanship. Many observers worry, though, that this might be the end of this spirit of cooperation. Meanwhile, a groups of Senators from both parties also met this week - privately - to revive the hope for a "grand debt-cutting bargain."

9 Sep 2011

U.N. member states must face health, economic impacts of NCDs

In this Huffington Post opinion piece outlining many facts and statistics surrounding non-communicable diseases (NCDs) worldwide, Susan Blumenthal, public health editor of the Huffington Post and former assistant surgeon general, along with Katherine Warren and Lauren Macherelli, who previously worked at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, where Blumenthal is director of the health and medicine program, write, "The world is at a crossroads when it comes to the chronic disease epidemic and its enormous health and economic impacts."

9 Sep 2011

Rich countries watering down NCD commitments to appease multinational companies

Professor and director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention at Deakin University in Australia, examines how "rich countries, ... particularly the U.S. and European Union but also Australia, Canada and New Zealand, ... are joining forces with tobacco, food, alcohol and pharmaceutical corporations to water down commitments that might flow from" this month's U.N. High-level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in New York.

9 Sep 2011

'Super committee' faces big challenges, lots of input from stakeholders

In order to lay out some specific options from which the panel might extract savings, House Ways and Means Democrats have provided a list of Medicare trims.

9 Sep 2011

NYC REACH selects Criterions EHR as partner company

NYC REACH, the Regional Extension Center overseen by the Primary Care Information Project at the NYC Health Department, has selected the Criterions EHR as a partner company. The NYC REACH program is designed to assist metropolitan practices with the adoption of EHR technology and the achievement of government Meaningful Use incentives.

9 Sep 2011

Cochrane review studies quality-oriented payment models

As part of health care reform, the federal government is testing different ways to reward physicians for the quality - not quantity - of their services, all in the hope of improving patient care.

9 Sep 2011

Impact of 9/11 still affects Americans: Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll

Almost half of all U.S. adults who experienced physical or psychological problems in the months following the 9/11 terrorist attacks still struggle with feelings of fear and anxiety 10 years later, today's Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll found.

9 Sep 2011

Docs' group pushes for changes to Medicare payment setting panel

Meanwhile, other news outlets report on the challenges private practice physicians face in serving their patients and their own bottom lines, and ProPublica explores drug company payments to doctors.

9 Sep 2011

Lift restrictions on abortion under Helms amendment as applied to rape victims

Though President Barack Obama signed an executive order on his third day in office to "lif[t] the odious 'global gag rule' that denied federal money for family planning work abroad to any group that performed abortions or counseled about the procedure, even with its own money," he left standing a policy that is "an overly restrictive interpretation of the [1973] Helms amendment."

9 Sep 2011

Zimmer supports GEANCO's orthopaedic mission to Nigeria

The GEANCO Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving healthcare delivery for the people of Nigeria, is organizing a medical mission for two surgeons and fifteen support team members to travel to the West African country to provide orthopaedic treatment to patients suffering from disabling joint diseases.

9 Sep 2011

First Edition: September 9, 2011

Appeals courts have ruled on five challenges to the health law, and two more currently await appeals courts rulings. On Sept. 8, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on two challenges to the health law, brought by the Commonwealth of Virginia and Liberty University, and in both cases they vacated the district court ruling and instructed the lower court to dismiss the challenges.

9 Sep 2011

AstraZeneca Canada introduces new NEXIUM Patient Support program

Canadian pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca Canada Inc., has introduced a new NEXIUM® Patient Support program designed to give physicians and pharmacists the ability to take cost out of the equation in the patient's choice between NEXIUM® tablets and a generic esomeprazole product.

9 Sep 2011

African countries see slow progress in reducing maternal mortality to achieve MDG 5

Inter Press Service examines what some experts are calling a lack of commitment from health care workers, which they say is "among the reasons why Africa may not succeed in achieving Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5 on improving maternal health by 2015 by reducing maternal mortality by three quarters."

9 Sep 2011

Einstein led consortium to spearhead Central Africa International Epidemiologic Databases to Evaluate AIDS

In 2004, the global community acted in earnest to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa. As a result, millions of Africans are now receiving the same advanced antiretroviral therapy (ART) that has long been available in the developed world. While research shows that AIDS death rates in Africa have stabilized, little is known about the actual deployment and circumstances of treatment.

9 Sep 2011