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Nursing homes to face Medicare pay cut

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finalized an 11 percent drop in nursing home payments, which will kick in next year.

2 Aug 2011

Texas HHSC awards new contracts to Centene's Superior HealthPlan

Centene Corporation today announced its Superior HealthPlan, Inc. and its Superior HealthPlan Network have been tentatively awarded new contracts by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

2 Aug 2011

Race and the personalized medicine debate

Federal examiners have rejected patents for genetic screening tests because the applicants did not explore their effectiveness for different races, adding to the debate about whether race has scientific validity in modern DNA-based medicine.

2 Aug 2011

New report offers solution for improving health care distribution methods

Each year millions of children and adults in the world's poorest countries die from lack of access to medicine and health care. A new report from Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business and the George W. Bush Institute offers a solution for improving distribution methods for health care information, products and services.

2 Aug 2011

What will the health law look like in the future?

News outlets report on a range of issues related to the health law, from efforts to repeal the measure's tax on insurance policies to competing claims about its costs.

2 Aug 2011

Global Democracy Promotion Act 'would help keep ideology in check'

The Global Democracy Promotion Act, recently introduced in the House by Rep. Nita Lowey, "would bar the use of U.S. foreign aid to restrict people's liberty and says that organizations accepting U.S. assistance cannot be forced to quash perfectly legal activities in return," Planned Parenthood Federation of America Vice President Latanya Mapp Frett writes in a New York Daily News opinion piece.

2 Aug 2011

Study: 19.5% of high school student smokers do not smoke daily or frequently

A new study found that of the 19.5 percent of high school students who call themselves smokers, most don't smoke daily or frequently. Between 1991 and 2009, heavy smoking declined among public and private high school students, but light smoking increased, according to a national survey.

2 Aug 2011

Science magazine special section examines world's population growth

The current issue of Science magazine features a special section that explores issues surrounding population growth, "many of which continue to split demographers," according to the section's introduction.

2 Aug 2011

Ensign acquires Lakeland Hills Independent & Assisted Living Community

The Ensign Group, Inc., the parent company of the Ensign group of skilled nursing, rehabilitative care services, hospice care and assisted living companies, announced today that it has acquired Lakeland Hills Independent & Assisted Living Community, a 167-unit assisted and independent living facility in Dallas, Texas. The asset acquisition was effective on Monday, August 1, 2011.

2 Aug 2011

HHS announces new guidelines for women's preventive services

The rule includes everything from distribution of birth control pills to administration of breast exams. Ultimately, women will no longer pay out of pocket for preventive services. However, Politico reports that the Department of Health and Human Services may include a "conscience clause" in the regulation.

2 Aug 2011

New York Times examines maternal mortality in Uganda

"Half of the 340,000 deaths of women from pregnancy-related causes each year occur in Africa, almost all in anonymity," the New York Times writes in an article profiling several cases of women who have died during childbirth in Ugandan hospitals.

2 Aug 2011

Florida stands out among states with refusal to accept federal health law funding

The New York Times reports on strict stand by Florida governor to avoid HHS money. Meanwhile, other news outlets look at funding for insurance co-ops, efforts to set up health exchanges, and reviews of insurance premium increases.

2 Aug 2011

Illinois EPA declares August 1 as air pollution action day for Chicago

In addition to the "Monday back-to-work blues" trouble breathing, fatigue, headaches and congestion may be what many Chicagoans experience today due to toxic air quality. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has declared an air pollution action day for today, August 1, for the greater Chicago metropolitan area.

2 Aug 2011

Key Mass. hospital-doctor group still looking to fulfill pledge on reducing insurance premiums

Partners HealthCare System vowed to pay $40 million to help reduce insurance costs for small businesses, the Boston Globe reports. Also, California group announces plans for an ACO and Minnesota Public Radio examines how cost cutting efforts will affect health care.

2 Aug 2011

PEPFAR will continue to lead HIV/AIDS fight

With recent scientific advancements in HIV prevention "transforming the way we think about AIDS," PEPFAR's "task is to translate new science into policy to inform programs," Ambassador Eric Goosby, the U.S. global aids coordinator, writes in a post on the State Department's "DipNote" blog.

2 Aug 2011

UNOS policy change reduces disparities in kidney transplants for African-Americans

A national transplant policy change designed to give African-American patients greater access to donor kidneys has sliced in half the racial disparities that have long characterized the allocation of lifesaving organs, new Johns Hopkins research suggests.

2 Aug 2011

Officials in Nigerian state say parents who refuse polio vaccination for children could be prosecuted

"Officials in Nigeria's northern Kano state say parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated against polio may be prosecuted," VOA News reports.

2 Aug 2011

ADA releases new position paper, 'Nutrition Intervention in the Treatment of Eating Disorders'

As one of the most complicated sets of illnesses to treat, eating disorders have mental health, as well as medical and nutritional, aspects. While treatment by a multidisciplinary health-care team is considered the best practice, there is considerable debate over how to most effectively treat eating disorders and who should be on a treatment team.

2 Aug 2011

Development Assistance Committee review suggests more coordination in U.S. foreign aid program

"The U.S. should improve coordination among its more than two dozen government departments to promote coherence in its multibillion-dollar foreign aid program and avoid duplication," according to a peer review from the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Guardian reports.

2 Aug 2011

FDA warns U.S. consumers not to use Evital emergency birth control medicine

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning U.S. consumers not to use the emergency birth control medicine labeled as Evital.

2 Aug 2011

Healthcare News

Nursing homes to face Medicare pay cut

Texas HHSC awards new contracts to Centene's Superior HealthPlan

Race and the personalized medicine debate

New report offers solution for improving health care distribution methods

What will the health law look like in the future?

Global Democracy Promotion Act 'would help keep ideology in check'

Study: 19.5% of high school student smokers do not smoke daily or frequently

Science magazine special section examines world's population growth

Ensign acquires Lakeland Hills Independent & Assisted Living Community

HHS announces new guidelines for women's preventive services

New York Times examines maternal mortality in Uganda

Florida stands out among states with refusal to accept federal health law funding

Illinois EPA declares August 1 as air pollution action day for Chicago

Key Mass. hospital-doctor group still looking to fulfill pledge on reducing insurance premiums

PEPFAR will continue to lead HIV/AIDS fight

UNOS policy change reduces disparities in kidney transplants for African-Americans

Officials in Nigerian state say parents who refuse polio vaccination for children could be prosecuted

ADA releases new position paper, 'Nutrition Intervention in the Treatment of Eating Disorders'

Development Assistance Committee review suggests more coordination in U.S. foreign aid program

FDA warns U.S. consumers not to use Evital emergency birth control medicine

Advancing brain microphysiological systems (bMPS)

PhD researcher at LifeArc

Unveiling Hidden Potential: Organoids for Disease Modeling in Neuroscience Research

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