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Report: Seniors still struggle with drug costs

Five years after the launch of Medicare prescription drug coverage, many beneficiaries are still struggling to sign up, according to a new report from the Medicare Rights Center.

27 Jul 2011

Cedars-Sinai's COACH for Kids and Their Families to increase oral health services for students

Dental problems are the most commonly cited unmet need among children. Cedars-Sinai's COACH for Kids and Their Families, a mobile medical program, has been selected as one of 20 school-based programs nationwide to receive a grant from the National Assembly on School-based Health Care (NASBHC) to increase oral health services to students in underserved communities.

27 Jul 2011

Whistle-blower lawsuit alleges dialysis provider wasted drugs to boost profits

One of the nation's largest providers of kidney dialysis deliberately wasted medicine in order to reap hundreds of millions of dollars in extra payments from Medicare, a former clinic nurse and a doctor are charging in a whistle-blower lawsuit.

27 Jul 2011

N.H. hospitals sue over Medicaid payments; Louisiana announces firms that will handle Medicaid managed care

As states seek to keep spending down for the health care program for low-income and disabled residents, they look to trim reimbursement rates and move more enrollees to private plans that control costs.

27 Jul 2011

Extreme heat and rain lead to higher mold count in the Midwest

A record 7 inches of rain combined with the spate of 100-plus-degree days has spawned the highest mold count recorded for the year, just short of an air pollution warning.

27 Jul 2011

Early initiation of HIV therapy would save money, lives of South Africans

If the South African government followed a recent recommendation by the World Health Organization to start antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV-infected residents earlier in the progress of the disease, the policy shift would start saving the country money after 16 years and would extend thousands of lives for dozens of years, according to a new study.

27 Jul 2011

Innovative MD leadership program for medical students

The first medical students enrolled in SELECT, an innovative program designed to educate the physician leaders of the future, will arrive on the USF Health campus this week.

27 Jul 2011

NFIB: Some small businesses drop coverage

Supporters of the health care reform law say there are major flaws in a new survey of small businesses. They say the study, released Monday by the National Federation of Independent Business, mischaracterized key policies in the health care law.

27 Jul 2011

Four-year study to test effectiveness of WHO Safe Childbirth program

Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) has been awarded a $14.1 million, four-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to test the effectiveness of an innovative checklist-based childbirth safety program in reducing deaths and improving outcomes of mothers and infants in 120 hospitals in India.

27 Jul 2011

WMS, Elsevier to recognize outstanding members of wilderness medicine community

Elsevier, the leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, will present awards to outstanding members of the wilderness medicine community at this year's upcoming Wilderness Medical Society 28th Wilderness Medicine Scientific Conference & Annual Meeting, taking place in Snowmass, CO, July 29th - August 3rd.

27 Jul 2011

Roundup: Md. to release cancer control plan; funding cut at Texas mental health centers

Maryland health officials plan to release today their newest plan to control cancer, a set of diseases responsible for one in four deaths in the state. The officials say the plan to be used by health care providers, policy makers, communities and individuals is ambitious, aiming to save some 1,200 more people a year. Now, about 10,000 Marylander die a year from all kinds of cancer.

27 Jul 2011

Viewpoints: The effects of the debt debate; Medicare's birthday; N.Y. drug plan

In the scramble to cut the nation's debt burden, President Obama, congressional Democrats and even some Republicans have proposed squeezing money out of Medicare by changing the way it pays for prescription drugs.

27 Jul 2011

NY Times: 10 states will be subject to insurance rate reviews by feds

The Obama administration will soon take over the review of health insurance rates in 10 states where it says state officials do not adequately regulate premiums for insurance sold to individuals or small businesses.

27 Jul 2011

FUJIFILM announces commercial availability of Synapse version 6.0

FUJIFILM Medical Systems U.S.A. today announced the commercial availability of version 6.0, the latest version of the company's Synapse RIS and Synapse TeleRIS applications.

26 Jul 2011

First Edition: July 26, 2011

In her latest Kaiser Health News consumer column, Michelle Andrews writes: "In the controlled chaos of an hospital emergency department, ensuring that patients are pain-free and can make informed choices about their care often takes a back seat to assessing and stabilizing them and moving them through the system as fast as possible.

26 Jul 2011

Superdrug, Orabrush to market tongue cleaner in 500 locations across the UK

Orabrush today announced that Superdrug will begin carrying the Orabrush tongue cleaner in 500 locations across the United Kingdom. Recently awarded UK's Best For Personal Care by Verdict Research, Superdrug is the UK's second-largest beauty and health retailer.

26 Jul 2011

Western Dental Services to inaugurate new facility in Gilroy

Western Dental Services, Inc., California's neighborhood dentist and one of the nation's leading dental health maintenance organizations, is opening a family dentistry, specialty and orthodontics office in Gilroy, on July 30 -- during the city's famous Garlic Festival.

26 Jul 2011

Physician-targeted education campaign reduces outpatient antibiotic use in Quebec

Antibiotic overuse and resistance have emerged as major threats during the past two decades. Following an outbreak of Clostridium difficile infections, which often result from antibiotic use, health care professionals in Quebec, Canada targeted physicians and pharmacists with an education campaign that reduced outpatient antibiotic use, according to a study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases and now available online.

26 Jul 2011

Rwandan government pushing for sanitation facilities in every household

Rwanda "is one of only four countries in Africa which look set to achieve Millennium Development Goal 7 to ensure environmental sustainability, which includes halving the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation," Inter Press Service reports in an article examining hygiene and sanitation in the country.

26 Jul 2011

East Africa famine highlights need for better science communications

The drought in the Horn of Africa "emphasizes the gap between our rapidly increasing ability to predict disasters, thanks largely to advances in science and technology, and our capacity to generate the political will to carry out effective mitigation strategies," according to a SciDev.Net opinion piece by editor David Dickson.

26 Jul 2011