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Deficit deal: Next steps and new developments

News outlets are reporting on how the next phase called for in the deficit plan will likely follow a rocky road, which could include broken promises on entitlements, danger for the health law and leave the health sector hoping for the lesser evil.

5 Aug 2011

Longer looks: Treating Down syndrome?; mentally ill, meds & trials

Politicians want to lower spending, or at least they say they do. But in all the to-and-fro over raising the debt ceiling, little sensible has been said about lowering spending in the long term. Nothing illuminates this more clearly than health care.

5 Aug 2011

New legislation allows physicians in Texas to treat chronic Lyme disease

Summertime, when kids and grown-ups abandon the confines of the indoors and head outside to camp, hike, fish and commune with nature -- and all of her friends. Flies, mosquitoes and ticks are just a few of the critters that go along with summer outdoors, and we all do our best to avoid the biting and stinging insects, but what happens if you are accosted by a tick? What are the myths behind Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases in Texas?.

5 Aug 2011

Speculation about essential benefits package takes spotlight

As the Department of Health and Human Services works toward setting the specifics of an essential health benefits package — the minimum coverage that would be offered by plans participating in the exchanges — stakeholders are offering actuarial models and suggestions of what they think would be the best approach.

5 Aug 2011

Elsevier announces Braunwald's Heart Disease Practice Guides App for iPad users

Elsevier, the leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, announced its Braunwald's Heart Disease Practice Guides App for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch is now available on the App Store.

5 Aug 2011

State roundup: Windfall for Mass. hospitals

Hospitals in Massachusetts will reap an annual windfall of $275 million due to a loophole enshrined in the new health care law. Hospitals in most other states will get less money as a result.

5 Aug 2011

Study: Poorly controlled asthma doubles healthcare costs linked with disease

Poorly controlled asthma more than doubles healthcare costs associated with the disease and threatens educational achievement through a dramatic increase in school absence, according to researchers at National Jewish Health.

5 Aug 2011

Viewpoints: 'Real' Medicare cuts?; HIV/AIDS prevention push; contraceptive coverage

Well, not really. A primer on the debt deal's health-care bookkeeping. All politicians—but these days especially Democrats—like to pretend they'll pay providers somewhat less in the future, despite knowing that is unlikely to happen in practice. Medicare's prospective payments are low enough that further reductions may jeopardize access to care and in many cases threaten the viability of hospitals and physician practices.

5 Aug 2011

WSU receives $3M NIH grant for student development program

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced a five-year grant of more than $3 million to support the Wayne State University Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) program.

5 Aug 2011

Scientists develop Instant Corn Soy Blend for young children

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists have developed a fully cooked food-aid product called Instant Corn Soy Blend that supplements meals, particularly for young children.

5 Aug 2011

New doc-fix plan links payment to quality

Republican staff on the Energy and Commerce Committee are considering a proposal to address the problem of looming cuts to Medicare physician payments by implementing a pay-for-performance system, according to lobbying sources.

5 Aug 2011

Canadian physicians spend less on health insurance administrative costs than U.S. doctors

U.S. physicians spend nearly $61,000 more than their Canadian counterparts each year on administrative expenses related to health insurance, according to a new study by researchers at Cornell University and the University of Toronto.

4 Aug 2011

Hundreds of parents in Nigerian state refusing polio vaccinations for children

Hundreds of parents "are defying threats of jail time by refusing polio vaccines for their children in a high-risk northern Nigerian state," according to Muhammad Abdu Zango, Kano state coordinator of Journalists Against Polio, the Associated Press/Seattle Times reports.

4 Aug 2011

First Edition: August 4, 2011

In today's news, reports about how lawmakers, lobbyists are lining up for the next phase of the deficit deal.

4 Aug 2011

Scientists say antibiotic-resistant salmonella strain may spread worldwide

"Scientists have identified an emerging 'superbug' strain of salmonella that is highly resistant to the antibiotic Ciprofloxacin, or Cipro, often used for severe salmonella infections, and say they fear it may spread around the world," according to a study published online Tuesday in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, Reuters reports.

4 Aug 2011

Obama administration issues new guidance on aid to drought-stricken Somalia

The Obama administration on Tuesday issued new guidance stating "the U.S. would not prosecute relief agencies for delivering aid to parts of Somalia controlled by the Islamist insurgent group al-Shabab, despite concerns that unrestricted aid in the failed state would be diverted to the wrong hands," Inter Press Service reports.

4 Aug 2011

U.S., Western governments can help prevent 'mass starvation' in Somalia

With the State Department's reassurance to aid groups on Tuesday that they "will not face prosecution if they are forced to pay bribes to al-Shabab or if militants divert some food supplies," organizations still have "the problem of gaining access to famine victims and ensuring the safety of their personnel, a number of whom have been murdered by the militants," a Washington Post editorial says.

4 Aug 2011