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Riding an elevator with Boehner: What would you say?

Kaiser Health News: Less than 24 hours after Republicans won control of the House, soon-to-be-speaker John Boehner denounced the new health care law, saying it would "kill jobs in America, ruin the best health care system in the world, and bankrupt our country"

8 Nov 2010

Grubb & Ellis Healthcare REIT II announces acquisition of Athens Long-Term Acute Care Hospital

Grubb & Ellis Healthcare REIT II, Inc. today announced that it has acquired Athens Long-Term Acute Care Hospital, a single-story, 32,000-square-foot, Class A single-tenant medical facility in Athens. The acquisition closed on Oct. 29.

8 Nov 2010

Maine requests exemption from federal law, Southern Calif. hospital pays $5 million to resolve charges of false Medicare claims

Bloomberg: "Maine wants an exemption from the federal health-care law to keep a Wall Street-controlled insurer with a history of allegedly abusive practices from leaving the state. Mila Kofman, Maine's insurance superintendent, asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for a three-year waiver from the law's requirement that insurers spend 80 percent of premium revenues on medical care." The

8 Nov 2010

Screening heavy smokers for lung cancer reduces chance of death, federal study finds

The Boston Globe: "Screening heavy smokers with sophisticated medical scanners modestly reduced their chance of dying from lung cancer, according to a federal study released yesterday that provides the first convincing evidence that testing could reduce the toll from the leading cause of cancer deaths. The preliminary findings from the National Cancer Institute were based on a gold-standard study that randomly assigned 53,000 current or former smokers without symptoms to be screened with a CT scanner or standard chest X-ray.

8 Nov 2010

Industry experts speculate, strategize on what election means for business and reform

The Wall Street Journal: "Health-care companies see the Republican win as a chance to chip away at aspects of Mr. Obama's health overhaul least favorable to the industry. Insurance companies, drug manufacturers and hospitals say they will press to peel away the law's new taxes on health-care companies, pass tougher medical malpractice curbs and knock down a new board that recommends Medicare spending cuts" (Adamy, 11/3).

8 Nov 2010

Medicare announces contracts for competitive bidding on equipment while docs worry about payment cuts

News outlets offer a variety of stories about Medicare, including details of a new bidding process for medical equipment and the scheduled cut in physician reimbursement.

8 Nov 2010

Party leaders stake out individual positions for new debate on health overhaul

Individual Republicans and Democrats began staking out their positions on the health overhaul quickly after the elections.

8 Nov 2010

Prophylaxis can prevent postoperative nausea and vomiting

Vomiting is unpleasant. Nearly 30% of all patients suffer from nausea and vomiting after surgery. The financial repercussions of this are longer patient stays in the recovery room, with increased need for personnel. Appropriate prophylaxis and treatment can prevent postoperative nausea and vomiting. In a systematic review of the literature, Dirk Rüsch and co-authors investigate how treatment recommendations for nausea after general anesthesia can be improved.

8 Nov 2010

Risk pools, drug prices and other issues in health law implementation

A health law program that directs $5 billion for coverage of otherwise uninsurable people through state-run high-risk insurance pools has attracted only 8,011 people according to health department enrollment figures, The New York Times reports. That's a paucity compared to the hundreds of thousands of people government actuaries predicted would flock to the program causing it to run out of money too early.

8 Nov 2010

Rcopia-MU certified as EHR Module by CCHIT

DrFirst announced today that Rcopia-MU, Version 3, is 2011/2012 compliant and was certified as an EHR Module on November 4, 2010, by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT), an ONC-ATCB, in accordance with the applicable eligible provider certification criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

8 Nov 2010

Military leaders look for way to cut health care costs

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is looking for ways to cut health care costs in the nation's military care, "an area that members of Congress have so far been reluctant to tackle," Politico reports. "Gates's drive for efficiency has run the gamut — from overhauling acquisitions to better tailoring military spending for current worldwide missions, including the war in Afghanistan and the one winding down in Iraq."

8 Nov 2010

Sandata announces patent for new caregiver location monitoring solution

Sandata Technologies, LLC, a leading national provider of information technology solutions to the home healthcare industry, today announced that on November 16, 2010, the US Patent and Trademark Office will issue US Patent Number 7835955, "Time and/or Attendance System Using Synchronized Code," an innovative new caregiver location monitoring solution aimed at reducing home healthcare fraud and abuse.

8 Nov 2010

Medicaid pooled trusts keep seniors out of nursing homes

The New York Times reports on Medicaid pooled trusts: "[T]here is a little-known way for some people in certain states to receive home care through Medicaid, without requiring them to impoverish themselves first. Here's how it works: a federal law established in 1993 allows disabled people to put their monthly income or assets — above the amounts Medicaid allows them to keep — into a special type of pooled trust.

8 Nov 2010

Home health, other Medicare providers face pay cuts

Home health providers face Medicare payment cuts next year. Gentiva Health Services and Amedisys are among the providers of at-home health care to receive lower Medicare payments next year under U.S. government changes to the program.

8 Nov 2010

Health care industries have mixed reaction to health reform

The Wall Street Journal: While many Republican campaigns this season focused on repeal of the federal health care overhaul, "even with the House changing hands, health insurers, drug companies and hospitals said they were planning as if the law will stick." However, health-care companies "say that the election results offer new opportunities to influence the way the law is implemented.

8 Nov 2010

AHRQ grants $34 million to prevent healthcare-associated infections

HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality today announced the award of $34 million for projects focused on preventing one of the top 10 leading causes of death in the United States - healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). This new funding will help improve the quality of care delivered to patients and expand the fight against HAIs in hospitals, ambulatory care settings, end-stage renal disease facilities and long-term care facilities.

8 Nov 2010

AccuVein receives QTDP grant for AV300 vein illumination system

AccuVein LLC, the developer of the first non-contact, handheld vein illumination system, announced today that it had been awarded the maximum grant amount from the Qualifying Therapeutic Discover Project (QTDP) program. This Federal grant program supports projects that show significant potential to produce new therapies, address unmet medical needs, and reduce the long-term growth of health care costs.

8 Nov 2010