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With incentives from insurers, pharmacies refocus from snacks to drugs

Drug stores are returning to their roots — drugs, the (Raleigh N.C.) News and Observer/Scripps News reports. "After years of adding everything from groceries to grills to their inventory, drugstore chains are once again emphasizing their pharmacies.

29 Oct 2010

Physician-owned hospitals racing to meet health law deadline

Kaiser Health News staff writer Christopher Weaver, working in collaboration with USA Today, reports: "At the Cypress Pointe Surgical Hospital here, construction workers scrambled on a recent day to turn a mud pit into a parking lot and put other finishing touches on the $35 million physician-owned facility" (Weaver, 10/28).

29 Oct 2010

More details of the health law revealed as implementation unfolds

The law imposes stringent restrictions on physician-owned hospitals, which critics say cherry pick the lucrative specialty patients community hospitals depend on to stay afloat, Kaiser Health News/USA Today report.

29 Oct 2010

Health law only small part of insurance rate increases

The Seattle Post Intelligencer reports on a 16.3 percent premium hike this year by Regence BlueShield, Washington state's largest health insurer, which was the "the forth year in a row of double-digit increases." After the increase, "company reserves grew and executive salaries mostly increased, a seattlepi.com review of state documents has found.

29 Oct 2010

Long hours and nights on call lead to surgeon distress

Just as with everyone else perhaps, the more hours surgeons work, and the more nights they spend on call each week, the more likely they are to face burn-out, depression, dissatisfaction with their careers and serious work-home conflicts, according to a major new study led by Johns Hopkins and Mayo Clinic researchers.

29 Oct 2010

Statewatch: D.C poised to approve Johns Hopkins-Sibley deal; Controversial Medicaid cuts in Idaho, Indiana

The Washington Post: "The agreement for Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Health System to acquire Sibley Memorial Hospital is likely to be approved by District officials as soon as Thursday, giving the world-class academic medical center its first foothold in the District. Driven by Sibley's need to ensure long-term financial stability by increasing its volume of patients, the move will allow Hopkins to improve its market position in the Washington-Baltimore region.

29 Oct 2010

KHN Column: What if the President had changed his priorities? A pre-election analysis from an alternate universe

In his latest Kaiser Health News column, done in collaboration with The New Republic, Jonathan Cohn writes, Mere days stand between the Democrats and a major defeat at the polls.

29 Oct 2010

Health on The Hill – October 27, 2010

Kaiser Health News staff writer Mary Agnes Carey talks with The Fiscal Times' Eric Pianin and KFF's Jackie Judd about the latest news in politics and health policy.

29 Oct 2010

Opinions: Defense, diplomacy, development; PMTCT in Africa; perils of DIY aid; cholera in Haiti

In a Foreign Affairs essay, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton writes of the need to elevate diplomacy and development alongside defense a 'smart power' approach to solving global problems.

29 Oct 2010

Today's Op-Eds: Medicare rip-offs; Courts and the individual mandate; Accountable care

Instead of getting hung up on labels adopted in the heat of political battle, they should focus instead on Supreme Court precedents that found that taxes designed to influence behavior, like taxes to deter the sale of particularly dangerous firearms, were constitutional, provided they raised revenue in the process.

29 Oct 2010

Health department officer admits taking bribes

The Western Australia Corruption and Crime Commission is now inquiring into the case of a senior public servant who admitted to using his position in the Health Department to personally gain around a million dollars in money and gifts between 2004 and 2009.

28 Oct 2010

First Edition: October 28, 2010

Today's news includes headlines about the reasons behind rising health premiums.

28 Oct 2010

AACN joins call for system-wide programs for medication reconciliation

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) added its bold voice to hospital healthcare leaders by endorsing a white paper that calls for system-wide programs for medication reconciliation — the process of verifying that current patient medications are correct, medically safe and necessary.

28 Oct 2010

New oncology training program for registered nurses in Ghana

The National Cancer Coalition (NCC) and the Ghana based organization Breast Care International (BCI) are pleased to announce the successful implementation of their oncology training program for registered nurses in Ghana. The program was officially sponsored by the US headquartered Johnson & Johnson and focuses on early detection of breast and cervical cancers for improved survival outcomes.

28 Oct 2010

Medical costs per workers' compensation claim in Texas stabilized in 2007: Study

After four years of decreases, medical costs per workers' compensation claim in Texas stabilized in 2007, reflecting the impact of reforms enacted in 2001 and much of those passed in 2005, according to a study by the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI).

28 Oct 2010

NICE issues PTNS guidance for overactive bladder

Uroplasty, Inc. announced today that the United Kingdom's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) issued a guidance document titled "Percutaneous Posterior Tibial Nerve Stimulation for Overactive Bladder Syndrome," reinforcing the safety and effectiveness of PTNS for overactive bladder.

28 Oct 2010

New version of Addiction Severity Index performs well in psychometric terms

The new version of the Addiction Severity Index (ASI) gives health professionals the opportunity to design an integral and personalised plan of assistance for patients suffering disorders due to substance abuse.

28 Oct 2010

Joined-up approach to evaluate childhood obesity programmes

A united front is needed to tackle childhood obesity effectively, according to researchers at the University of Hertfordshire's Weight and Obesity Research Group.

28 Oct 2010

NMA/NBNA releases new consensus report on RSV

Today, the National Medical Association (NMA) and the National Black Nurses Association (NBNA) released a consensus report on RSV. Concerned that recent clinical guidelines published by the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee of Infectious Disease (AAP/COID) may leave some infants unprotected from RSV, the NMA/NBNA RSV Consensus Panel recommended that additional research be conducted to ensure that physicians provide the maximum protection to infants and children at risk of RSV.

28 Oct 2010

Future of health reform legislation and voting for Congressional elections

A comprehensive review of national opinion polls, including newly released data, shows that those who say they intend to vote for a Democratic congressional candidate in 2010 and those who say they intend to vote for a Republican in their district hold starkly different views of what they want the future of health reform legislation to be, mirroring the divide between Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress on this issue.

28 Oct 2010