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Saint Francis HealthCare Partners and Phytel partner to achieve NCQA recognition

Saint Francis HealthCare Partners announced today that it has selected Phytel to help achieve NCQA recognition as a patient-centered medical home and will be rolling out Phytel's unique care coordination and population health management solution, Proactive Patient Outreach, in November.

25 Oct 2010

Sen. Grassley asks HHS to probe doctors using excessive prescriptions

The Miami Herald: "Based on the huge numbers of prescriptions written by a Miami psychiatrist, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, is continuing to pressure federal officials to investigate why some doctors write stunning numbers of scripts for tax-funded Medicare and Medicaid programs.

25 Oct 2010

Governor Rendell vetoes Senate Bill 1280

Governor Edward G. Rendell today vetoed Senate Bill 1280 noting the proposed legislation would destabilize the medical malpractice market, affecting physicians, other health care providers and ultimately the quality of care available.

25 Oct 2010

State officials adopt standards for insurers' expenses

The New York Times: "State insurance commissioners on Thursday unanimously endorsed tough new standards that would require many health insurance companies to spend more of each premium dollar for the benefit of consumers. The new federal health care law stipulates that at least 80 percent of premium revenue must be spent on medical care and 'activities that improve health care quality' for patients — not retained as profits or used to pay executive compensation and administrative expenses.

25 Oct 2010

Governor Edward G. Rendell signs Senate Bill 922 into law

Governor Edward G. Rendell today signed into law Senate Bill 922, which makes a number of technical changes in the Public Welfare Code and codifies the Pennsylvania Trauma Systems Stabilization Act.

25 Oct 2010

Joint Commission: Medical errors in hospitals tied to 'handoffs' of patients

The Joint Commission, which accredits hospitals, released an update on a collaborative project with 10 health systems tragetting the frequent errors that happen in hospitals when a patient is handed off from one provider to another.

25 Oct 2010

CPSC and child safety organizations release new crib safety video

Today, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) joined three child safety organizations at NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital to release "Safe Sleep for Babies," a new crib safety video aimed at helping all new parents avoid suffocation, strangulation and entrapment risks in the sleep environment. CPSC also is announcing three new recalls of dangerous drop-side cribs.

25 Oct 2010

Cholera outbreak kills 138, more than 1,500 other cases reported, Haitian health ministry officials say

Haitian Health Ministry officials have informed the World Health Organization that 138 deaths are a part of a fast-moving cholera outbreak north of Port-au-Prince, a U.N. official said, CNN reports.

25 Oct 2010

UC San Diego researchers receive two federal grants for biomedical informatics

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, led by Lucila Ohno-Machado, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Biomedical Informatics in the Department of Medicine, have received two federal grants totaling more than $25 million to develop new ways to gather, analyze, use and share vast, ever-increasing amounts of biomedical information.

25 Oct 2010

Massive Medicare fraud operation nets millions in Miami

Federal agents crack down on a massive Medicare fraud operation in Miami.

25 Oct 2010

Health reform - and opposition to it - remains contentious as Nov. 2 nears

As the election approaches, Americans remain divided on the health law and GOP challengers seeking to use that to their advantage are finding mixed results. The Associated Press has a variety of coverage.

25 Oct 2010

Daschle says GOP might defund health plan, and other overhaul news

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, tells Kaiser Health News that a Republican strategy to defund the health law may be an effective way for the plan's opponents to unravel it.

25 Oct 2010

Vote set on contentious health law provision

Kaiser Health News staff writer Julie Appleby reports: "Regulators are set to vote Thursday on controversial rules governing how much insurers must spend on patients' medical care - a key provision of the new health overhaul law" (Appleby, 10/20).

25 Oct 2010

Diabetes and peripheral artery disease are costly; PAD may spur growth in medical device industry

Diabetes cases in the U.S. are expected to double or triple by 2050, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

25 Oct 2010

State Watch: N.Y. approves rate hikes; Arizona referendum on health insurance mandate; Md. insurer cuts broker fees

The Sacramento Bee: "A Sacramento federal judge has ordered the state to keep providing adult dental, podiatric and chiropractic services to poor people in underserved rural areas until it gets permission from federal health authorities to discontinue the benefits. U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. ruled Wednesday that, while the services are not mandatory under the federal Medicaid program (Medi-Cal in California), the Legislature's decision to end them last year as a cost-saving measure was unlawful without federal approval.

25 Oct 2010

Daschle on health law: Defunding is 'a serious threat'

Tom Daschle, the former Senate Majority Leader and a senior, informal, advisor to President Obama during the health debate has been writing and talking about how the law got passed.

25 Oct 2010

GE Healthcare signs definitive agreement to acquire Clarient

GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company and Clarient, Inc. announced today that they have entered into a definitive agreement for GE Healthcare to acquire Clarient, a leading player in the fast-growing molecular diagnostics sector.

25 Oct 2010

72% of patients misdiagnosed with pneumonia upon readmission : Study

Patients were misdiagnosed with pneumonia at an alarming rate when they were readmitted to the hospital shortly after a previous hospitalization for the same illness, according to two Henry Ford Hospital companion studies.

25 Oct 2010

New annual campaign to prevent skin cancer

The annual "Euromelanoma Day" campaign is designed to prevent skin cancer among the general public. While there has been considerable interest, it has proved difficult to reach out to some of the at-risk groups. As such, new ways of encouraging these people to go to a dermatologist are being introduced, reveals research from the University of Gothenburg presented at the dermatologist conference in Sweden.

25 Oct 2010