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Cymetrix partners with Siemens Healthcare for financial system conversion support

Cymetrix, a leader in providing healthcare organizations with comprehensive revenue cycle management solutions, today announced an alliance with Siemens Healthcare for financial system conversion support.

From Siemens Healthineers 8 Dec 2010

Short Jump training program may help lower risk of knee injuries in women basketball players: Study

A shortened, focused "jump training" program may help to lower the risk of knee injuries in women basketball players, according to a study in the December issue of The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, official research journal of the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

8 Dec 2010

First standard-of-care guidelines for children with congenital muscular dystrophy

In 2008, Eunice and Andrew Kim were facing a situation that would bewilder any parents: Two expert pediatric surgeons were giving opposing advice about treatment for their daughter.

8 Dec 2010

Respondents overestimate amount U.S. government spends on foreign aid, poll finds

A recent poll found that respondents "vastly overestimate[d]" the amount the U.S. government spends on foreign aid, PBS NewsHour reports. "The median answer was roughly 25 percent, according to the poll of 848 Americans. In reality, about 1 percent of the budget is allotted to foreign aid," the news service writes (Sullivan, 12/6).

8 Dec 2010

School-based ASMA program helps adolescents improve asthma management, quality of life

A school-based intervention program designed for adolescents with asthma significantly improves asthma management and quality of life for the students who participate, and reduces asthma morbidity, according to researchers in New York City, who studied the effect of the program aimed at urban youth and their medical providers.

8 Dec 2010

Health professionals discuss on reducing maternal, newborn mortality, morbidity

On Tuesday 7 December 2010, maternal health professionals from Africa and Asia will be attending a workshop in Liverpool to discuss the effects of 'Making It Happen', a programme with a life-saving training package for health care providers at its heart. Participants will share successes and lessons learned from this maternal and newborn health intervention, to better determine how the programme can be scaled-up.

8 Dec 2010

New website provides guidelines to optimal stroke care

The 2010 Canadian Best Practice Recommendations for Stroke Care emphasize the need to prevent stroke patients from falling through the cracks as they move from the ER to in-hospital care to rehabilitation therapy and back to the community. The recommendations were released today by the Canadian Stroke Network and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.

8 Dec 2010

Employers pay more for health insurance, number of uninsured rises

PBS NewsHour: "The price businesses pay for their workers' health insurance has ballooned more than 41 percent over the past six years, according to a new study by the Commonwealth Fund. At the same time, many workers are getting less for the money -- per-person deductibles have risen 71 percent over those same years, according to the report.

8 Dec 2010

New Health Affairs study reexamines cost issues related to care in McAllen and El Paso

"Did McAllen get a bum rap? McAllen, Texas, spends more on Medicare patients than almost any other part of the country. A June 2009 New Yorker article by Atul Gawande attributed the high spending to a culture of doctors that 'came to treat patients the way sub-prime mortgage lenders treated home buyers: as profit centers.' The article became required reading in the White House and Congress during the health care debate and turned McAllen into shorthand for America's decadent medical spending problem."

8 Dec 2010

Issues in health delivery: Hospital-spread infections; Finger-prick blood tests for diabetes; Medicare spent millions on unnecessary stents

News outlets report on a variety of issues and developments related to quality of care and health delivery systems.

8 Dec 2010

Jackson Health System selects MedAssets as its strategic partner

MedAssets, Inc. announced today that Jackson Health System has selected the Company as its strategic partner to implement MedAssets' transformational approach to significantly lower supply costs, drive operational efficiencies and engage physicians in the cost and clinical utilization management improvement process.

8 Dec 2010

HHS reaches out to defiant states for health law support

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is personally contacting incoming governors — many of whom are Republicans who campaigned against the health law — to try to build relationships that could prove critical to the law's implementation.

8 Dec 2010

Test vote on health bill for Ground Zero workers expected today

The Wall Street Journal: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., "is trying to find one additional Republican senator to vote for a $7.4 billion" health care bill for Ground Zero workers. The bill would "re-open a victim-compensation fund and provide 10 years of health tracking and treatment for those who have become sick from exposure to the toxic dust and debris of the World Trade Center site. A test vote on the bill is expected Wednesday" (Barrett, 12/6).

8 Dec 2010

AMR begins nationwide initiative to implement Stryker-PRO XT powered stretchers

In an effort to further improve patient care and reduce lifting injuries, American Medical Response has started a nationwide initiative to replace its manual stretchers with state-of-the-art Stryker-PRO XT powered stretchers in every community it serves.

From Stryker 8 Dec 2010

N.Y. charges 33 with selling prescriptions to dealers

The Associated Press: Thirty-three people have been charged in Buffalo, N.Y., "in a large-scale investigation that has opened a window into an emerging class of suppliers in the illicit drug trade: medical patients, including many who rely on the publicly funded Medicaid program to pay for their appointments and prescriptions" who sell their prescription drugs.

8 Dec 2010

Conn. addresses insurance rates, Mass. physician groups evaluate controversial payment plan

"House and Senate leaders are eyeing passage of a second midyear spending bill before the start of the next legislative session to address more caseload-driven accounts that are running short on funds five months after Gov. Deval Patrick signed the fiscal 2011 budget. The deficiencies, which follow inaccurate enrollment estimates for MassHealth and other social service programs, threaten to eat into some the revenue surpluses the state has amassed over the first half of fiscal 2011, when tax receipts have exceeded projections" (Murphy, 12/7).

8 Dec 2010

Texas health officials confronting Medicaid costs

"The biggest culprit in Texas' growing debate over escalating Medicaid costs" is "[a] mathematical formula that calculates how much the federal government pays and what's left over for the state," Kaiser Health News, in collaboration with The Texas Tribune, reports. "Already facing a record budget shortfall, Texas' Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) will drop more than 2 percentage points in late 2011, equivalent to a $1.2 billion hit."

8 Dec 2010

Some in health industry raising concerns about Accountable Care Organizations

CQ HealthBeat: "The medical device industry told the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that it's concerned about whether accountable care organizations could give providers financial incentives to hold back on needed patient care, particularly on technology. Meanwhile, insurance plan executives warned CMS officials that the ACOs could give hospitals and doctors new bargaining leverage in negotiations with insurers.

8 Dec 2010

Concentrated nicotine in E-cigarattes poses unknown risks to consumers

What do some pesticides and "electronic cigarettes" have in common? According to a new report published in the American Journal of Public Health, the answer is unregulated concentrations of nicotine that may pose unknown risks to consumers who are exposed to them.

8 Dec 2010

Military health costs skyrocket

CNNMoney: "The cost of health care is blowing the top off the Pentagon's budget. Mirroring the private sector trend, expenses have skyrocketed within the military's health system. The military spent $19 billion on health care in 2001 — and $49 billion in 2010. The Department of Defense forecasts a continued rise of 5% to 7% a year.

8 Dec 2010

Healthcare News

Cymetrix partners with Siemens Healthcare for financial system conversion support

Short Jump training program may help lower risk of knee injuries in women basketball players: Study

First standard-of-care guidelines for children with congenital muscular dystrophy

Respondents overestimate amount U.S. government spends on foreign aid, poll finds

School-based ASMA program helps adolescents improve asthma management, quality of life

Health professionals discuss on reducing maternal, newborn mortality, morbidity

New website provides guidelines to optimal stroke care

Employers pay more for health insurance, number of uninsured rises

New Health Affairs study reexamines cost issues related to care in McAllen and El Paso

Issues in health delivery: Hospital-spread infections; Finger-prick blood tests for diabetes; Medicare spent millions on unnecessary stents

Jackson Health System selects MedAssets as its strategic partner

HHS reaches out to defiant states for health law support

Test vote on health bill for Ground Zero workers expected today

AMR begins nationwide initiative to implement Stryker-PRO XT powered stretchers

N.Y. charges 33 with selling prescriptions to dealers

Conn. addresses insurance rates, Mass. physician groups evaluate controversial payment plan

Texas health officials confronting Medicaid costs

Some in health industry raising concerns about Accountable Care Organizations

Concentrated nicotine in E-cigarattes poses unknown risks to consumers

Military health costs skyrocket

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

Expanding access to NMR with the Fourier 80 Duo

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