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Health reform law this week: Some states to miss deadline on high-risk pools, tanning tax kicks in

USA Today: "The key early program of the nation's new health law aims to provide affordable coverage to about 200,000 people with pre-existing medical conditions, such as cancer or diabetes, through federal high-risk insurance pools. The law called for the program to be in place last week, 90 days after its enactment, though the Department of Health and Human Services had said the programs would launch Thursday to coincide with the start of states' fiscal years."

28 Jun 2010

Senate Dems continue Medicaid money, jobless benefits push

The Hill reports that Senate Democrats are pushing to keep a package of jobless benefits and aid to states for their Medicaid programs moving. "More than 1.2 million Americans will exhaust their unemployment benefits by the end of June if Congress fails to work out a deal on an extension of unemployment benefits, according to the National Employment Law Project, a group studying the issue."

28 Jun 2010

Harris leverages CONNECT solution to enhance capabilities of Bidirectional Health Information Exchange interface

Harris Corporation, as a subcontractor to Evolvent Technologies, Inc., is helping to improve the quality of military patient care provided by enhancing the capabilities of the Bidirectional Health Information Exchange (BHIE) interface. The exchange is a health enterprise integration capability employed by the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to securely share patient information between agencies.

28 Jun 2010

Greenway to provide physician's infrastructure solutions to St. Cloud Medical Group

Greenway Medical Technologies, Inc. is partnering with St. Cloud Medical Group to provide its single-database electronic health record (EHR), practice management and interoperability solution PrimeSuite®, online portal PrimePatient® and remote clinic PrimeMobile™ to St. Cloud's primary care, urgent care, occupational health, surgical, pediatrics, pain management, and OB/GYN services.

28 Jun 2010

World's leading pharma services industry events to held at Frankfurt in 2011

Leading events organiser UBM International Media today announced that its flagship CPhI Worldwide tradeshow will return to Frankfurt, Germany for 2011. Along with co-hosted events - P-MEC Europe for equipment, machinery and technology; ICSE for contract services and packaging; and BioPh Europe for the biopharma sector - the world's leading pharma services industry events will be held at Messe Frankfurt, from Tuesday 25 to Thursday 27 October.

28 Jun 2010

Over 90% of U.S. adults consume twice the recommended limit for sodium intake

Less than 10 percent of U.S. adults limit their daily sodium intake to recommended levels, according to a new report, "Sodium Intake in Adults – United States, 2005-2006," published today in CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The report also finds that most sodium in the American diet comes from processed grains such as pizza and cookies, and meats, including poultry and luncheon meats.

28 Jun 2010

Republicans start new effort to advance greater federal abortion funding restrictions

The Hill: House Minority Leader John Boehner will introduce legislation that would stop Congress from using taxpayer money to support abortions or abortion coverage.

28 Jun 2010

States struggle with physician shortages, health care workforce issues

Worcester (Mass.) Telegram & Gazette, reports on a national shortage of pediatric subspecialists. "While Massachusetts has more pediatric sub-specialists per capita than many other states, the doctors are in short supply, even at big institutions like UMass. … Pediatric sub-specialists go through several years of training: four years of medical school, three years of training in pediatrics, then another three years of training in a specialty," yet their salaries are not much higher than regular pediatricians.

28 Jun 2010

Bayonne Medical Center implements Picis ED PulseCheck ahead of schedule

Picis announced today that Bayonne Medical Center, Bayonne, NJ, has successfully deployed Picis ED PulseCheck™, part of the CareSuite® family of high-acuity solutions, two months ahead of schedule. This aggressive implementation is aimed at helping clinicians in the emergency department (ED) better manage information and the process of treating over 28,000 ED patients annually.

28 Jun 2010

Tricare to allow civilian employers of military retirees to offer cafeteria insurance plans

Tricare is allowing civilian employers of military retirees to offer a cafeteria-style supplemental health insurance plan so that "workers who elect to use their Tricare Standard benefit can buy coverage conveniently and with pre-taxed dollars," The Colorado Springs Gazette reports. A former law prohibited employers from "enticing retirees to use Tricare instead of employer-paid insurance."

28 Jun 2010

AMP comments on barriers to market for molecular diagnostic tests at FDA CDRH meeting

Yesterday, the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) gave public comments at the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) Council meeting on Medical Device Innovation: Barriers to Market for Molecular Diagnostic Tests.

28 Jun 2010

Pittsburgh companies using wellness to try to keep health costs down

Pittsburgh companies are using wellness incentives in the workplace to trim their health care costs as "small businesses prepare for a lift in their efforts to keep workers healthy, courtesy of health care reform," the Pittsburgh Business Times reports.

28 Jun 2010

Fireworks Safety Tips from AMR paramedics

The Independence Day holiday is filled with the bangs, whistles and pops of backyard fireworks. Too often, revelers forget that fireworks are dangerous explosives, not toys. Fireworks send thousands of people to the hospital each year and cause millions of dollars in fire losses. Here's some fireworks safety advice from paramedics at American Medical Response (AMR) to help protect you and your family from injury and property damage.

28 Jun 2010

Today's OpEds: A new breed of medical education, more on the Medicare 'doc fix,' efforts to cut health care waste

Medical schools in particular may transform the way healthcare is practiced and viewed by the general community and its leaders. The medical school with this focus will not only pursue traditional missions like research and teaching students diagnostic skills but also emphasize community involvement, local medicine, social consciousness and local cultural issues (Dr. John Rock, 6/28).

28 Jun 2010

Medicare turns to more comprehensive tools to find fraud

Federal Times: The Recovery Board, which oversees the $275 billion economic stimulus package that was approved by the federal government in 2009, is using a software platform from Palantir Technologies, based in Palo Alto, Calif. "The software tool analyzes information contained on various government-maintained databases — GSA's list of suspended or debarred contractors, the Treasury Department's financial crimes network and other law enforcement records — along with open-source data such as newspaper articles, lawsuits and other public documents.

28 Jun 2010

KHN column: The Medicare 'doc fix': How to make political lemonade

In his latest Kaiser Health News column, Austin Frakt writes: "The mechanism that governs the growth rate of Medicare spending on physician services isn't working.

28 Jun 2010

Instant processing of insurance claims possible during doctor visit

The New York Times has a consumer health column on programs that would process a patient's insurance claim: "Here's how it could work: A claim is generated and submitted electronically before you finish tying your shoes. By the time you reach the checkout desk, your doctor has received a payment commitment from your insurance company, just as Visa and MasterCard provide to a merchant after a customer swipes a card. It's not fantasy.

28 Jun 2010

Conmed signs agreement with City of Roanoke to provide correctional facility health care services

Conmed Healthcare Management, Inc., a leading full service provider of correctional facility healthcare services to county detention centers, today announced that it has signed an agreement with the City of Roanoke, VA, for an initial three-year term with options for two one-year extensions which are at the City's option.

28 Jun 2010

Boston Therapeutics submits structure, function claims of SUGARDOWN to FDA

Boston Therapeutics, Inc. has announced that it has submitted structure and function claims of its SUGARDOWN™ to the US Food and Drug Administration on June 21, 2010.

28 Jun 2010

New guides available to help hospital planners protect patients, health care workers

Two new guides are now available to help hospital planners and administrators make important decisions about how to protect patients and health care workers and assess the physical components of a hospital when a natural or manmade disaster, terrorist attack, or other catastrophic event threatens the soundness of a facility. Published by HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the guides examine how hospital personnel have coped under emergency situations in the past to better understand what factors should be considered when making evacuation, shelter-in-place, and reoccupation decisions.

28 Jun 2010

Healthcare News

Health reform law this week: Some states to miss deadline on high-risk pools, tanning tax kicks in

Senate Dems continue Medicaid money, jobless benefits push

Harris leverages CONNECT solution to enhance capabilities of Bidirectional Health Information Exchange interface

Greenway to provide physician's infrastructure solutions to St. Cloud Medical Group

World's leading pharma services industry events to held at Frankfurt in 2011

Over 90% of U.S. adults consume twice the recommended limit for sodium intake

Republicans start new effort to advance greater federal abortion funding restrictions

States struggle with physician shortages, health care workforce issues

Bayonne Medical Center implements Picis ED PulseCheck ahead of schedule

Tricare to allow civilian employers of military retirees to offer cafeteria insurance plans

AMP comments on barriers to market for molecular diagnostic tests at FDA CDRH meeting

Pittsburgh companies using wellness to try to keep health costs down

Fireworks Safety Tips from AMR paramedics

Today's OpEds: A new breed of medical education, more on the Medicare 'doc fix,' efforts to cut health care waste

Medicare turns to more comprehensive tools to find fraud

KHN column: The Medicare 'doc fix': How to make political lemonade

Instant processing of insurance claims possible during doctor visit

Conmed signs agreement with City of Roanoke to provide correctional facility health care services

Boston Therapeutics submits structure, function claims of SUGARDOWN to FDA

New guides available to help hospital planners protect patients, health care workers

How the Vutara VXL simplifies single-molecule imaging

How cohesin mechanics and nanotracker tech are redefining DNA research

Todd Bauman and Chris Povich

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