Healthcare News

RSS

Sodium Working Group recommends reducing sodium intake among Canadians

The federally-mandated Sodium Working Group has released the Sodium Reduction Strategy for Canada. The three-pronged strategy contains six over-arching and 27 specific recommendations for a population health strategy for reducing sodium intake among Canadians.

31 Jul 2010

High-risk health insurance pool rules bar abortions, limit patient costs

"Elective abortions will be prohibited and people with pre-existing conditions will be able to get comprehensive benefits without paying any more than healthy people, under new federal regulations for high-risk health insurance pools released today by the Obama administration" (Galewitz, 7/30).

31 Jul 2010

Nashville hospitals cut costs to keep up revenues, despite fewer patients

"Over the past year and a half, keeping costs in check has helped the large hospital chains based in the Nashville area to increase quarterly earnings, even when seeing fewer patients come through their doors," The Tennessean reports. "The recent second quarter was no different. Cost controls fueled an 18 percent increase in net income at Franklin-based Community Health Systems, despite a decline in the number of patients. HCA Inc. saw fewer inpatient visits, and higher interest expense kept its pre-tax profits flat.

31 Jul 2010

Florida judge blocks state constitutional amendment on federal health law

A Leon County circuit judge today blocked a proposed [state] constitutional amendment that targets the federal health-reform law, saying Florida Republican lawmakers included wording in the proposal that would mislead voters. Judge James O. Shelfer said the proposal --- dubbed by lawmakers as the 'Health Care Freedom' amendment --- should not go on the November ballot. He described wording in a ballot summary as 'manifestly misleading.'

31 Jul 2010

Circuit Court Judge removes Amendment 9 from November ballot

Today, Circuit Court Judge James Shelfer removed Amendment 9—modeled after the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act now proposed in 42 states—from the November ballot. Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum is expected to appeal to Florida's Supreme Court.

31 Jul 2010

HealthSouth plans new rehabilitation hospital in northwest Houston

HealthSouth Corporation today announced plans to begin construction of a new 40-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital in the Cypress area of northwest Houston in the fourth quarter. In connection with such plans, HealthSouth has signed a contract to purchase a 6-acre tract of land from an affiliate of Caldwell Companies, based in Houston. The land is located on the northeast corner of Highway 290 and FM 1960 in Houston.

31 Jul 2010

Blumenthal defends hew health IT rules to Utah leaders

David Blumenthal, the national coordinator for health information technology for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, "defended the administration's new plans against critics who say the watered-down rules miss an opportunity to lower costs and improve patient care," The Salt Lake Tribune reports.

31 Jul 2010

Abortion rights supporters, children's groups, GOP pushing back on various health law provisions

"Elective abortions will be prohibited and people with pre-existing conditions will be able to get comprehensive benefits without paying any more than healthy people, under new federal regulations for high-risk health insurance pools released ... by the Obama administration," according to Kaiser Health News.

31 Jul 2010

The House fails to pass aid measure for sick 9/11 responders

The Associated Press: "A bill that would have provided up to $7.4 billion in aid to people sickened by World Trade Center dust fell short in the House on Thursday, raising the possibility that the bulk of compensation for the ill will come from a legal settlement hammered out in the federal courts." The measure failed to draw the necessary two-thirds majority. Democrats had opted for this procedural route rather than a simple majority because it blocked potential GOP amendments.

31 Jul 2010

Lundbeck voluntarily recalls two lots of NeoProfen Injection

Lundbeck Inc. has voluntarily recalled two lots of NeoProfen® (ibuprofen lysine) Injection that failed to meet a visible particulate quality requirement. These two lots are the only lots currently available to prescribers and therefore the recall will result in a temporary drug shortage. This voluntary recall is the result of the company's inspections of the two product lots of NeoProfen.

31 Jul 2010

AMP conducts survey on Genetic Test Registry

Today, the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) submitted written comments in response to the Request for Information made by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for its Genetic Test Registry (GTR). AMP conducted a survey of its membership to formulate a comprehensive response to the RFI. "With the vast majority of respondents working in a clinical laboratory setting, AMP is able to inform the NIH on the general reaction to the GTR, including insight to the community's concerns and guidance to ensure the GTR is a valued resource," said Dr. Karen Mann, President of AMP.

31 Jul 2010

Research Roundup:COBRA subsidies; Children's insurance and dental coverage; Adopting health IT; Race and heart treatments

Archives of Internal Medicine: Racial Differences In Admissions To High-Quality Hospitals For Coronary Heart Disease - "Racial disparities in the management of coronary heart disease (CHD) are widely documented, yet the reasons behind persistent gaps in quality of care are not fully understood," write the authors, who examined "Medicare patients with acute myocardial infarction and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) admitted during 2002 through 2005 to hospitals located in markets with top-ranked cardiac hospitals, as ascertained from the US News and World Report 'America's Best Hospitals' annual rankings."

31 Jul 2010

Siepser donates Lasik procedure to Shane Victorino Foundation for raising funds

Steven Siepser, M.D., one of the Delaware Valley's most distinguished ophthalmologists, is donating a Lasik eye procedure to the Shane Victorino Foundation.Money raised during the benefit goes to the Shane Victorino Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps underprivileged youth in Hawaii and Philadelphia with educational, recreational and wellness programs.

31 Jul 2010

Opinions: IDUs and HIV; AIDS 2010; International Violence Against Women Act

In a Los Angeles Times opinion piece, Evan Wood, associate professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia, writes about the Vienna Declaration, a document he helped to draft, that calls for international leaders to revise drug policies to incorporate greater scientific evidence and promote HIV prevention, treatment and care for drug users.

31 Jul 2010

Today's OpEds: Medicare at 45; The politics of entitlement spending; Deciding health care's value

Forty-five years ago today, the creation of Medicare transformed our health-care system and our nation. It helped to make us a stronger and more prosperous country by freeing older Americans from the fear that sickness or injury would cost them their lifetime savings and security. ... The reason we have the Medicare we have today is that over the last 45 years, we have repeatedly acted to strengthen and update it for changing times (Kathleen Sebelius, 7/29).

31 Jul 2010

Recent releases in Global Health

A Center for Global Development memo offers suggestions for the U.S. to improve its commitment to policies that benefit poor countries after it ranked 17th out of 22 wealthy in the 2009 Commitment to Development Index. Among a set of 20 recommendations, the authors suggest the U.S. "[i]ncrease foreign aid, especially through such vehicles as the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), which gives to relatively well-governed countries, or a global 'Cash on Delivery' fund that would pay countries after making confirmed progress toward agreed-upon outcomes, thereby reducing the proliferation of aid projects," the authors write(Prieto/Roodman).

31 Jul 2010

GSK anticipates to supply over 30 million doses of FLULAVAL, FLUARIX for 2010-2011 flu season

GlaxoSmithKline announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) has released the first lots of FluLaval® [Influenza Virus Vaccine] allowing distribution in the U.S. to begin for the 2010-2011 flu season. GSK anticipates distribution of Fluarix® [Influenza Virus Vaccine] to follow in the next several weeks.

30 Jul 2010

Ten steps to successful breastfeeding from WHO and UNICEF

During World Breastfeeding Week, celebrated from 1 to 7 August in more than 170 countries, WHO reiterates its call on health facilities and health workers to implement ten steps to help mothers breastfeed successfully and improve their babies' health and chances of survival.

30 Jul 2010

Paperwork for reimbursement prevents PCTs access to high-cost cancer drugs

The amount of paperwork that primary care trusts (PCTs) have to fill out in order to be reimbursed for cancer drugs is so great that they may be missing out on millions of pounds, a report suggests.

30 Jul 2010

Vaccine scares may do more harm than previously believed to population's 'herd immunity'

Public immunization efforts may be much more sensitive than previously realized to small changes in the perceived costs or risks of vaccination, scientists at Harvard University report this week. In some cases, the spread of vaccine avoidance via social networks can make the difference between a minor, localized outbreak and an epidemic four times as large.

30 Jul 2010