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Continua champions use of personal connected healthcare technologies at House Committee on Veterans Affairs hearing

Continua Health Alliance championed the use of personal connected healthcare technologies to increase veteran access to quality healthcare during last week's hearing of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Health. President and Chair of the Continua Board of Directors, Rick Cnossen, testified on behalf of the Alliance to address the issues facing veterans living in rural areas who typically receive lower quality healthcare than the general population due to lack of access.

2 Jul 2010

Online health insurance broker that once feared overhaul now sees new opportunities

Kaiser Health News staff writer Phil Galewitz reports: "EHealthInsurance, a large online health insurance broker, had once feared that its business might be imperiled by the health care overhaul.

2 Jul 2010

Cambridge Heart announces CMS reimbursement modification for MTWA test

Cambridge Heart, Inc., today announced that effective July 1, 2010, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will allow full reimbursement for both a Microvolt T-Wave Alternans (MTWA) test and a stress test when both tests are performed during the same patient visit. The CMS update removes a previous restriction that substantially limited reimbursement when a patient underwent an MTWA test on the same day as the patient underwent a standard cardiac stress test, echocardiography stress test, nuclear cardiac stress test, or pulmonary stress test.

2 Jul 2010

Federal officials ask judge to order upgrade of Georgia's mental health system; VA. officials in court today on suit against health law

Atlanta Journal Constitution: "Talks to settle a federal investigation of Georgia's mental health system came down to a single meeting Wednesday." And, "the talks failed. Federal authorities immediately went to court, asking a judge to force Georgia to make substantial and potentially expensive improvements in its state psychiatric hospitals and in its community-based treatment services — the same measures state officials rejected during the negotiations.

2 Jul 2010

Elements Behavioral Health acquires The Ranch in Tennessee

Elements Behavioral Health, provider of residential treatment services for addiction and co-occurring disorders, announced this week the acquisition of The Ranch in Nunnelly, Tennessee. Elements is best known to the public as the owner of the internationally famous Promises Treatment Centers in Malibu and Los Angeles, where many Hollywood celebrities have been treated successfully for substance abuse.

2 Jul 2010

Seattle Times examines reaction to G8 summit commitments, Upcoming 'Global Washington' recommendations for U.S. foreign assistance reform

The Seattle Times' "The Business of Giving" blog examines global health community leaders' reactions to the outcomes of the recent G8 summit in Canada.

2 Jul 2010

BIDMC calls for new training program for personalized healthcare

The Department of Pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have issued "A Call to Action" for the medical profession to catch up with the technology and business communities in the application of genomics to personalized health care.

2 Jul 2010

Five questions about the government's new health insurance website

Kaiser Health News staff writer Phil Galewitz provides some key details relating to this new way to shop for health insurance coverage (Galewitz, 7/1).

2 Jul 2010

Small business says 10 percent tanning tax that starts today is overcooked

As of July 1, tanning salons have to charge customers a 10 percent tax on their services to help pay for part of the new health reform law and that requirement has attracted the howls of small business, NPR reports. "Tanning salon owners are outraged. They say the new tax is the last thing they need in a struggling economy.

2 Jul 2010

HHS launches website to provide consumers with public, private health coverage options

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today unveiled an innovative new on-line tool that will help consumers take control of their health care by connecting them to new information and resources that will help them access quality, affordable health care coverage. Called for by the Affordable Care Act, HealthCare.gov is the first website to provide consumers with both public and private health coverage options tailored specifically for their needs in a single, easy-to-use tool.

2 Jul 2010

Medicare weighs cost, benefit of covering Dendreon's Provenge for prostate cancer

The announcement that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would do this analysis "was the latest hurdle in Dendreon's push to get its Provenge treatment used. If the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services covers Provenge, that would increase the number of patients eligible and likely force private insurers to do the same.

2 Jul 2010

New formula may speed up organ allocation process, improve transplant outcomes

Only a small fraction of transplant centers nationwide are willing to accept and transplant deceased-donor kidneys that they perceive as less than perfect, leading to lengthy, organ-damaging delays as officials use a one-by-one approach to find a willing taker.

2 Jul 2010

House Subcommittee approves $52.7B FY11 Foreign Ops appropriations bill

The Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs approved a $52.7 billion FY 2011 spending bill on Wednesday that withheld $3.9 billion in aid for Afghanistan over concerns about corruption in the country, CongressDaily reports. The bill "already cut $4 billion from President Obama's request to fund the State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development and dozens of foreign assistance and cooperation programs," the publication writes.

2 Jul 2010

Malnutrition during childhood diminishes brain function in late life

Malnutrition early in life appears to diminish brain function in older adulthood, according to a study led by a Michigan State University researcher that has implications for many poor, developing nations.

2 Jul 2010

Pay-for-performance program may cause inequalities among healthcare providers

Pay-for-performance is an increasingly popular approach to improving health care quality. But the planned nationwide implementation of institutional bonuses mandated under federal health care reform threatens to act as a "reverse Robin Hood," potentially causing hospitals in less-advantaged regions to lose funds to health care facilities in more affluent areas of the country, according to a study published in the academic journal PLoS Medicine.

2 Jul 2010

Anthem submits new insurance rate plan in Calif. after earlier effort rebuffed

The Los Angeles Times: "Embattled health insurer Anthem Blue Cross is reviving its plan to raise rates for tens of thousands of California policyholders, some of whom could see their premiums rise as much as 20%. California's largest for-profit insurer submitted new rates Wednesday amid pressure to scale back increases of as much as 39% that had provoked fury from consumers, lawmakers and even President Obama" and helped revive the effort to pass a national health care law.

2 Jul 2010

National debt will continue to surge, CBO predicts, while experts increase scrutiny of health care costs

The Washington Post: "In its latest long-term forecast, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted that the national debt, which has surged to nearly 60 percent of annual economic output in the wake of the recession, would continue rising in the coming decades despite cost-containment measures in the health overhaul Obama signed this spring.

2 Jul 2010

Medical groups back medicare nominee Berwick

About 90 groups, including medical societies, patient and employer groups, all backed the nomination of Donald Berwick, a physician and health care quality advocate, to lead the federal Medicare agency.

2 Jul 2010

Virginia Lawsuit: Federal health reform law faces initial consitutional test

District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson said Thursday that "he will decide whether to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Virginia challenging the constitutionality of the federal health-care law within 30 days, providing an initial legal test in the landmark suit."

2 Jul 2010

Blacks often diagnosed with advanced cancer, more likely to have other underlying health problems

Black people with cancer are up to twice as likely as other races to die from their disease. While disparities exist for nearly every common cancer type, the largest differences occur among cancers that benefit most from treatment -- suggesting that black patients are not getting needed lifesaving treatments, according to a review from researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

2 Jul 2010

Healthcare News

Continua champions use of personal connected healthcare technologies at House Committee on Veterans Affairs hearing

Online health insurance broker that once feared overhaul now sees new opportunities

Cambridge Heart announces CMS reimbursement modification for MTWA test

Federal officials ask judge to order upgrade of Georgia's mental health system; VA. officials in court today on suit against health law

Elements Behavioral Health acquires The Ranch in Tennessee

Seattle Times examines reaction to G8 summit commitments, Upcoming 'Global Washington' recommendations for U.S. foreign assistance reform

BIDMC calls for new training program for personalized healthcare

Five questions about the government's new health insurance website

Small business says 10 percent tanning tax that starts today is overcooked

HHS launches website to provide consumers with public, private health coverage options

Medicare weighs cost, benefit of covering Dendreon's Provenge for prostate cancer

New formula may speed up organ allocation process, improve transplant outcomes

House Subcommittee approves $52.7B FY11 Foreign Ops appropriations bill

Malnutrition during childhood diminishes brain function in late life

Pay-for-performance program may cause inequalities among healthcare providers

Anthem submits new insurance rate plan in Calif. after earlier effort rebuffed

National debt will continue to surge, CBO predicts, while experts increase scrutiny of health care costs

Medical groups back medicare nominee Berwick

Virginia Lawsuit: Federal health reform law faces initial consitutional test

Blacks often diagnosed with advanced cancer, more likely to have other underlying health problems

Advancing brain microphysiological systems (bMPS)

PhD researcher at LifeArc

Unveiling Hidden Potential: Organoids for Disease Modeling in Neuroscience Research

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