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Aging-at-home concept should provide mobility assistance, says AAHomecare president

At a town hall meeting a year ago, President Obama said that home-based care could play a major role in controlling Medicare costs by keeping older people out of more expensive institutional care.

25 May 2010

Arthrosurface achieves significant clinical milestone in implant technology

Arthrosurface, Inc., the developer of inlay joint resurfacing systems, announced the achievement of a significant clinical milestone.

25 May 2010

AAPA, ACP release policy monograph on critical health care issue

The American Academy of Physician Assistants and the American College of Physicians today released a policy monograph that supports the critical roles physician assistants and physicians play in improving access to high-quality primary care. The paper, "Internists and Physician Assistants: Team-based Primary Care," results from a months-long collaborative project.

25 May 2010

Round-up: Mississippi struggles with mental health services funding cuts; A drug discount bill advances in Mass.

"Lawmakers earlier this year vigorously fought Gov. Haley Barbour's proposal to close four state mental health hospitals and six crisis centers as a budget-saving measure. Now, nonprofit-run centers that offer front-line services for the mentally ill in some of the poorest communities across Mississippi could face closure."

25 May 2010

Dermatologists recommend broad spectrum sunscreen products to protect against UVA and UVB rays

Sunscreen active ingredients, which are compounds that absorb, scatter or reflect ultraviolet (UV) light, are regulated as over-the-counter (OTC) drugs by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

25 May 2010

UnitedHealth cut lobbying spending even as Congress finalized health reform measure

The UnitedHealth Group Inc. "dialed down" their federal lobbying in the first quarter of 2010, even as Congress prepared to pass the health reform bill. In the first quarter of 2010, it spent $660,000 on lobbying, less than half of the $1.5 million it spent in the first quarter of 2009 on lobbying.

25 May 2010

Regulators puzzling out what insurers must do under new health law

The Washington Post reports that regulators are "trying to resolve" which insurance plans must comply with the health law's new requirements. "In keeping with President Obama's promise that you can hold on to your insurance if you like it, the new law exempts existing health plans from many of its provisions. But the law leaves it to regulators to decide how much a health plan can change without giving up its grandfathered status."

25 May 2010

NIH, FDA launch new portal to provide easier access to online reporting

The Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health today launched a new Web site that, when fully developed, will provide a mechanism for the reporting of pre- and post-market safety data to the federal government.

25 May 2010

Advances in health IT

The New York Times: A "broad transformation in health care underway" is "fueled in good part by technology" that "promises to shift a lot of the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of disease from hospitals and specialized clinics, where treatment is expensive, to primary care physicians and patients themselves — at far less cost."

25 May 2010

Obama's health IT leader says doctors will embrace change

Irene Wielawski writes for Kaiser Health News that electronic medical records may be as important as stethoscopes. "Dr. David Blumenthal was not happy to find a new computer installed on his desk when he showed up for work one morning eight years ago at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

25 May 2010

AMA's code of conduct helps ensure greater transparency and accountability from health insurers

The American Medical Association (AMA) today released its Health Insurer Code of Conduct Principles and called on all U.S. health insurance companies to adopt consistent corporate practices that will bring transparency and accountability to the multibillion-dollar health insurance industry

25 May 2010

STOP Obesity Alliance researchers receive $250,000 donation to research on health impact of obesity

The research team of The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services' Department of Health Policy's Strategies to Overcome and Prevent Obesity Alliance received a $250,000 donation from Allergan, Inc. to support public health, policy analysis and research about the economic and health impact of obesity and related chronic diseases.

25 May 2010

DU receives $17.5M as gift to establish Knoebel Center for the Study of Aging

Betty Knoebel, widow of Denver food services pioneer Ferdinand "Fritz" Knoebel, has given the University of Denver $17.5 million, among the largest gifts in its history. DU will use the gift to establish the Knoebel Center for the Study of Aging and to support the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management in DU's Daniels College of Business.

25 May 2010

Florida health care providers offer language services, medical homes

As "the region continues to attract residents from all over the country and the world, local health care providers and educators are searching for ways to better serve them." Some use "cultural toolkits," and have guides to help providers relate to patients' cultural and religious preferences. "'From a business perspective, it makes a lot of sense,' said Bernardo Ramirez, assistant professor of health services administration at the University of Central Florida.

24 May 2010

Research work holds promise for biological substitute for dental implants

A technique pioneered in the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Laboratory of Dr. Jeremy Mao, the Edward V. Zegarelli Professor of Dental Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, can orchestrate stem cells to migrate to a three-dimensional scaffold infused with growth factor, holding the translational potential to yield an anatomically correct tooth in as soon as nine weeks once implanted.

24 May 2010

Hospitals facing new payment squeezes

News outlets report on payment issues for hospitals, including those stemming from the new health law.

24 May 2010

2010 Southeast Michigan Mid-Market Group Benefits Survey released

McGraw Wentworth, Michigan's largest employee group benefit brokerage/consulting firm, today released the results of its 2010 Southeast Michigan Mid-Market Group Benefits Survey. The annual survey, now in its seventh year, tracks health benefits and trends for 2010 among 414 southeast Michigan organizations with 100-10,000 employees.

24 May 2010

Today's OpEds: Taxing health plans, a health care 'loophole,' NY Times on medical loss ratio

Few Americans know what a "medical loss ratio" is, but a fierce struggle over how to calculate it under the new health care reform law will determine how much insurers must spend on patient care and how much they can retain for administration and profits. This is but one of many battles that will emerge as federal and state regulators develop regulations to implement reform (5/23).

24 May 2010

Dialog Medical becomes newest Affinity Program Partner of AUA

Dialog Medical, the leading provider of informed consent and patient education systems for physician practices and hospitals, today announced that it has become the newest Affinity Program Partner of the American Urological Association.

24 May 2010

Lawmakers could vote this week on three-year 'doc fix,' COBRA subsidy extension

Before they leave for the Memorial Day recess, lawmakers face legislation which includes a provision on Medicare payments to physicians and an extension of the COBRA subsidy to newly laid-off workers.

24 May 2010