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British Columbia first in Canada to include Prevnar 13 in routine child immunization program

British Columbia is leading the way in vaccinations to protect children from serious disease. The province is the first in Canada to include Prevnar 13, the vaccine that provides the broadest coverage available against Streptococcus pneumoniae that may cause invasive pneumococcal disease, in the routine child immunization program.

21 May 2010

Aetna Foundation grants $331,133 for "Advancing Value-Based Purchasing in the U.S. Health System" project

As a nation we spend nearly $7,300 per person on health care each year - but are we getting the best possible value for our dollars? Exploring promising innovative approaches to getting high quality from health care purchases while ensuring that our annual $2.3 trillion in public and private health care spending is going as far as it should - in terms of top quality care, improved health outcomes and minimal waste - will be part of new work undertaken by the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at Brookings and supported by the Aetna Foundation.

21 May 2010

Not all small businesses will get tax benefits promised in health law

Tax credits to help small business pay for employee health coverage fall short of the "broad eligibility" White House officials promoted, The Associated Press reports. The credit was said to apply to firms "with fewer than 25 workers and average annual wages under $50,000 that provide health coverage," like Zach Hoffman's office supply company where 24 employees earn an average of $35,000.

21 May 2010

AORN develops new Comprehensive Surgical Checklist

The Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) has developed a comprehensive surgical checklist to help reduce the number of wrong-site surgeries and other preventable mistakes that occur in U.S. operating rooms. The new AORN Comprehensive Surgical Checklist includes the safety checks outlined in the World Health Organization (WHO) Surgical Safety Checklist, and also meets the safety checks included in The Joint Commission Universal Protocol that meet the accreditation requirements.

21 May 2010

MEDSEEK first-quarter net revenue up 38%

MEDSEEK, the industry's only provider of the eHealth ecoSystem, today announced the continuation of its record-setting pace in 2009 with the announcement of a first quarter net revenue increase of 38 percent over the same period last year.

21 May 2010

Lawmakers agree to extend COBRA benefits, delay Medicare cuts and give states more money for Medicaid

Democratic committee leaders unveiled a tax extensions package today that would continue to allow laid-off employees "to get subsidies to buy health insurance through the COBRA program" and would also "spare doctors from a scheduled 21 percent cut in Medicare payments," The Associated Press reports. It would also give states money to cover Medicaid costs (Ohlemacher, 5/20).

21 May 2010

Medco: Big jump in kids' prescription drug use last year

Children's prescription drug use rose "several times faster" than adult use last year, "due in part to swine flu drugs and Type 2 diabetes medications, according to Medco Health Solutions Inc," The Associated Press reports. The "pharmacy benefits manager said a 5 percent increase in prescription drug use for children contributed to a 10.8 percent spending increase last year. In contrast, overall prescription drug use rose 1.3 percent, and drug spending climbed 3.7 percent. Medco released its annual drug trend report Wednesday" (Murphy, 5/19).

21 May 2010

Ariz. tax hike only a band-aid, and other state tales of budget woes

The Wall Street Journal: States are being squeezed by "shrinking state budgets and rising health-care costs" and often vulnerable residents are paying the price. Barbara Hickey, 67 of Florence, S.C., is one of them. She is confined to a motorized wheelchair, lives alone and "relies on certified nurse's assistants to get her in and out of bed, bathed, clothed and fed."

21 May 2010

Today's Opinions and Editorials: Legal challenges to health reform; Medicare pay fix; California's budgetary 'Sophie's Choice'

We believe the reform law has been carefully framed to stay within constitutional bounds (5/19).

21 May 2010

Analysis looks at how Democrats won health reform battle

In an analysis in The New Republic, Jonathan Cohn examines how Democrats ultimately won the health reform battle. "Of course, we know how this narrative concludes, with Obama sitting in the East Room, inscribing his signature onto the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 — completing a quest that eluded Harry Truman and a trio of his successors.

21 May 2010

Medicare to evaluate how beneficiaries used personal health records

The Department of Health and Human Services is preparing to evaluate a 17-month-old pilot program that has tested whether beneficiaries use personal health records (PHR) in Utah and Arizona, Modern Healthcare reports.

21 May 2010

States examine new law's impact on residents' health, budget bottom lines

States around the nation are examining the health reform law for its impact on their residents' health and their budgets' bottom lines.

21 May 2010

AMGA calls for separate SGR pool for ACOs

Donald W. Fisher, PhD, CAE President and CEO of the American Medical Group Association (AMGA), today announced its policy stance on the pending Congressional action to address the Medicare sustainable growth rate formula (SGR) problem for physicians.

21 May 2010

Medicare 'doc fix' remains sticking point on tax legislation

CongressDaily: The Medicare reimbursement rate for doctors remains a point of contention on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers cautioned Wednesday that a five-year "fix," currently being bandied about in the House, is unlikely to survive Senate scrutiny, and Republicans, including Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, are demanding that any adjustment in doctor payments must be paid for.

21 May 2010

WHA addresses counterfeit medicines

Discussions about combatting counterfeit medicines continued at the 63rd World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva on Wednesday, Agence France-Press reports

21 May 2010

Most ER visitors have health insurance of some kind

A National Center for Health Statistics study has found that of the one in five Americans who visit an emergency room every year, most have health insurance.

20 May 2010

Hospital deals in New York, Michigan, Tennessee and Georgia

Lenox Hill, a "boutique hospital of choice for the rich" announced Wednesday "that after 153 years as a standalone hospital on the Upper East Side, it was entering a partnership with North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, a powerhouse of 15 hospitals and other health care centers in more humble parts of Long Island, Queens and Staten Island."

20 May 2010

FDA panel: Agency should make records of denials public

The Food and Drug Administration's Transparency Task Force has recommended that the agency should make more information available to the public about companies and the FDA's reasons behind decisions not to approve products, Reuters reports. "Wider disclosure could alter companies' ability to control news that could affect their stock prices, especially negative FDA actions such as denying a product or highlighting safety concerns."

20 May 2010

GSK, EMBL-EBI, NLM and CDD collaborate to apply principles of open source to drug discovery for malaria

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) had teamed up with leading public-domain data providers European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the U.S.-based informatics service provider Collaborative Drug Discovery (CDD) to make freely available key scientific information on more than 13,500 compounds that could ultimately lead to new treatments for malaria.

20 May 2010

RedBrick Health's Employee Health Engagement Survey released

RedBrick Health today released preliminary findings from a national independent survey of benefits decision makers at large to mid-size U.S. companies.

20 May 2010