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Florida health agency will use voice recognition to crack down on health fraud

The Associated Press/Miami Herald: Florida health officials announced they will "begin using voice recognition technology to verify whether patients in Miami-Dade County are actually receiving home health care services the state is being billed for."

7 May 2010

VA plans to limit surgeries at some of its facilities

The Department of Veterans Affairs will limit the kinds of surgeries at some hospitals after a review of surgical deaths at a hospital in southern Illinois, The Associated Press reports. "Under a new system, the VA has given each hospital a 'surgical complexity' level. Because of that, hospitals in at least five states — Louisiana, West Virginia, North Carolina, Illinois and Washington state — will now only perform less-complicated surgeries. The VA will pick up the tab for patients who have surgeries performed elsewhere" (Hefling, 5/6).

7 May 2010

A checklist to stay healthy at every age

Shantanu Nundy, MD, a second-year resident in internal medicine at the University of Chicago Medical Center may soon find out. Driven by his mother's health questions and the difficulty of providing simple, reliable answers, Nundy collected all of the "generally accepted truths" about preventing disease, organized them into checklists based on age, and persuaded the Johns Hopkins University Press to publish them as Stay Healthy at Every Age: What Your Doctor Wants you to Know.

7 May 2010

The doctor pay fix: Medicare's Groundhog Day

NPR reports on the delayed fix for Medicare physician payments, "Medicare's version of Groundhog Day."

7 May 2010

Florida Gov. Crist weighs options on abortion bill

The Palm Beach Post: "Gov. Charlie Crist appears likely to veto a bill requiring women to see ultrasounds before they can get abortions, state Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, said today" (Bennett, 5/5).

7 May 2010

House health panel ponders price transparency proposals

House lawmakers are considering several bills Thursday to make health care pricing more transparent, Modern Healthcare reports. The Energy and Commerce's health subcommittee "plans to take up a trio of bills aimed at increasing transparency and clarity in healthcare pricing, tackling an issue that has bedeviled the industry for decades and handcuffed efforts to turn everyday people into better purchasers of care."

7 May 2010

Pennsylvania Auditor assails use of some HIV/AIDS prevention funds

Philadelphia Inquirer: "The Pennsylvania Auditor General's Office criticized the state's oversight of HIV/AIDS prevention funding Wednesday in a report that alleges more than $700,000 in waste, abuse, and potentially fraudulent spending by the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.

7 May 2010

Hospitals criticized for keeping quiet on charity care

Kaiser Health News staff writer Julie Appleby writes: "Too many nonprofit hospitals fail to adequately publicize their charity-care programs, two advocacy groups say in a survey report released today"

7 May 2010

Massachusetts Attorney General pledges hearings into proposed Catholic Hospitals sale

The Associated Press/Boston Herald: Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is pledging to hold public hearings on a proposed sale of a chain of Catholic Hospitals there to a private equity firm. "Coakley said Caritas Christi Health System today filed a formal notice of the proposed transfer of the system to Steward Health Care System LLC, an affiliate of New York-based Cerberus Capital Management."

7 May 2010

Doctors seeing patients in groups

The Denver Post: "Jeff Wilson saw a doctor recently about his high cholesterol — and five other patients with the same problem came to his appointment. It was a 'group visit,' a growing trend in health care that allows doctors to reach more patients and patients to get more face time with their physician, even if they have to share it."

7 May 2010

Advocates: Nonprofit hospitals too quiet about charity care

Kaiser Health News: Two advocate groups say hospitals make it too difficult for patients to find out whether they are eligible for free or discounted care. Access Project and Community Catalyst, the two groups, released the results of a small, 99-hospital survey Wednesday. The American Hospital Association contends that's too small to be meaningful, and that, at any rate, the issues it raises have been addressed in the health overhaul.

6 May 2010

Teleflex Medical voluntarily recalls certain lots of AQUA+FLEX Hygroscopic Condenser Humidifier

Teleflex Medical has announced a worldwide voluntary recall initiated on March 19, 2010, affecting certain lot numbers of the Teleflex Medical AQUA+FLEX Hygroscopic Condenser Humidifier (HCH) (catalog number 1570) a passive humidifier indicated for use to effectively warm and humidify inspired gas during mechanical ventilation.

6 May 2010

Public need to be informed of nanotechnology's risks as well as benefits: Survey

A new national survey on public attitudes toward medical applications and physical enhancements that rely on nanotechnology shows that support for the technology increases when the public is informed of the technology's risks as well as its benefits - at least among those people who have heard of nanotechnology.

6 May 2010

Neuroscientists investigate alcohol dependency, withdrawal in C. elegans worms

Drinking alcohol over a long period of time profoundly affects the brain, which adapts to the intoxicant and causes withdrawal symptoms when consumption stops.

6 May 2010

New study links fecal contamination on hands and bacterial contamination in stored water

Scientists are reporting dramatic new real-world evidence supporting the idea that hand washing can prevent the spread of water-borne disease. It appears in a new study showing a connection between fecal bacteria contamination on hands, fecal contamination of stored drinking water, and health in households in a developing country in Africa. The study is in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology, a semi-monthly journal.

6 May 2010

Global CRO Chiltern joins ACRO

The Association of Clinical Research Organizations, which represents the CRO industry globally, is pleased to announce that Chiltern, headquartered in Berkshire, United Kingdom, has joined ACRO and that Glenn Kerkhof, Chiltern CEO, will be the company's representative to the Association.

6 May 2010

Bill requiring AEDs be installed in public spaces will save countless lives across Ontario

A new provincial Bill undergoing second reading this week could have a profound effect on the outcomes of cardiac arrest and bystander CPR response in Ontario if it is passed.

6 May 2010

PTNS performed using Urgent PC Neuromodulation System to receive category 1 CPT reimbursement code

Uroplasty, Inc., a medical device company that develops, manufactures and markets innovative proprietary products to treat voiding dysfunctions, announced today that it has been informed that percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation (PTNS), the procedure performed using the Uroplasty Urgent PC Neuromodulation System, will receive a category 1 CPT reimbursement code. This is expected to occur when those codes are published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is expected in October 2010.

6 May 2010

Patient for Patient Safety Canada launches on Stop! Clean Your Hands Day

Patients for Patient Safety Canada, with a national vision of "Every Patient Safe", is officially launching as an organization today. Patients for Patient Safety Canada is a patient led national organization committed to safety in healthcare.

6 May 2010

Experts unveil roadmap to improve health and health delivery in the U.S.

A Commission of national health care experts convened by the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress has unveiled a roadmap and integrated approach that will put "health" back into our nation's health care system as well as address key opportunities following passage of health care reform legislation.

6 May 2010