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ASA encourages spreading awareness about Doctors Day 2010

The American Society of Anesthesiologists joins communities across the United States today to recognize Doctors Day 2010, a day with a special tie to anesthesiology.

30 Mar 2010

Wall Street journal examines fundraising efforts by GAVI, Global Fund

The GAVI Alliance and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria "on Friday began an effort to raise as much as $24 billion from members of the Group of 20 nations that will test whether a major push begun a decade ago against infectious diseases can survive the global recession," the Wall Street Journal reports. The two groups held meetings last week in The Hague with government representatives from existing and potential donor nations, according to the newspaper.

30 Mar 2010

New home health provisions proposed in Health Care Reform Bill to benefit older patients

New home health provisions proposed in the Health Care Reform Bill (H.R. 3590 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) will support the testing and implementation of in-home health care services for chronically ill elderly residents of Greater Philadelphia.

30 Mar 2010

AAPS sues to overturn Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) became the first medical society to sue to overturn the newly enacted health care bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). AAPS sued Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (AAPS v. Sebelius et al.).

30 Mar 2010

CEO Roundtable on Cancer announces Gold Standard accreditation for Susan G. Komen for the Cure

Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, the world's largest breast cancer organization, has received CEO Cancer Gold Standard™ accreditation, recognizing the organization's commitment to reducing the risk of cancer for its employees and their families by promoting healthy lifestyle choices, by encouraging early detection through cancer screenings, and by ensuring access to quality treatment.

30 Mar 2010

Rite Aid, AAAAI team up to offer guides to allergy sufferers

Rite Aid and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology are again teaming up this spring to help allergy sufferers with free allergy guides available now in nearly 4,800 Rite Aid stores nationwide and online at www.riteaid.com.

30 Mar 2010

Alpha Pro Tech changes distribution strategy for disposable protective apparel

Alpha Pro Tech, Ltd. a leading manufacturer of products designed to protect people, products and environments, including disposable protective apparel and building products, today announced a strategic change in the Company's disposable protective apparel distribution strategy.

30 Mar 2010

EPA's Action Plan on BPA: ACC issues statement

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today released an Action Plan on bisphenol A (BPA).

30 Mar 2010

Woman sentenced in Michigan Medicare fraud case; Medicaid fraud alleged in NY dental clinics

Profits came quickly: Over one year, Daisy Martinez ripped off Medicare for $10.7 million at three clinics, and her daughter got $649,000 in just four months as they billed the government for sham drug treatments while luring desperate people off the street with cash, food and painkillers.

30 Mar 2010

Polls show Dems face uphill climb in selling health votes to electorate

USA Today On Politics Blog: A USA Today/Gallup Poll that will be published in Tuesday's USA Today "shows an uphill selling job ahead for President Obama and congressional Democrats to convince most Americans that the health care overhaul passed last week will help them and their families. In the poll, 50% call passage of the bill 'a bad thing' and 47% say it was 'a good thing.'" These findings are less favorable than a one-day poll taken a week earlier-- a day after the health overhaul measure was approved by the House of Representatives.

30 Mar 2010

Adoption of healthcare IT is on steady incline in small physician practice: NaviNet survey

Adoption of healthcare IT is on a steady incline in the small physician practice, reveals a survey by NaviNet, America's largest real-time healthcare communications network. In early March 2010, NaviNet conducted a survey of IT and electronic medical record adoption trends in small practices and compared results to a similar survey the company issued to small practices in August 2009.

30 Mar 2010

Obama's calm demeanor, Pelosi's firm stand helped push health care law

President Barack Obama and Democrats missed repeated deadlines, fought back cries of 'death panels' and watched healthcare reform nearly die more than dozen times. Through it all, Obama was the steady captain of the ship, his top aides say, a role the president has played since the early days of the 2008 presidential campaign.

30 Mar 2010

Massachusetts governor's race focuses on national health question: Cost control

The Massachusetts governor's race "is focused on the question that now confronts the nation: how to keep spiraling costs from bankrupting the experiment," The New York Times reports.

30 Mar 2010

How the health legislation will affect consumers

The Los Angeles Times explores some key questions: Will insurers continue to raise premiums; when will the Medicare "doughnut hole" close; and, "how do I sign up for my new insurance?" In answer to the last one, the Times writes, "Although there are some provisions that take effect this year, such as bans on lifetime limits and the denial of coverage to children with pre-existing conditions, the part of the bill that provides new insurance options does not take effect until 2014" (Geiger, 3/28).

30 Mar 2010

Researchers to study health literacy among Indigenous people living with cardiovascular disease

Researchers at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto are part of an international team of researchers recently awarded a multi-million dollar grant for their work in cardiovascular disease among Indigenous people in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The Canadian team will receive $742,000 in funding for its part of the project from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and International Collaborative Indigenous Health Research Partnerships.

30 Mar 2010

Shinseki tries to squelch rumors about health reform and Vets

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Erik Shinseki "addressed fears that some veterans have expressed that their health care and, specifically, their TRICARE medical coverage will be adversely affected by the health-reform legislation," according to the Providence Journal.

30 Mar 2010

Health industry will see more patients with reform; Physicians give mixed reviews

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "The health care plan aims to send a wave of paying patients to hospitals, doctors and pharmacists." Expanded coverage will mean less uncompensated care, a boon to traditional safety-net hospitals, but also more Medicaid patients. Hospitals say Medicaid fees don't cover their costs, so that influx could hurt the bottom line.

30 Mar 2010

Democrats reflect on importance of reconciliation in health bill strategy

Reconciliation proved critical to health care reform passage, The New York Times reports: "Just a few months into his first term in 1993, President Bill Clinton went to Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, the protector of Senate rules, to ask permission to use a fast-track budget process known as reconciliation to enact a bold health care overhaul.' At that time, Clinton got neither consent nor the passage of a health care law.

30 Mar 2010

Industry groups, lobbying firms gain from health overhaul

The Associated Press: Under the new health care law, "pharmaceutical lobbyists won new federal policies they coveted and set a trajectory for long-term industry growth." Ramsey Baghdadi, a Washington health policy analyst, "projects a $30 billion, 10-year net gain for the industry. 'I don't see how they could have done much better,'" he said.

29 Mar 2010

Cutting off coverage? An examination of a case in California

The Huffington Post Investigative Fund on the case of Heather Galeotti, a woman in a coma after being hit by a car: "[I]n July 2007, five months into Galeotti's treatment, Kaiser [Permanente] stunned the family with a letter. The Galeottis would have to find another way to pay the bills. Based on information received from her father's employer, Kaiser said that the young woman's coverage had not been in effect when she was hit."

29 Mar 2010