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Small business owners have mixed reviews on health law's tax credits

Kaiser Health News staff writer Andrew Villegas reports: "Everyone wants a tax credit, right? Maybe not. Employers, particularly small businesses, are fretting over provisions in the health overhaul they say could burden their companies.

29 Apr 2010

ECRI Institute's recommendations for controlling CT radiation dose

The benefits of computed tomography (CT) have increased greatly over the past decade. Now twice as powerful, it offers dynamic images of anatomy, including the beating heart. Future advancements promise to deliver even more clinical benefits. However, CT has always had a downside: it can deliver high radiation doses to patients, putting them at increased risk of developing cancer.

29 Apr 2010

Canadian leaders focus on hunger, disease prevention at G8 meeting

G8 countries should make use of low-cost, effective tools to prevent hunger, disease and premature deaths among women and children in developing countries, Bev Oda, Canada's international cooperation minister, said on Tuesday at the opening of a meeting of G8 development ministers in Halifax, the Toronto Sun reports (Payton, 4/27).

29 Apr 2010

US Senate concentrates on benefits of new wireless medical technology: EHSI

Emerging Healthcare Solutions, Inc. applauded news that the US Senate Committee on Aging was beginning to concentrate on the benefits of new wireless medical technology, a sector that includes the Company's MedAnywhere iPhone application which is currently in development. The Committee began the review last week.

29 Apr 2010

Isis Maternity is now Isis Parenting

Today, Isis Maternity, The Place for Expecting and New Moms, becomes Isis, Parenting Starts Here. This change reflects the breadth of education, products and community that Isis delivers to its clients. Since opening its doors in 2003, Isis has helped more than 35,000 families navigate early parenting from pregnancy to preschool.

29 Apr 2010

Dental clinic reveals need in Los Angeles area while North Carolina County may cut dental care for many Medicaid patients

More than 100 who had waited for care were asked to return next week for services. In all, volunteers saw 1,157 patients, 64 of them minors. Overwhelmed by demand for dental services, organizers of a massive free mobile health clinic asked some patients who had Tuesday appointments to return next week, a hitch in an otherwise smooth first day at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

29 Apr 2010

Overhaul may cost drugmakers more than expected

Bloomberg BusinessWeek: The health overhaul legislation will likely cost drugmakers $25 billion more than the $80 billion the industry anticipated when it agreed to back the Democratic-led effort, according to Wall Street analysts. "The extra costs will come from expanding drug rebates through Medicaid, the U.S. insurance program for the poor, [Leerink Swann & Co executive] John L. Sullivan said today at a Bloomberg conference in Chicago."

29 Apr 2010

China lifts decades-old HIV/AIDS travel ban

Late Tuesday, China's State Council lifted a decades-old restriction that banned foreigners with HIV/AIDS from entering the country, Reuters reports (Buckley, 4/27). The amended rules, which appear on the government website, also lift a travel ban on foreigners with other sexually transmitted diseases and leprosy, and "narrow the travel restriction on people with tuberculosis, to those with an infectious form of the lung disease," according to Bloomberg Businessweek (Randall, 4/28).

29 Apr 2010

Young adults seeking coverage on parents' plans face obstacles

Young adults and their parents eager to take advantage of a new law that will allow parents of children up to age 26 to keep their children on their health plans are facing obstacles in learning even exactly when they'll be eligible.

29 Apr 2010

Renowned cardiologists to discuss latest research on Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy at HCMA symposium

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM), the genetic disease in which the muscle of the heart thickens in the absence of an apparent cause, is the leading cause of sudden death in children and young adults. HCM accounts for 40 percent of all deaths on athletic playing fields across the U.S.

29 Apr 2010

NIH approves federal funding for 13 more stem cell lines

The Washington Post: Thirteen more lines of human embryonic stem cells are officially eligible for federal funding, since being approved by the National Institutes of Health. The Obama administration announced shortly after the President took office that restrictions would be lifted on the use of federal funds for embryonic stem cell research.

29 Apr 2010

Uninsured patients less likely to receive critical care services

Among the general U.S. population, people who are uninsured are about half as likely to receive critical care services as those with insurance, according to systematic review of the literature by the American Thoracic Society's Health Disparities Group.

29 Apr 2010

Imaging costs for Medicare cancer patients on the rise

A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association analyzed data from Medicare cancer patients to determine the change in imaging use for this group.

29 Apr 2010

Obama's debt commission to consider Medicare cuts, new health care law

President Obama's bipartisan debt commission met Tuesday to discuss ways to reduce the federal deficit. The President said that everything was up for discussion, including provisions of the federal health care law, and entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security.

29 Apr 2010

Boston hospital case study in balancing mission and profits

The Boston Globe: A proposed acquisition of Boston's Catholic hospital system Caritas Christi Health Care by private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management may test the theory that "profitability and religious mission can be integrated." However, another local hospital provides a possible window into that future.

29 Apr 2010

Experts disagree on health law's effects on jobs

"There is profound disagreement about healthcare reform's overall impact on jobs. … While the net effect on jobs remains uncertain, it is clear that certain professions will do better than others." Among the specific job categories likely do well are insurance agents, who "may get a boost since approximately 32 million uninsured Americans will be required to buy health insurance starting in 2014.

28 Apr 2010

After bad publicity, insurer to act early on ending practice of canceling policies of sick patients

WellPoint will put into effect this week a health overhaul provision preventing insurers from canceling policies -- a practice known as rescission -- except in fraud cases, even though the change isn't required until September, the Indianapolis Star reports.

28 Apr 2010

Sinai Medical Group to deploy NextGen EHR and NextGen Practice Management system

NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Quality Systems, Inc. and leading provider of healthcare information systems and connectivity solutions, today announced it has executed an agreement with Sinai Medical Group to deploy NextGen EHR and NextGen Practice Management.

28 Apr 2010

The Prevention Plan program for Nevada PEBP employees and retirees

State of Nevada public employees are taking steps to get healthier and feel better by participating in The Prevention Plan, a U.S. Preventive Medicine program designed to encourage healthy behaviors, detect disease in the earliest stages and manage chronic conditions before they progress.

28 Apr 2010

Awareness of cancer health disparities, burden of current economic crisis to be explored at 3-day forum

Awareness of cancer health disparities, the burden of the current economic crisis on these inequities, and interventions and policy initiatives to improve health disparities will be explored during a three-day forum hosted by the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies.

28 Apr 2010