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Senate Foreign Relations Committee introduces $3.5B 5-year bill to support Haiti reconstruction

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee introduced legislation Wednesday that "authorizes $3.5 billion over five years to support Haiti's rebuilding and reconstruction," Politico's Laura Rozen writes on her blog.

7 May 2010

Obama signs bill to expand health care access for veterans, provide more caregiver benefits

President Barack Obama signed a bill Wednesday that expands access to health care for veterans and provides a monthly stipend and health care for caregivers of American soldiers severely injured in Afghanistan or Iraq, The Associated Press reports. "Under the bill, caregivers of the estimated 2,000 severely wounded veterans from the recent conflicts are eligible for training, a monthly stipend and health care.

7 May 2010

LSTM launches European Union funded adolescent reproductive health programme in Africa

LSTM has launched a four year programme to improve the delivery of reproductive health services in Tanzania and Niger. The programme, funded by the European Union, has been designed by LSTM and the seven project partners to highlight and address the cultural barriers which reduce the reach and effectiveness of existing adolescent reproductive health (ARH) services in partner countries.

7 May 2010

Real-world solutions to improve patient safety and quality of care

The National Patient Safety Foundation will launch an innovative Learning & Simulation Center at the annual NPSF Patient Safety Congress on May 17-19 in Orlando, creating a remarkable environment for attendees to engage in diverse, hands-on, interactive settings and take away real-world solutions to improve patient safety and quality of care.

7 May 2010

WellPoint rate hikes face further scrutiny, says it will review rates more closely

WellPoint Inc., responding to criticism and close scrutiny from lawmakers and officials, will add "new layers of oversight to pricing practices," The Wall Street Journal reports. WellPoint CEO Angela Braly sent a memo to 40,000 employees saying that the company will "implement third-party reviews of its 2010 rate filings and investigate why its actuaries did not find miscalculations uncovered last week by the California Department of Insurance.

7 May 2010

Rising health costs straining public budgets in Massachusetts

The Boston Globe: The town budget in Framingham, Mass. is strained, leading to layoffs and other cuts. "Everyone here seems to agree that a major factor is the rising cost of health care insurance for employees and retirees, which has jumped by $20 million in 10 years." The town picks up 87 percent of the premiums for most public employees and retirees, as negotiated through collective bargaining.

7 May 2010

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