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Ga. couple allegedly took Medicare, Medicaid payments while patients were shorted food, medicine

The Atlanta Journal Constitution: "George D. Houser, 62, and his wife, 46-year-old Rhonda Washington Houser, were arraigned Friday on charges of conspiring to defraud the Medicare and Georgia Medicaid programs. George Houser also faces charges for allegedly failing to pay payroll taxes to the IRS and file personal income tax returns."

20 Apr 2010

NHC opens The Palmettos of Mauldin center

National HealthCare Corporation, one of the nation's leading operators of senior care services, announced today that it has recently opened The Palmettos of Mauldin, a 45 unit assisted living community at 810 E. Butler Road in Mauldin, South Carolina near Greenville.

20 Apr 2010

Mount Sinai School of Medicine ranked 18th among America's medical schools

The 2011 US News & World Report has ranked Mount Sinai School of Medicine 18th out of 146 medical schools and schools of osteopathic medicine nationwide, jumping from 32nd in 2005. Mount Sinai's improvement in the rankings is one of the largest by any institution.

20 Apr 2010

Free Rite Aid wellness+ customer rewards program

Rite Aid customers and patients nationwide now can sign up for Rite Aid's new wellness+ customer rewards program that provides members with free health and wellness benefits, as well as shopping discounts and special prices. The program will be supported by a national television, radio, circular and digital advertising campaign.

20 Apr 2010

Affordable Care Act expands opportunity for younger Americans to get insurance coverage

Expanding the opportunity for younger Americans to get insurance coverage is a top priority for the Administration. The Affordable Care Act offers the option for most children under the age of 26 to stay on their parents' policy. This is a group of people who have traditionally either been unable to afford coverage or have not had access to it.

20 Apr 2010

Avian flu's endurance in 5 countries poses global threat to human health, FAO official says

Though the world has made "great strides" in eliminating H5N1 (avian flu) from poultry since the "peak of its outbreak in 2006" in 63 countries, the virus persists in Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Indonesia and Vietnam, VOA News reports (DeCapua, 4/16).

20 Apr 2010

State Roundup: Calif. hospitals billing questioned; N.Y. hospitals among the weakest financially in the nation

The Sacramento Bee: An analysis of financial data from 300 California hospitals "shows they collected $25 billion from insurance companies between September 2008 and October 2009 - an increase of more than a third since 2005. Hospitals are charging insurance companies, and by extension their customers, billions of dollars for expenses not directly related to care.

20 Apr 2010

Opinions: PEPFAR; Private-civil society partnerships in Africa; Global maternal mortality; SA HIV testing campaign

"The Obama administration's new Global Health Initiative, designed to broaden and better integrate health programming overseas, deserves wide support. But stalling on global AIDS threatens to undermine the worthy goals of the initiative," Chris Collins, vice president and director of public polity for the Foundation for AIDS Research, writes in a Boston Globe letter to the editor calling for sustained support for PEPFAR.

20 Apr 2010

More dramas with Queensland Health payroll

Health worker salaries for the Queensland Health payroll have been going into bank accounts but have also been leaving a number of people unpaid. The Australian Services Union which represents the Queensland Health payroll staff is not too optimistic about the pay blunders being sorted out this pay cycle.

20 Apr 2010

Increased health care costs concerns 99.4% of employers

Results of the 2010 UBA Employer Opinion Survey indicate that nearly all (99.4 percent) top decision makers are concerned with the impact of health care costs are having or are going to have on their overall corporate costs, according to newly released data.

20 Apr 2010

ITI granted AOAC approval for additional Salmonella matrices

Idaho Technology, Inc. (ITI) has received AOAC Performance Tested Method approval for two additional Salmonella matrices—stainless steel environmental samples and dry pet food. These matrices join the list of already approved matrices in the Salmonella LT Food Security System including chocolate, cooked ham, fresh raw chicken, lettuce, raw ground beef, and liquid whole eggs. This assay uses real-time PCR technology to identify the presence of Salmonella in less than one hour after a pre-enrichment period.

20 Apr 2010

Rudd offers more funding for health overhaul

With the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in talks with the state and territory leaders in Canberra at Parliament House the country waits to see the result of the discussions on the health reforms. The Premiers of Western Australia, Colin Barnett and Victoria, John Brumby, have both been fighting against the federal government’s desire to take away their GST money. At the same time the New South Wales Premier Kristina Keneally has been asking for a sustainable health system plan that does not affect the tax payers.

20 Apr 2010

KHN column -- Report from Michigan: What state residents stand to gain from health reform

On their way to Washington last week, Tea Party activists stopped in Lansing, Michigan. And among the officials who addressed them was Mike Cox, the state's Republican attorney general.

20 Apr 2010

Senate committee targets claim rejections by health insurers

The News Journal: A Senate committee has sent letters to two more Delaware insurance companies that have denied coverage for nuclear stress tests, imaging tests that are used to identify heart-attack causing arterial blockage.

20 Apr 2010

Health law hits consumers, companies in complex ways

News outlets report on the new health law's impact on various segments of the population, including the self-employed, small business owners and seniors.

20 Apr 2010

Spacelabs Healthcare launches Ultraview DM3 vital signs monitor

Combining the simplistic performance of a spot-check monitor with the sophistication of continuous monitoring, Spacelabs Healthcare's Ultraview DM3 provides caregivers with a dual-mode solution for accurately and efficiently measuring vital signs (SpO2, pulse rate, non-invasive blood pressure, respiration and temperature) on adult and pediatric patients.

20 Apr 2010

Two large health insurers extend coverage to young adults

The Wall Street Journal / Dow Jones: Two large U.S. health insurers have announced plans "to keep young adults on their parents' policies before a new law requiring such action goes into effect, and the government is working to get others to do the same. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, citing the insurers' moves, said Monday her department is 'working hard with other insurers on similar proposals' and sent letters offering to assist them in such efforts.

20 Apr 2010

Panel to save Medicare costs irks lawmakers

A Medicare panel meant to help lawmakers make tough choices about cutting costs in the program has drawn bipartisan ire, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports.

20 Apr 2010

Obama camp, industry shift from political battle to implementation focus

President Barack Obama's administration is shifting its focus from the politics of the health overhaul to the work of implementing it, which officials may pursue even more quickly than required by the law, The New York Times reports. Top health officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, White House adviser Pete Rouse, and Obama's health care lobbyist Nancy-Ann DeParle will all play central roles in implementing the law.

20 Apr 2010

Health care a key factor in some congressional races

USA Today: "In an election year dominated by health care, dozens of candidates for Congress have a catchy campaign slogan at their disposal: Send a doctor to the House. Forty-seven physicians — 41 Republicans and six Democrats — are running for the House or Senate this year, three times the number of doctors serving in Congress today, according to a USA TODAY review" (Fritze, 4/19).

20 Apr 2010