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A right to health care? wrong!

Years of debating liberal friends and colleagues has brought me to an understanding: This question is at the core of the debate. The absurd notion of a “right” to health care underlies the movement towards socialized medicine. If this right does exist, it becomes a moral imperative to guarantee it for all, i.e. “universal coverage.”

18 Mar 2010

As the nation focuses on quality and cost of health care, AMA-convened PCPI celebrates milestone and looks to future

Celebrating its 10 year anniversary today at its meeting in the nation’s capital, the AMA-convened Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (PCPI) highlighted its achievements to date and took a proactive look at future efforts to measure and improve the quality of patient care.

18 Mar 2010

Reforming healthcare

President Obama and his chief allies in Congress are at the final stages of structuring the historic year-long process of reforms in the health care legislation with changes in subsidies, taxes and assurance of better health care plans.

18 Mar 2010

Unemployed and uninsured in California

One fourth of the adult and children population of California have no access to insurance. 6.4 million people were uninsured in 2007 and figures jumped up to 8.2 million in just 2 years. Recession and unemployment was thought to be the major contributing factor according to the investigators from UCLA's Center for Health Policy Research.

18 Mar 2010

Health care fraud, prescription theft lead to significant losses

ABC News: "A four month 'Nightline' investigation into Medicare fraud makes one thing perfectly clear: this is a crime that pays and pays and pays. The federal government admits that a staggering $60 billion is stolen from tax payers through Medicare scams every year. Some experts believe the number is more than twice that.

18 Mar 2010

Lawsuit shows insurer targeted HIV patients for 'rescission'

A court case has revealed that the insurer Fortis, now called Assurant Health, automatically targeted customers diagnosed with HIV for fraud investigations geared toward finding reasons to revoke their coverage, Reuters reports. After a computer algorithm initiated the investigations, "their insurance policies often were canceled on erroneous information, the flimsiest of evidence, or for no good reason at all, according to the court documents and interviews with state and federal investigators."

18 Mar 2010

CBO is straining under the weight of health care requests

The Congressional Budget Office is feeling the strain of dealing with the high-profile requests for scoring health care legislation as Democrats move toward releasing a reconciliation bill, "a stressor that may have contributed to the recent incorrect scoring of a draft House provision," Politico reports.

18 Mar 2010

States weigh taxes to help fund Medicaid—and raise federal contributions

Reporting for Kaiser Health News, Andy Miller looks at four states -- Georgia, Wisconsin, Iowa and Tennessee -- that are weighing new taxes on hospitals to help finance their beleaguered Medicaid programs.

18 Mar 2010

Meta-study: Seven health risks impair academic performance of urban minority youth

"Educationally relevant health disparities" are key drivers of the achievement gap, "but they are largely overlooked," Charles Basch, the Richard March Hoe Professor of Health Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, said at a recent panel discussion at the College.

18 Mar 2010

Humedica, Anceta unveil health care data solutions at AMGA 2010 Annual Conference

Humedica, a next-generation clinical informatics company, and Anceta, the healthcare informatics subsidiary of the American Medical Group Association, today announced the launch of Humedica MinedShare™ Ambulatory as well as AMGA’s Anceta Collaborative Data Warehouse at the AMGA 2010 Annual Conference, taking place now through March 20 in New Orleans.

18 Mar 2010

Harden Healthcare receives $31.5M as part of $145M senior secured credit facility

GE Capital, Healthcare Financial Services has provided $31.5 million as part of a $145 million senior secured credit facility for Harden Healthcare, LLC. Harden will use the proceeds of the financing to provide additional growth capital and to refinance its existing debt facilities. GE Capital is the administrative agent for the credit facility. GE Capital Markets served as co-lead arranger and joint bookrunner.

18 Mar 2010

SGH recognized as winner of Microsoft HUG 2010 Innovation Awards

Eclipsys Corporation®, The Outcomes Company®, today announced that Singapore General Hospital, Singapore’s oldest and largest acute tertiary hospital and national referral center, has been recognized as a winner of the Microsoft HUG 2010 Innovation Awards in the category of “Best Use of Clinical Records — Inpatient.”

18 Mar 2010

Southern California’s Sexual Recovery Institute introduces additional Intensive Outpatient Programs

Southern California’s Sexual Recovery Institute (SRI), the leading outpatient treatment center for sex addiction, has announced additional Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP). The expansion is a result of increased awareness of sex addiction issues as the mainstream media begins to shed light on high profile scandals and subsequent treatment methods.

18 Mar 2010

Healthcare Reform: Congressman Chaka Fattah calls for single up-or-down vote

Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA) issues the following statement calling for a single up-or-down vote on Healthcare Reform:

18 Mar 2010

BMA Scotland comment on the publication of the Patient Rights

“BMA Scotland supports the Scottish Government’s aim to encourage a stronger sense of public ownership of the NHS and the renewed commitment to provide a service which is publicly funded and owned, free at the point of delivery. As such, we welcome the commitment to articulate the rights and responsibilities of all those using and providing NHS services.

18 Mar 2010

French National Program finds significant decreases in the rates of HAIs since 2004

Researchers evaluating France's national infection control program for healthcare facilities found significant decreases in the rates of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) since 2004. The drop in HAIs, including MRSA and surgical site infections, could be attributed to important changes in the national infection control system.

18 Mar 2010

First Edition: March 18, 2010

Today's headlines indicate that Democrats are inching closer to securing the votes necessary to pass their health bill while the GOP is planning steps to bottle neck the measure's progress.

18 Mar 2010

Study finds the cost of cancer care is skyrocketing

USA Today: "The cost of cancer treatment is 'skyrocketing' — both for individual patients and the nation, a new analysis shows. From 1990 to 2008, spending on cancer care soared to more than $90 billion from $27 billion. The increase was driven by the rising costs of sophisticated new drugs, robotic surgeries and radiation techniques, as well as the growing number of patients who are eligible to take them, says Peter Bach of New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Cancer, co-author of an analysis in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.

18 Mar 2010

Health IT Now! Coalition panel discussion: Develop affordable access to broadband and healthcare

The Health IT Now! Coalition hosted a panel discussion today with the Federal Communications Commission and a panel of experts to discuss the FCC's National Broadband Plan and its proposals to develop affordable access to broadband and healthcare.

18 Mar 2010

Bleach-based disinfectants more effective against noroviruses

Some 40% of commercial disinfectants used to clean surfaces are believed to be ineffective in eliminating noroviruses, a group of viruses responsible for more than half of all foodborne gastroenteritis outbreaks. According to a recent study published by Universit- Laval researchers in the Journal of Food Protection, only bleach-based disinfectants drastically reduce the concentration of these viruses.

18 Mar 2010

Healthcare News

A right to health care? wrong!

As the nation focuses on quality and cost of health care, AMA-convened PCPI celebrates milestone and looks to future

Reforming healthcare

Unemployed and uninsured in California

Health care fraud, prescription theft lead to significant losses

Lawsuit shows insurer targeted HIV patients for 'rescission'

CBO is straining under the weight of health care requests

States weigh taxes to help fund Medicaid—and raise federal contributions

Meta-study: Seven health risks impair academic performance of urban minority youth

Humedica, Anceta unveil health care data solutions at AMGA 2010 Annual Conference

Harden Healthcare receives $31.5M as part of $145M senior secured credit facility

SGH recognized as winner of Microsoft HUG 2010 Innovation Awards

Southern California’s Sexual Recovery Institute introduces additional Intensive Outpatient Programs

Healthcare Reform: Congressman Chaka Fattah calls for single up-or-down vote

BMA Scotland comment on the publication of the Patient Rights

French National Program finds significant decreases in the rates of HAIs since 2004

First Edition: March 18, 2010

Study finds the cost of cancer care is skyrocketing

Health IT Now! Coalition panel discussion: Develop affordable access to broadband and healthcare

Bleach-based disinfectants more effective against noroviruses

Digital pathology and the PathoVerse: A conversation with Dr. Singh

Bioprocess Efficiency with Cell Density Monitoring

Exploring electron microscopy for plant and microbial imaging at the John Innes Centre

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