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Every medical facility within health system now equipped with Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect

Kaiser Permanente announced today that every medical facility within the health system is now equipped with Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect®, the largest private sector electronic health record in the world.

4 Mar 2010

Lawmakers work on Medicare drug and mental health legislation

House Democrats are preparing to introduce legislation on Medicare drug prices and an effort to tackle some individual health issues while Congress debates a comprehensive bill.

4 Mar 2010

Kansas lawmakers debate legality of health insurance mandate amendment

Kansas Health Institute: "Republicans and Democrats were sharply divided Tuesday over a proposed constitutional amendment that sponsors said would let federal officials know Kansans don't want to be told by the government that they must buy health insurance. On a 12-9, party-line vote, the House Health and Human Services Committee voted to recommend House Concurrent Resolution 5032 favorable for passage.

4 Mar 2010

New Verizon Medical Data Exchange platform launched

In a significant step toward accelerating the adoption of electronic health records, Verizon Business has launched an information technology platform that enables the digital sharing of physician-dictated patient notes.

4 Mar 2010

Senate gridlock ends, COBRA and Medicare fees extended

Los Angeles Times: "Senate leaders Tuesday night resolved an impasse over emergency aid to the jobless that had driven a wedge into Republican ranks and given Democrats a political weapon. The deal overcame the continued objections of a single senator, Republican Jim Bunning of Kentucky, who for days had held up short-term extensions of unemployment and COBRA benefits over concerns that the bill would increase the federal deficit." The measure passed with a 78-19 vote (Oliphant, 3/2).

4 Mar 2010

South Carolina, Oklahoma and Arkansas grapple with Medicaid cuts to help balance budget

States consider major cuts to Medicaid services and reimbursement rates to help fill gaps in the budget.

4 Mar 2010

Nearly 30% of physicians access medical information using handheld device: SDI

According to SDI’s Mobile & Social Media Study: Physicians’ Views of Emerging Technology, approximately 30% of physicians access medical information using a handheld device or smartphone. The most popular handheld device or smartphone is the Apple iPhone, with 31% of respondents owning one.

4 Mar 2010

Pharmacists could be integral to the education and screening of people for osteoporosis, says researcher

University of Alberta researcher Nese Yuksel says pharmacists could be integral to the education and screening of people for osteoporosis, as pharmacists are easily accessible and are playing a greater role in health promotion and disease prevention.

4 Mar 2010

GOP rejects Obama's compromise on health care, wants 'new approach'

USA Today: "President Obama offered to add a handful of Republican ideas to his 10-year, $950 billion health care plan Tuesday but was rebuffed and urged to start over.The letter from Obama to the GOP signalling his interest in four specific Republican health reform ideas was met with an icy reception from Republican leaders. ... 'We were surprised and disappointed with your latest proposal to simply paper a few of these common-sense proposals over an unsalvageable bill,' wrote Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky." (Wolf and Fritze, 3/2).

4 Mar 2010

Wasteful medical spending clogs health care industry

CNN: "Consider this: For every dollar the nation spends on health care, 50 cents is wasted. According to a 2008 report by Pricewaterhouse Cooper's Health Research Institute, wasteful spending accounts for $1.2 trillion of the $2.2 trillion spent on health care in the United States." CNN says the waste includes "costs associated with inefficient insurance claims processing, defensive medicine, preventable hospital readmissions, medical errors, and unnecessary emergency room visits."

4 Mar 2010

Stimulus spurs health IT adoption, but rush may hurt programs' quality

Within the next two years, 58 percent of small physician practices surveyed by Accenture and Harris Interactive will have begun using electronic medical records, Computerworld/BusinessWeek reports. Only 15 percent of those doctors' practices are now using the technology, and the shift is likely driven by federal subsidies to help physicians buy the technology, as well as future penalties for those who do not. Both the subsidies and penalties are a result of last year's economic stimulus package (Mearian, 3/2).

4 Mar 2010

Foodborne illness raises U.S healthcare costs

Acute foodborne illnesses cost the United States an estimated $152 billion per year in healthcare, workplace and other economic losses, according to a report published today by the Produce Safety Project (PSP).

4 Mar 2010

Obama to include GOP ideas in health proposal today

With President Barack Obama's release today of his latest health reform plan, he hopes to propel the dialogue forward as he also signals willingness to incorporate GOP ideas into his proposal.

4 Mar 2010

Obama presses forward in health overhaul efforts

The Wall Street Journal: "President Barack Obama made a final push for comprehensive health-care legislation, calling on lawmakers to schedule a vote in the next few weeks." Obama urged Congress to "press ahead with a comprehensive bill," which will involve using reconciliation. "But he didn't use the term reconciliation, instead calling for a simple 'up or down vote.'" He appealed to public frustration with insurance companies and emphasized that he had included GOP ideas into his plan (Meckler, 3/3).

4 Mar 2010

Research explores the importance of patient's outlook on health behavior and health status

Research published in the March edition of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology explored the importance of a patient's outlook as it relates to health behavior and health status. Researchers focused on lung cancer patients and discovered that those who exhibited an optimistic disposition experienced more favorable outcomes than those with a pessimistic disposition.

4 Mar 2010

Daschle: Incremental health reforms won't work

Kaiser Health News editors and reporters talked Monday with former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle about health reform's current dynamics, strategies, key issues and chances of passage.

4 Mar 2010

Kaiser Permanente awards $500,000 grant to Community Health Alliance of Pasadena

Kaiser Permanente announced today that it is awarding a half million dollar grant to the Community Health Alliance of Pasadena to help fund the expansion of primary health care services at the Pasadena Community Care Center for residents of the San Gabriel Valley.

4 Mar 2010

NAEC elects Mayo Clinic as top epilepsy treatment center

Mayo Clinic has been designated a comprehensive epilepsy treatment center by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers (NAEC). Only the top epilepsy programs - those that can provide the most complex and advanced care - are selected for this designation, according to the association.

3 Mar 2010

Eyeing reconciliation for health reform, GOP launches preemptive strike on Senate parliamentarian

News outlets profile Senate parliamentarian Alan Frumin, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and the "everyday Americans" invited to a White House forum on health care last year.

3 Mar 2010

House expanding inquiry of health insurance rate hikes

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which held a hearing last week on a California insurer's rate increases, is expanding its investigation.

3 Mar 2010

Healthcare News

Every medical facility within health system now equipped with Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect

Lawmakers work on Medicare drug and mental health legislation

Kansas lawmakers debate legality of health insurance mandate amendment

New Verizon Medical Data Exchange platform launched

Senate gridlock ends, COBRA and Medicare fees extended

South Carolina, Oklahoma and Arkansas grapple with Medicaid cuts to help balance budget

Nearly 30% of physicians access medical information using handheld device: SDI

Pharmacists could be integral to the education and screening of people for osteoporosis, says researcher

GOP rejects Obama's compromise on health care, wants 'new approach'

Wasteful medical spending clogs health care industry

Stimulus spurs health IT adoption, but rush may hurt programs' quality

Foodborne illness raises U.S healthcare costs

Obama to include GOP ideas in health proposal today

Obama presses forward in health overhaul efforts

Research explores the importance of patient's outlook on health behavior and health status

Daschle: Incremental health reforms won't work

Kaiser Permanente awards $500,000 grant to Community Health Alliance of Pasadena

NAEC elects Mayo Clinic as top epilepsy treatment center

Eyeing reconciliation for health reform, GOP launches preemptive strike on Senate parliamentarian

House expanding inquiry of health insurance rate hikes

Empowering genomics research with cloud-based innovation

Quality, Patient Safety and Innovation Manager at Elsevier

How Bruker worked with the University of Manchester on mapping the dynamics of complex protein

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