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Media examine fight against counterfeit drugs

The Wall Street Journal reports on the recent shutdown of a counterfeit drug ring in Syria, while highlighting a broader problem with counterfeit medicines in the Middle East. Authorities intercepted "millions of dollars worth of breast cancer, leukemia and other medicines … At least 65 people were detained; it couldn't be learned if they were charged. A trial date hasn't yet been set," according to the newspaper, which notes that the drug ring distributor's activities had also penetrated into some public health systems, "particularly in Iraq."

18 Feb 2010

Hot button health reform issues: The individual mandate and selling insurance across state lines

News outlets report on several of the hot button issues in the health care debate, including the individual mandate and selling insurance across state lines.

18 Feb 2010

Insurance rates soar in various states

People who buy their own health insurance are seeing their premiums increases by 15 percent or more in four states, and those in others could be faced with the same, The Associated Press/Seattle Times reports.

18 Feb 2010

FedSources releases in-depth report on Federal healthcare technology market

FedSources, a Washington Management Group company, has released an in-depth report analyzing spending trends within the Federal healthcare technology market, including health IT.

18 Feb 2010

Utah tries to improve state health insurance exhange; Mich. plans for doctor shortage

The Salt Lake Tribune: "State health reform got a boost Tuesday with House passage of a fix-it bill to improve the Utah Health Exchange, an online tool for purchasing health insurance. Pitched as a free-market approach to lowering costs for small businesses, the exchange has had limited success. Only 400 people are receiving health insurance in its experimental first stage. And some of its 66 plans are up to 130 percent more expensive than what some companies were already paying. That's because insurers are calculating premiums differently 'inside' and 'outside' the exchange, said House Speaker Dave Clark" (Stewart, 2/16).

17 Feb 2010

WellPoint cancels investor meeting to prepare for congressional hearing on premium hikes

WellPoint, the parent company of Anthem Blue Cross, has canceled an investor meeting "so that executives can prepare for a congressional hearing on the company's large rate hikes in California," the Los Angeles Times reports. "A subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce has called WellPoint Inc. Chief Executive Angela F. Braly to testify Feb. 24 about planned premium increases of as much as 39% for many of Anthem's 800,000 individual policyholders in California."

17 Feb 2010

Calif. budget cuts would end aid to new legal immigrants; Minn. Dems criticize Pawlenty for relying on federal funds

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest proposals to close California's budget shortfall would end public assistance for most new legal immigrants, eliminating emergency cash, food and medical aid for those who don't yet qualify for federal welfare. The proposal would represent an about-face for the state.

17 Feb 2010

ACP urges Congress and Obama to enact comprehensive health care reform

"The unfortunate truth is that by many measures, the State of America's health care is in decline," Joseph W. Stubbs, MD, FACP, president of the American College of Physicians (ACP), reported today at ACP's annual State of the Nation's Health Care briefing. "We have too many uninsured, too few primary care physicians, and the cost of health care is rising faster than we can afford."

17 Feb 2010

Former Senate parliamentarian questions reconciliation, Senators want public option back

A former Senate parliamentarian said Tuesday that using reconciliation to pass health care reform will be difficult because the procedure wasn't meant to make policy, Politico's Live Pulse blog reports. The former parliamentarian, Robert Dove, who now teaches at George Washington University, said there are many things that cannot be put into the reconciliation bill. "Dove would know. In 1974, in the midst of his 36-year Senate career, he helped design the Congressional Budget Act, which first created the rules for reconciliation.

17 Feb 2010

Health on the Hill - February 16, 2010

Kaiser Health News staff writer Mary Agnes Carey and Eric Pianin of the Fiscal Times talk with the Kaiser Family Foundation's Jackie Judd about recent events on Capitol Hill. For instance, President Obama has scheduled a bipartisan summit for Feb. 25 to discuss ways to pass health care overhaul legislation this year.

17 Feb 2010

Deficit panel to tackle worries of federal debt, including health spending

The New York Times reports that President Obama's appointment of a special panel to study the nation's debt will come "(a)fter decades of warnings that budgetary profligacy, escalating health care costs and an aging population would lead to a day of fiscal reckoning."

17 Feb 2010

COBRA expansion, Medicare payments to doctors 'fix' looming over Congress

Lawmakers seek ways to expand COBRA and address the Medicare doctor payment "fix."

17 Feb 2010

Top health groups increased political spending in 2009

USA Today: "Pharmacists, optometrists and groups representing an array of medical specialists boosted their political giving in 2009, as Congress worked on health care legislation that would dramatically reshape their industry. ... Donations by the top 15 health care political action committees rose to $11.7 million in 2009, a nearly 14% increase from 2007, the most recent non-election year, according to a USA TODAY analysis of data compiled by CQ MoneyLine."

17 Feb 2010

White House hints at new health bill as GOP sees possible upside in summit

White House officials "hinted on Tuesday that President Obama might post his own [health care] bill on the Internet before the bipartisan health care summit he is planning" next week, The New York Times reports. "In the nearly a year since Congress began debating a health care overhaul, Mr. Obama has yet to make his own priorities explicit. He said at the outset that he would set broad parameters for the measure and leave the details to lawmakers." Obama said last week that hoped to post to the Internet a merged bill that would address costs and expand coverage.

17 Feb 2010

St. David's Healthcare to acquire Texas-based multi-hospital regional healthcare system

St. David's HealthCare and MedCath Corporation today announced an agreement for St. David's HealthCare to acquire the Heart Hospital of Austin. St. David's HealthCare is a multi-hospital regional healthcare system based in Austin, Texas.

17 Feb 2010

Wellstar International commences Beta Test in Long Term Care Facility

Wellstar International, Inc. has announced they have started the Beta Test in a Long Term Care Facility.

17 Feb 2010

MedCath to sell Heart Hospital of Austin to St. David's Healthcare Partnership

MedCath Corporation and its physician partners announced today that they have entered into a definitive agreement to sell substantially all the assets of Heart Hospital of Austin to St. David's Healthcare Partnership, L.P. ("St. David's"). The transaction is expected to close during MedCath's third fiscal quarter of 2010, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory requirements.

17 Feb 2010

Physicians of New York Walk In Medical Group open new center in New York City

The physicians of New York Walk In Medical Group, PC, are opening the doors today at the fifth "DR Walk-In Medical Center" in a Duane Reade Pharmacy in New York City. The "Doctor on Premises" center will open at 10:00 a.m. at the new Duane Reade at 17th Street and Eighth Avenue in the Chelsea section of Manhattan.

17 Feb 2010

Nebraska laws to protect patients and healthcare providers against unfair prescription insurance practices

Dozens of patients and state and national advocacy and healthcare groups, including Nebraska Medical Association and Nebraska Nurses Association, today urged passage of two precedent-setting consumer protection healthcare bills during a hearing at the Nebraska State Capitol. These laws would be the first in the nation to protect patients and healthcare providers against unfair prescription insurance practices.

17 Feb 2010

SBi introduces 10-minute new surgical technique DVD for hand surgeons

Small Bone Innovations, Inc., a leading, privately-held orthopedics company focused exclusively on technologies and treatments for the small bones & joints, is making available to hand surgeons a new 10-minute new surgical technique DVD showing an innovative volar approach to insertion of its SR™ PIP (Proximal Interphalangeal) implant.

17 Feb 2010