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Breast cancer patient battles insurer; Recession burdens charity clinics

News outlets report on a patient's struggle to get coverage for cancer treatment and over-burdened charity clinics.

30 Jan 2010

Mass. probe finds discrepancies in health care payments; Experts examine Mayo Clinic as model for reform

The Boston Globe reports on discrepancies in payments for health care providers.

30 Jan 2010

Research roundup: Raising seniors' co-pays increases costs; The stimulus and safety net providers

New England Journal of Medicine: Increased Ambulatory Care Copayments And Hospitalizations Among The Elderly - This study examines the consequences of increasing copayments for outpatient care of Medicare enrollees in managed-care plans. "As compared with matched control plans in which copayments for ambulatory care were unchanged, Medicare plans that increased these copayments by an average of 95% for primary care and 74% for specialty care had a reduction in the number of outpatient visits but an increase in hospital admissions, in the number of days of hospital care, and in the proportion of enrollees who used hospital care," the authors write.

30 Jan 2010

Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center honored with HealthGrades' Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence

Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center has been identified by HealthGrades as a 2010 recipient of the Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence. HealthGrades awards this title to facilities that rank in the top five percent in overall clinical performance.

30 Jan 2010

Single payer bill passes Calif. Senate; Other states consider smaller health care changes

California's state Senate Thursday voted for a bill creating a single-payer health system Thursday.

30 Jan 2010

Rush Memorial Hospital completes implementation of Healthland EMR solution

Healthland, America's market leader of healthcare information solutions for small community and critical access hospitals, announced today that Indiana-based, Rush Memorial Hospital has completed implementation of the Healthland Electronic Medical Records (EMR) solution.

30 Jan 2010

Surgeon General's report lays out recommendations to address childhood obesity

"As many as one in three children are overweight or obese, according to a new report" released yesterday by U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin.

30 Jan 2010

Texas colleges readying students to build, maintain electronic medical records

Three central Texas colleges are applying for a federal grant to train students in the use of electronic medical records, The Texas Tribune reports. "Texas State University in San Marcos and the University of Texas at Austin are partnering with the University of Texas School of Health Information in Houston to apply for a new federal grant in health information that could bring in $6 million across the three campuses.

30 Jan 2010

Republicans tout alternative health care reform plans, react to Dems

Following President Barack Obama's challenge to "let me know" if they had better ideas for a health overhaul, Rep. John Boehner, the House Republican leader, said that their plan, rejected last November by the Democratic majority in the House, would satisfy Obama's goals to "bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured" and improve Medicare, BusinessWeek reports. "The Republican ideas ... may have a bigger role in defining party differences this election year than in crafting a compromise on the health bill. That's because the gap between the two approaches is so wide."

30 Jan 2010

Obama, Republicans face off on a range of issues including health reform

Politico: "President Barack Obama told House Republicans Friday that Washington can't break through partisan gridlock 'if we can't move past the politics of no' — then engaged with them in an extraordinary back-and-forth straight out of the House of Commons."

30 Jan 2010

White House wants to scale up war on Medicare fraud

The White House plans to ask Congress to increase funding for fighting Medicare fraud by 80 percent, in hopes of curbing billions of dollars in abuses, Dow Jones Newswires/NASDAQ reports. Already, "The administration has stepped up enforcement and prevention efforts targeting Medicare claims. Rather than rely on tips, it has begun combining Medicare claims data into a single, searchable database, making it easier to pinpoint suspicious claims among the more than $1 billion spent on such claims each day" (Burns, 1/28).

30 Jan 2010

Dental hygienists provide free oral care services for Valentine's Day

To honour the spirit of Valentine's Day, on February 13 registered dental hygienists across the province will provide oral care services to the public at no cost.

30 Jan 2010

Pelosi, Reid search for health reform's forward path

Legislative leaders in search of momentum on health reform "conceded that they did not have an immediate strategy for advancing a health care measure and described their time frame as open-ended," The New York Times reports.

30 Jan 2010

Today's opinions and editorials

By not acknowledging America's concerns about health reform Wednesday night, the president appeared inflexible and incapable of real compromise (Dr. Marc Siegel, 1/28).

30 Jan 2010

Recent releases in Global Health

Rajiv Shah's appointment as USAID administrator "comes at a crucial time of challenge and opportunity for the Agency to improve the nutritional well-being of impoverished societies," write the authors of a Lancet Comment that examines the U.S. Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative. Though the initiative "sends a clear message to the world about U.S. intent to partner with poor nations to achieve their national food and nutrition goals … the Initiative's nutrition plan, unlike its detailed agricultural blueprint, currently lacks a comprehensive set of aims, activities, research needs, and programme benchmarks," the authors write.

29 Jan 2010