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Today's OpEds: Questioning transparency, the bipartisan summit and starting anew

Hours of health care debate were broadcast on C-SPAN for the dozen or so Americans who were watching. Some of the negotiations were not broadcast, but why demand of the health reform bill a level of transparency not required of any other legislation? Does anyone know what is in the most recent farm bill, which costs two-thirds as much as the health reform legislation will? (Timothy Stoltzfus Jost, 2/9).

10 Feb 2010

PHNS launches new "24/7 Claims Acceleration" services for U.S. hospitals

PHNS Inc. announced its new "24/7 Claims Acceleration" services for U.S. hospitals using a team of Chinese business analysts trained by PHNS and China-based IT and business process outsourcing provider iSoftStone. The Chinese business analysts are located in iSoftStone's Global Delivery Center in Tianjin, China. All of this new team have bachelor's or master's-equivalent degrees, and have completed months of specialized PHNS' hospital claims resolution training, facilitated by specialists from both PHNS and iSoftStone.

10 Feb 2010

New webinar to discuss financial and performance-related implications of medical homes

Recent and ongoing national conversations on healthcare reform have shone a spotlight on a new approach to patient-oriented, cost effective healthcare.

10 Feb 2010

Kansas to downsize hospitals for disabled; Nevada may cut enrollment in programs for mentally ill and seniors

Kansas Health Institute reports on downsizing at hospitals for the developmentally disabled: "Admissions to Kansas Neurological Institute will be halted this summer and restricted at Parsons State Hospital, the state's top welfare agency official said today.

10 Feb 2010

G7 forgives Haiti's bilateral loans to support aid effort

At a press conference on Saturday, "Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said he and his G-7 colleagues would forgive bilateral loans extended to poverty-stricken Haiti, which estimates it could have lost 200,000 residents in the major earthquake that hit last month," Dow Jones Newswires reports.

10 Feb 2010

States push ahead on health care reforms and policy issues, pre-empting some provisions of congressional efforts

"State lawmakers in at least three dozen states are pushing ahead with a series of measures aimed at pre-empting whatever might come out of Washington. On the left, Democrats in the California Senate recently approved a measure to establish a state-run, single-payer health care system favored by liberals on Capitol Hill. And on the right, conservatives in Virginia and other states are pushing legislation to stave off federal efforts to mandate that individuals secure insurance coverage or require businesses to provide it" (O'Connor, 2/9).

10 Feb 2010

Loyola University Chicago offers new research-intensive program for healthcare industry

Registration is underway for Loyola University Chicago's new infectious disease & immunology master's degree program that will prepare graduates for challenging health-related positions in government, research and private industry.

10 Feb 2010

Obama: No 'short cut' to deal with health reform issues

President Barack Obama surprised reporters by coming into the White House briefing Tuesday afternoon following a meeting with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders.

10 Feb 2010

Idaho Health Freedom Act: Passage will lead to loss of $1.6 billion in federal health care funding

As the Idaho House approved legislation today laying the groundwork to oppose a non-existent federal health care law, the long-term effects of the move could be felt for years to come. AARP is calling the Idaho Health Freedom Act (House Bill 391) a disastrous and problem-riddled piece of legislation that, if signed into law, could see Idaho lose nearly $1.6 billion in federal health care funding for the state and cost thousands of jobs.

10 Feb 2010

Third-party-payment system needs reform, says AAPS

The 2,000-page "Obamacare" agenda is stalled, but some want to try to jump-start "reform." Republicans introduced a 200-page substitute for H.R. 3962, which failed on a vote of 176 to 258. Now the President plans to meet with Republican congressional leaders.

10 Feb 2010

New Multi-Cycle program reduces risk of infertility treatment for older mothers

Fertility experts at the Reproductive Science Center of the Bay Area (RSC) announced they have launched a new program from IntegraMed geared toward easing the risk of infertility treatment for qualified women of ages 49 and younger who want to use their own eggs in order to achieve pregnancy.

10 Feb 2010

Health officials encourage caution, despite H1N1 case decline

As the number of new H1N1 (swine flu) infections worldwide drops, U.S. health officials on Friday cautioned the virus continues to circulate and can still be deadly, Reuters reports. According to the WHO, H1N1 remains the dominant strain worldwide, but there are reports of the recent emergence of the seasonal flu in Africa and China, according to the news agency.

10 Feb 2010

Insurer to take new role in assessing cancer treatments

UnitedHealthcare, one of the nation's biggest insurance companies, has decided to take a more active role in the care of its policy holders who are being treated for several types of cancer, The Wall Street Journal reports.

9 Feb 2010

GOP wary of talks while both sides express low expectations for health care summit

News outlets are focusing on political reaction to President Obama's Feb. 25 bipartisan summit on health care reform.

9 Feb 2010

CQ examines concerns over Obama's FY2011 global health budget

Congressional Quarterly examines concerns among health advocates and international development experts about what President Obama's FY 2011 budget request might mean to U.S. commitments to particular diseases abroad, such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

9 Feb 2010

Nursing home provides non-medical care for individuals faced with health or mobility challenges

Alan Revell of Milford worked for one day as a supervisor in a nursing home before he quit. What he witnessed was the inspiration for the newly formed Caring Rose Home Care of Annandale.

9 Feb 2010

Faced with stalled overhaul, Dems still wonder who to blame

Congressional Democrats continue to divvy up blame for the stalled health overhaul, with fingers now pointed toward centrist Democrats and Republicans, President Barack Obama or even White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, depending on the blamer's perspective.

9 Feb 2010

A.M. Best assigns issuer credit ratings to VBHS and its core facilities

A.M. Best Co. has assigned an issuer credit rating (ICR) of “bbb-” to Valley Baptist Health System (VBHS) and its two cornerstone facilities, Valley Baptist Medical Center-Harlingen (VBMC) and Valley Baptist Medical Center-Brownsville (VBMC-B) (Brownsville, TX). The outlook for these ratings is stable.

9 Feb 2010

Surgical 'checklist' saves money, lives

The Newshour has a transcript of a feature report on Dr. Atul Gawande's new book, "The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right," which "grew out of work he did for the World Health Organization, which asked him to help them find a way to reduce deaths in surgery."

9 Feb 2010

As health overhaul stalls, hospitals face rising cost of uncompensated care

For American hospitals, "the cost of doing nothing in Washington translates into tens of billions of dollars each year in medical bills that go unpaid by patients with little or no insurance," The New York Times reports.

9 Feb 2010

Healthcare News

Today's OpEds: Questioning transparency, the bipartisan summit and starting anew

PHNS launches new "24/7 Claims Acceleration" services for U.S. hospitals

New webinar to discuss financial and performance-related implications of medical homes

Kansas to downsize hospitals for disabled; Nevada may cut enrollment in programs for mentally ill and seniors

G7 forgives Haiti's bilateral loans to support aid effort

States push ahead on health care reforms and policy issues, pre-empting some provisions of congressional efforts

Loyola University Chicago offers new research-intensive program for healthcare industry

Obama: No 'short cut' to deal with health reform issues

Idaho Health Freedom Act: Passage will lead to loss of $1.6 billion in federal health care funding

Third-party-payment system needs reform, says AAPS

New Multi-Cycle program reduces risk of infertility treatment for older mothers

Health officials encourage caution, despite H1N1 case decline

Insurer to take new role in assessing cancer treatments

GOP wary of talks while both sides express low expectations for health care summit

CQ examines concerns over Obama's FY2011 global health budget

Nursing home provides non-medical care for individuals faced with health or mobility challenges

Faced with stalled overhaul, Dems still wonder who to blame

A.M. Best assigns issuer credit ratings to VBHS and its core facilities

Surgical 'checklist' saves money, lives

As health overhaul stalls, hospitals face rising cost of uncompensated care

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