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New database answers question: How healthy is your county?

A new database compares the health of the more than 3,000 counties in the U.S.

18 Feb 2010

Dental insurance fraud: Solutions for benefit cost containment

When Dianne Rose, D.D.S., and her partner, Anthony Paciello, D.M.D., inaugurated P&R Dental Strategies, Inc. over 20 years ago to provide third-party claim review services for national insurance companies, trade unions, self-administered corporations and other dental claims payers, they could not have imagined how far they would eventually be able to take the art of insurance claim review.

18 Feb 2010

Additional 4M people in Asia could fall to 'extreme poverty' level this year, report says

While approximately 17 million Asians fell into "extreme poverty" due to the global economic situation in 2009, another four million in the region "could this year slip into the same situation due to the effects of the slump," according to a report released by representatives from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) in Manlia on Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reports.

18 Feb 2010

Review: Giving employees more flexibility over their work schedules likely to boost their health

A new evidence review suggests that giving employees more flexibility over their work schedules is likely to boost their health as judged by measures like blood pressure and stress. But interventions that are motivated or dictated by the needs of the employer, such as cutting hours, either have no effect on employee health or make it worse.

18 Feb 2010

AGHE to hold conference to discuss on gerontological and geriatric education and training

The Association for Gerontology in Higher Education - the educational branch of The Gerontological Society of America - will hold its 36th Annual Meeting and Educational Leadership Conference from March 4 to 7, 2010, at The Peppermill in Reno, NV. This conference provides a forum for professionals in the field of aging to present their work and share ideas about gerontological and geriatric education and training.

18 Feb 2010

Program for healthcare writing opportunities

With ever-rising healthcare spending, writing opportunities about the health and wellness industry are unlimited. “Regardless of economic conditions, writers will always have lots of topics to cover,” says Sherry Shameer Cohen, President of the Connecticut Press Club.

18 Feb 2010

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

Healthcare News

New database answers question: How healthy is your county?

Dental insurance fraud: Solutions for benefit cost containment

Additional 4M people in Asia could fall to 'extreme poverty' level this year, report says

Review: Giving employees more flexibility over their work schedules likely to boost their health

AGHE to hold conference to discuss on gerontological and geriatric education and training

Program for healthcare writing opportunities

Media examine fight against counterfeit drugs

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

Insurance rates soar in various states

FedSources releases in-depth report on Federal healthcare technology market

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

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

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

ACP urges Congress and Obama to enact comprehensive health care reform

Former Senate parliamentarian questions reconciliation, Senators want public option back

Health on the Hill - February 16, 2010

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

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

Top health groups increased political spending in 2009

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

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Quality, Patient Safety and Innovation Manager at Elsevier

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