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Hopkins dentist offers free dental care for needy people

Celebrate late this year – the last Friday of February, almost two weeks after Valentine’s Day, Shamblott Family Dentistry will again spread goodwill and cheer to the local community with a Dentistry from the Heart (DFTH) event. This year’s DFTH will be the fourth annual event offering gifts of free fillings and extractions to the first people who show up at Dr. Scott Shamblott’s office in Hopkins.

22 Jan 2010

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation supports the ISE Annual Conference with $25,000 grant

The Adler School of Professional Psychology has received a $25,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to support the Annual Conference of the Institute on Social Exclusion. This year's conference, titled "The Social Determinants of Mental Health: from Awareness to Action," will be the first ever in the United States to convene innovative thinkers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to address this topic, and has already received international interest.

22 Jan 2010

PCMA releases statement on new legislation introduced by Congressman Stephen F. Lynch

The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) released the following statement today on new legislation introduced by Congressman Stephen F. Lynch (D-Mass.) — the FEHBP Prescription Drug Integrity, Transparency, and Cost Savings Act (H.R. 4489) — which would increase prescription drug costs and reduce choices for federal employees

22 Jan 2010

Analysis: Will financial incentives and penalties improve hospital care?

The English NHS should "proceed cautiously" in introducing payment for performance schemes aimed at improving the quality of care in hospitals, warn researchers from the University of York on bmj.com today.

22 Jan 2010

Why public support for health reform faltered

Kaiser Health News staff writers report, "As a candidate, Barack Obama promised to pass a health plan with important benefits for the average American.

22 Jan 2010

New study shows VBID program can save money

Value-based insurance design programs — which reduce patient co-payments for highly effective treatments — can break even financially or possibly save money, according to a new study from University of Michigan, Harvard and other researchers.

22 Jan 2010

Wars less deadly, most war-related deaths result from disease, hunger, report says

"Wars are less deadly than they once were and national mortality rates have continued to decline even during conflicts due to smaller scale fighting and better healthcare," according to a study released Wednesday by the Human Security Report Project, Reuters reports. "The report noted that most deaths in wars result from hunger and disease but said improved healthcare in peacetime had cut death tolls even during wartime, as had stepped up aid to people in war zones," according to the news service.

21 Jan 2010

Behavioral Innovations opens its first autism treatment center in Texas

Behavioral Innovations, the premier provider of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) services for families of children with autism and other developmental disorders, today announces the opening of its San Antonio location, which will begin offering services February 1. The company is in the process of expanding to Fort Worth and Wichita Falls where they will begin serving families in early spring.

21 Jan 2010

Cancer Research UK offers translation service for people affected by cancer

Thanks to a partnership with Language Line - who interpret telephone conversations in over 170 languages - people affected by cancer who need an interpreter can now have their questions answered.

21 Jan 2010

Five questions for successful weight loss

The American Society of Bariatric Physicians (ASBP) works with physicians so they’re better prepared to deal with society’s obesity epidemic. Even though people focus on weight loss more in January than any other month, successful weight loss is a year-round long-term initiative that goes far beyond just diet and exercise. The ASBP has highlighted five questions everyone who needs to lose weight should ask their physician.

21 Jan 2010

Republican leaders: Dems aren't reaching out to pass health reform bill

The Christian Science Monitor: Even after the GOP win in Massachusetts that cost Democrats their "filibuster-proof margin in the Senate," congressional Republican leaders say Democrats don't appear to want to work with them on a health care plan that could clear Congress, according to The Monitor Breakfast.

21 Jan 2010

Pelosi: Senate health bill won't pass the House without changes

Reuters: "U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday she does not think the Senate's version of healthcare reform has enough support in the House to pass without changes." She said she didn't see the votes for it, adding that Democratic congressional leaders were "not in a big rush" to figure out the next move on healthcare, but that they are committed to passing a bill this year (Smith, 1/21).

21 Jan 2010

AMA, AARP and MOAA join in unprecedented multi-state event to focus on Medicare physician cuts

Focusing on looming Medicare physician cuts of 21 percent that begin on March 1, the American Medical Association (AMA), AARP and the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) joined together today in an unprecedented multi-state event.

21 Jan 2010

State organizers mobilize against national health reform

State organizers are creating obstacles to national health care reform. In Colorado, Republican organizer Jon Caldara has vowed to derail national reforms with a ballot initiative. The Wall Street Journal reports about similar steps being taken across the country. "Republican attorneys general and governors ... are threatening to file suit to block a particular provision of the Senate bill that gives a special financial deal to Nebraska.

21 Jan 2010

Reuters examines chronic disease in developing countries, future of drug prices

"Global health projections leave little doubt that chronic diseases are rapidly overtaking infectious diseases, such as malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis (TB), as the world's biggest killers - a shift emphasized by a recent World Health Organization (WHO) report on global health risks," Reuters writes in a story analyzing the future of drug pricing in the developing world. Longer life-spans in developing countries "and changing patterns of food, alcohol and tobacco consumption are creating a 'double burden' for poor nations, piling chronic diseases on top of infectious diseases," the news service writes.

21 Jan 2010

States struggle with budget cuts, increased Medicaid pressure

News outlets look at developments in Medicaid issues. The Associated Press/ABC News reports on Louisiana: "Sen. Mary Landrieu defended the Senate's version of health care overhaul legislation — and language in it that provides up to $365 million in Medicaid money for Louisiana — as she discussed what her fellow Democrats should do after losing a crucial Senate seat to a Massachusetts Republican."

21 Jan 2010

U.S. Navy hospital ship reaches Haiti

Even before the U.S. Navy's hospital ship, Comfort, anchored off the coast of Haiti on Wednesday, patients who were injured in last week's earthquake were airlifted onto the ship to receive care, the Miami Herald reports (Clark, 1/21). According to the Baltimore Sun, "patients were flown in by the Navy, Coast Guard or Air Force in one of the 30 helicopters available within the ship's range. Plans for a boat-based shuttle were foiled by an earthquake aftershock that flattened the pier the Comfort had expected to use and that jolted the ship as if it had hit ground. Ship officials identified an alternate boat-landing site by midafternoon" (Little, 1/21).

21 Jan 2010

Democrats weigh imperfect options for moving forward on health reform

USA Today reports that "Democratic leaders say [Mass. Republican Scott] Brown's win hasn't killed the $1 trillion health care bill," but after a series of meetings Wednesday they still had no "clear plan for how to proceed."

21 Jan 2010

Medicare fraud round-up: N.D. beneficiaries getting illegal phone calls, doctor indicted in Ohio

The Bismarck Tribune reports on a new scheme "asking seniors to pay up for not having Part D coverage. The scammers have been calling beneficiaries saying they owe a penalty for not having the Part D prescription drug coverage and that they need to pay the fine right away, said a release from the office of the Insurance Commissioner" (1/20).

21 Jan 2010

Brown: Mass. voters shouldn't have to pay for national health reform

The Washington Post: "While many are describing the election to fill the late Edward M. Kennedy's Senate seat as a referendum on national health-care reform, the Republican candidate rode to victory on a message more nuanced than flat-out resistance to universal health coverage: Massachusetts residents, he said, already had insurance and should not have to pay for it elsewhere." The Post notes that Scott Brown "voted for the state's health-care legislation, which was signed by then-Gov. Mitt Romney (R)" and has "not disavowed his support for the state's law."

21 Jan 2010