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Canada Health Infoway reaches a PSA with Agfa HealthCare for its IMPAX 6 PACS and DI-r systems

Canada Health Infoway (Infoway) and Agfa HealthCare, a leading provider of diagnostic imaging solutions, have reached a Preferred Solution Agreement (PSA) providing preferential conditions and pricing for Agfa HealthCare's IMPAX(TM) 6 Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) and Viewer as well as its IMPAX(TM) Data Center and Diagnostic Imaging Repository (DI-r). This is the second time Infoway and Agfa HealthCare have achieved a Preferred Solution Agreement.

18 Dec 2009

Recent releases in Global Health

A Scientific American article examines recent efforts to tackle neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). The author writes "NTDs have plagued humankind for thousands of years. … What is new, however, is that donors, drugmakers, health ministries in low- and middle-income countries, the World Health Organization (WHO), and public-private partnerships are linking their efforts to combat the NTDs in a more coordinated and systematic way."

18 Dec 2009

Opinion: Uganda anti-gay bill; Shah confirmation

Columnist Michael Gerson in a Washington Post opinion piece writes of Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 being considered by the country's parliament "that would impose new and harsher penalties on homosexuality, including life imprisonment and capital punishment. It also would force pastors and others to report homosexuals to the authorities.

18 Dec 2009

National Journal examines USAID administrator nominee's experience, prospects at the Agency

The National Journal looks at the professional background of Rajiv Shah, President Barack Obama's nominee to be the USAID administrator. "As Rajiv Shah prepares to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development, former colleagues, lobbyists and current and past administration officials paint a picture of a man with dizzying brainpower and social intelligence who has won over skeptics time and again.

18 Dec 2009

H1N1 cases still increasing in many countries; WHO to begin shipping donated vaccines within weeks

With many countries continuing to report a growing number of H1N1 (swine flu) cases, Keiji Fukuda, special adviser to the WHO director general on pandemic influenza, said Thursday it was too early to declare the pandemic over, the Washington Post reports.

18 Dec 2009

Wisconsin cuts $600 million from Medicaid budget, still faces deficit

The Associated Press reports that the top Wisconsin health official said Thursday that the state is "on track to cut more than $600 million from Medicaid, but even with those reductions, high demand from the poor for insurance benefits could result in up to a $150 million shortfall."

18 Dec 2009

Laid-off workers may get COBRA help before Christmas

Kaiser Health News staff writer Jenny Gold writes about a COBRA extension moving through Congress. "A proposal to extend the health insurance subsidies for Americans who have lost jobs as a result of the recession is one step closer to gaining congressional approval.

18 Dec 2009

Health overhaul could worsen doctor shortages

BusinessWeek: "Presuming Congress passes some version of a health-care bill and it is signed into law, some 30 million currently uninsured people will suddenly find themselves with access to doctors. But there may not be enough doctors to see them."

18 Dec 2009

VA apologizes for faulty prostate-cancer program in Pa. but denies radiation violations

"The Department of Veterans Affairs yesterday apologized repeatedly for a prostate-cancer program that gave incorrect radiation doses to veterans for six years at its main Philadelphia hospital," The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

18 Dec 2009

Roundup of health policy research and analyses

Urban Institute/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: What Would Health Care Reform Mean for Small Employers and Their Workers? - "Small employers and their workers face a broad assortment of barriers to obtaining health insurance coverage today," such as "high administrative costs, limited ability to spread health care risk, and a low-wage workforce."

18 Dec 2009

Health industry revenue up 5.7 percent, some seniors head south for care

The Dallas Morning News reports that the U.S. Census released a report Thursday that showed health care industry's revenues grew 5.7 percent in 2008 to $1.75 trillion. The number represents 30 percent of economic activity in the U.S., according to a Census official. "The Census Bureau cites Texas as one of the most expensive states for health care.

18 Dec 2009

The backstories of politicians scrambling on health legislation

Politico: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has kept his legislative strategy for the health overhaul under wraps, even from his closest lieutenants. "As Reid works furiously to line up the 60 votes he needs for the most sweeping health care bill in generations, the majority leader is playing an insider's insider's game. He's having private, one-on-one conversations with colleagues, and he's not sharing the contents with others.

18 Dec 2009

COBRA extension moves forward - in defense appropriations bill

Modern Healthcare: "The Senate is expected to vote on a fiscal 2010 Defense appropriations bill by this weekend that would extend a health insurance subsidy for laid-off workers through February 2010. The House has approved the subsidy extension for the COBRA program, which was tucked into the $636.3 billion Defense appropriations bill."

18 Dec 2009

A selection of today's opinions and editorials

No one has guaranteed ways to slow the growth of health-care spending and ... the pending bills include most of the ways experts believe are likely to succeed (Henry J. Aaron, 12/18).

18 Dec 2009

Republicans oppose military spending to delay health bill

Senate Republicans attempted last night to block a $626 billion defense bill in hopes that stalling the military spending legislation would delay Democrats' work on the health overhaul, The Washington Post reports. By a 63-33 vote early Friday morning, the defense measure cleared a key procedural hurdle that should now allow it to gain passage and, as a result, allow the Senate to return to the health bill.

18 Dec 2009

Labor leaders term Senate health bill 'inadequate'

CBS News: "Labor leaders from two influential unions today called the Senate health care bill 'inadequate,' but they stopped short of pulling their support for the bill. Instead, they are pressing the White House and Congress to modify the bill more to make it more like the House health reform package. After a meeting yesterday with leaders of the Service Employees International Union and a meeting today with its members, SEIU President Andy Stern said the union does not think the Senate is willing or able to make any more progress on its bill.

18 Dec 2009

Senate health bill relies on government regulation to expand coverage

The Los Angeles Times: "When Senate Democratic leaders agreed this week to remove a public insurance plan from their massive healthcare bill, they did more than quash a liberal dream of expanding the government safety net. They effectively pinned their hopes of guaranteeing coverage to all Americans on a far more conventional prescription: government regulation.

18 Dec 2009

White House stung by Liberal health bill backlash

The Wall Street Journal reports on the criticism emanating from the left regarding the Senate health bill. "Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is mounting a campaign of sorts against the initiative in its current form.

18 Dec 2009

Senate leaders in hot pursuit of the elusive 60th vote: Ben Nelson

The Associated Press: "With just days remaining to prove that they can meet a self-imposed Christmas deadline and pass President Barack Obama's signature initiative through the Senate, Democrats seeking a rendezvous with history instead detoured to an intraparty brawl. ... All eyes were on the only known Democratic holdout, moderate Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, whose primary concern is that abortion funding restrictions in the bill were too lax.

18 Dec 2009

TeamStaff awarded a five-year contract to provide nurse staffing to a military retirement facility

TeamStaff, Inc., a national provider of healthcare, administrative and logistical staffing services, today announced that it was awarded a five-year contract valued up to $3.3 million, provided annual contract options are exercised, to provide nurse staffing to a military retirement facility. The contract is scheduled to begin on February 1, 2010.

18 Dec 2009