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CMS orders end to 'referral fees' to sales agents for Medicare Advantage plans

CMS has ordered private insurers to payment of "'referral fees' to sales agents who steer a beneficiary to a company for enrollment," Florida Health News reports.

25 Mar 2009

Los Algodones, Mexico has become a popular destination for dental medical tourism

Los Algodones, Mexico, has become "the latest boomtown for medical tourism," with about 350 dentists providing care for prices that are up to 70% less than what U.S. residents typically pay, the Chicago Tribune reports.

25 Mar 2009

Employers increase use of eligibility audits for workers' dependents to reduce health care costs, survey finds

Employers are becoming more aggressive about checking the health coverage eligibility of workers' dependents as a way to reduce health care costs, according to a recent Watson Wyatt survey, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

25 Mar 2009

More physicians performing house calls

The Washington Post on Tuesday examined how a "small but growing tribe of doctors, nurses, physician assistants and nurse practitioners ... are reviving [the] once-common practice" of performing house calls.

25 Mar 2009

AHIP, BCBS say insurers willing to stop basing premiums on members' health status if all U.S. residents are required to obtain coverage

In a letter to leaders of the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committees on Tuesday, America's Health Insurance Plans and the BlueCross BlueShield Association said that their memberships would be willing to end the practice of charging different premiums based on individuals' health status if all U.S. residents were required to obtain coverage, CongressDaily reports (Edney, CongressDaily, 3/25).

25 Mar 2009

Sebelius, DeParle discuss health care reform with congressional lawmakers

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D), President Obama's nominee for HHS secretary, and Nancy-Ann DeParle, the director of the White House Office for Health Reform, each met with congressional lawmakers on Tuesday to discuss plans for health care overhaul, CQ Today reports. Sebelius said she met with nearly 40 senators who expressed "a lot of interest in health reform."

25 Mar 2009

Obama says balancing budget without addressing health care is 'impossible'

President Obama on Tuesday during a prime-time news conference linked issues within the U.S. budget in part to high health care costs, stating that "almost every single person" who has examined the nation's budget has concluded that the government must find a way to reduce health care costs, the Washington Post reports (Shear/Wilson, Washington Post, 3/25).

25 Mar 2009

Rockefeller neuroscientist applies basic science to health care reform

A self-described "molecular sociologist" is extending his basic research to the national policy debate on health care reform. Bruce McEwen, head of the Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology, led a panel of scientific experts last month at the Institute of Medicine's Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public. The Institute is the most prominent independent medical advisory board in the country and will release a report from the conference in November, as Congress is likely to be considering major health care legislation.

25 Mar 2009

Recession exacerbates financial problems at California community health clinics

California community health clinics are struggling to meet an increased demand from new patients who have lost their jobs and health insurance, the Los Angeles Times reports.

24 Mar 2009

Texas offering loan repayments to pediatric dental, medical physicians who accept Medicaid

The Texas Department of State Health Services is offering as much as $140,000 in student loan repayments disbursed over four years to pediatric dentists and physicians who treat Medicaid beneficiaries, the Houston Chronicle reports.

24 Mar 2009

Local, state health departments forced to cut services for undocumented immigrants amid economic recession

Reductions to public health and nonemergency services by state and county health departments in response to the economic recession have resulted in limited access to care for undocumented immigrants, the Christian Science Monitor reports.

24 Mar 2009

One in five U.S. workers uninsured

One in five U.S. workers is uninsured, a statistically significant increase from fewer than one in seven during the mid-1990s, according to a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation study released on Tuesday, the AP/Detroit News reports.

24 Mar 2009

White House announces plans for Obama to nominate IHS Director

President Obama plans to nominate Yvette Roubideaux, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona's College of Medicine, as director of Indian Health Service, the White House announced on Monday along with several other appointments, the Arizona Daily Star reports. The nomination is expected to be made official by the Senate in coming weeks.

24 Mar 2009

Speakers at White House-sponsored forum discuss possibility of public health coverage option, preventive care

Congressional Democrats intend to pass health care reform legislation by "August or September" that could include an option allowing uninsured U.S. residents to buy into a government-run health care plan, Senate Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee Chair Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said on Monday, Kansas Health Institute News reports.

24 Mar 2009

Administration officials signal White House might accept cuts to proposed budget as long as health care reform, other priorities are preserved

Obama administration officials have indicated they might be willing to accept reductions to President Obama's budget proposal as long as his "signature initiatives," including health care reform, remain untouched, the Washington Post reports.

24 Mar 2009

Ownership of electronic health information must be addressed

The recently passed 'Stimulus' funding will create a huge amount of electronic medical information in the next few years, but legal uncertainty about who owns the information "presents a major obstacle to integrating and using" it to improve public health and health care, according to a national commentary co-authored by a Wake Forest University and a Duke University faculty member.

24 Mar 2009

Belfast gets new cancer centre

Belfast joins a unique chain of Cancer Research UK Centres that are being launched across the UK.

23 Mar 2009

Preliminary health insurer survey results indicate some patients want to know physician's race when selecting provider

According to preliminary results of an automated phone survey by Highmark, some health plan members would like the race of physicians included in the insurer's physician directory, the Pittsburgh Tribune Review reports.

23 Mar 2009

U.S. health reform should not be modeled on Massachusetts health insurance law, according to report

Efforts to overhaul the U.S. health care system should not be modeled after the 2006 Massachusetts health insurance law because the law does not include cost controls, according to a report released on Tuesday by researchers at the Institute for America's Future, the Boston Herald reports.

23 Mar 2009

HHS names former Harvard Professor Blumenthal as National Health Care Information Technology Coordinator

HHS on Friday announced the appointment of former Harvard Medical School professor David Blumenthal as the national coordinator for health care information technology, the AP/Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

23 Mar 2009

Healthcare News

CMS orders end to 'referral fees' to sales agents for Medicare Advantage plans

Los Algodones, Mexico has become a popular destination for dental medical tourism

Employers increase use of eligibility audits for workers' dependents to reduce health care costs, survey finds

More physicians performing house calls

AHIP, BCBS say insurers willing to stop basing premiums on members' health status if all U.S. residents are required to obtain coverage

Sebelius, DeParle discuss health care reform with congressional lawmakers

Obama says balancing budget without addressing health care is 'impossible'

Rockefeller neuroscientist applies basic science to health care reform

Recession exacerbates financial problems at California community health clinics

Texas offering loan repayments to pediatric dental, medical physicians who accept Medicaid

Local, state health departments forced to cut services for undocumented immigrants amid economic recession

One in five U.S. workers uninsured

White House announces plans for Obama to nominate IHS Director

Speakers at White House-sponsored forum discuss possibility of public health coverage option, preventive care

Administration officials signal White House might accept cuts to proposed budget as long as health care reform, other priorities are preserved

Ownership of electronic health information must be addressed

Belfast gets new cancer centre

Preliminary health insurer survey results indicate some patients want to know physician's race when selecting provider

U.S. health reform should not be modeled on Massachusetts health insurance law, according to report

HHS names former Harvard Professor Blumenthal as National Health Care Information Technology Coordinator

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