Healthcare News and Research

Latest Healthcare News and Research

UC Irvine immunologist to create new line of neural stem cells for MS

A UC Irvine immunologist will receive $4.8 million to create a new line of neural stem cells that can be used to treat multiple sclerosis.

28 May 2012

Study: 10 percent of veterans go without health insurance

Of the 1.3 million veterans who lack health coverage, the study says about 630,000 of them would likely qualify for Medicaid under the health law expansion, and as many as 520,000 could qualify for subsidized health coverage in insurance exchanges.

25 May 2012

Mass. hospital agrees to $750,000 settlement over 2010 data breach

South Shore Hospital, Weymouth, Mass., has reached a $750,000 settlement agreement of a lawsuit over a 2010 data breach involving the records of 800,000 individuals, the hospital and the Massachusetts attorney general's office have announced.

25 May 2012

Illinois legislature passes bill with deep Medicaid cuts

The $1.6 billion in budget cuts would also cut deeply into other Illinois health programs.

25 May 2012

Hearing loss linked to several chronic diseases

The Better Hearing Institute (BHI) is raising awareness of the link between hearing loss and some chronic diseases during National Men's Health Week (June 11 – 17).

25 May 2012

Health law may allow some limited insurance coverage

Politico Pro points out that the overhaul might not guarantee minimum standards in some specific cases. Another analysis finds that drug companies could be hurt if the Supreme Court strikes down some or all of the law.

25 May 2012

No contract renewal for CEO tied to billing collection controversy

Fairview Health Services of Minnesota opted not to renew the contract of CEO Mark Eustis after investigations into the role of bill collection company Accretive Health at the hospital.

25 May 2012

FDA reauthorization bill sails through Senate

Showing unusual bipartisan spirit, the Senate passed a massive FDA user-fee reauthorization bill Thursday designed to prevent drug shortages and speed federal approval of medicines, including lower-cost generic versions.

25 May 2012

While GOP pledges austerity, Democrats rebuff efforts to restructure Medicare, Medicaid

Health care continues to play a major role this political season. News outlets look at the parties' differences on spending, Sen. Baucus' early reelection calculations and a protest against Rep. Steve King.

25 May 2012

Single-port laparoscopy bimanual robot abdominal surgery

Millions of Europeans undergo abdominal surgery each year to treat a range of different disorders, from cancer and heart disease to obesity. EU-funded researchers are developing innovative micro-robotics and micro-system technologies to make such surgeries less complicated, invasive and costly.

25 May 2012

Dueling student loan bills stall in Senate

Neither measure reached the 60-vote threshold needed to delay an interest rate increase for 7.4 million students with college loans. Republicans want to pay for it by abolishing a preventive health program in the health care law; Democrats proposed raising Medicare and Social Security payroll taxes on high-income owners of some privately held companies.

25 May 2012

$CDC report finds states spend only a fraction of tobacco funds to fight smoking$

CDC report finds states spend only a fraction of tobacco funds to fight smoking

The study says states collected $244 billion from tobacco settlement payments between 1998 and 2010, and used about $8 billion of that for anti-smoking campaigns.

25 May 2012

Auditors find Medicare lax in collecting overpayments; New members named to Medpac

Federal auditors say Medicare failed to collect about 80 percent of the more than $400 million that were identified as overpayments, Modern Healthcare reports.

25 May 2012

BBSRC allocates £250M for strategic investment programmes

Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts, will today announce substantial funding that will ensure the UK's bioscience research base remains globally competitive and at the forefront of meeting the grand challenges faced by society in the coming decades. The announcement will be made by the Minister during a visit to the Babraham Research Campus, near Cambridge, and highlighted again during a major speech at the University of East Anglia in Norwich.

25 May 2012

Union reaches contract agreement with Minn. hospitals

Union workers have overwhelmingly ratified a new three-year contract that averted a strike at eight Twin Cities hospitals. The union represents 3,500 nursing assistants, technicians and support staff. The agreement was reached last week after union members voted to authorize a 2- to 5-day strike. The union says the new contract holds back on increases in health benefit premiums, retains overtime benefits and includes small wage increases.

25 May 2012

EPSRC to help researchers in synthetic biology to establish platform technology

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) will help the UK's world-leading researchers in synthetic biology to establish platform technology in the emerging field with a new grant of almost -5 million. Platform technology is the crucial next step necessary for applications to be produced and commercialised.

25 May 2012

Senate inches closer to passage of FDA reauthorization bill

The Senate struck a deal to vote Thursday afternoon on 17 amendments before moving onto final passage of the bill to reauthorize the Food and Drug Administration's user fee programs.

25 May 2012

$IOF report predicts dramatic rise in osteoporosis-related fractures in Brazil$

IOF report predicts dramatic rise in osteoporosis-related fractures in Brazil

A new Audit report on fragility fractures, issued today by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF), predicts that Brazil will experience an explosion in the number of fragility fractures due to osteoporosis in the coming decades.

25 May 2012

$Fragility fractures predicted to more than double in Latin America$

Fragility fractures predicted to more than double in Latin America

The International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF), in cooperation with medical and patient societies from throughout Latin America, has today published a landmark report which compiles osteoporosis-related data on 14 countries and the region as a whole. The report shows that fragility fractures due to osteoporosis are predicted to more than double in some countries in the coming decades.

25 May 2012

Study says most insurance sold to individuals doesn't meet health law standards

A new report in Health Affairs finds that more than half of individual policies could not be sold on state health exchanges because they fail to meet the law's criteria for coverage.

25 May 2012