Healthcare News and Research

Latest Healthcare News and Research

FDA approves Teva's ProAir HFA with dose counter for asthma, COPD and EIB

Teva Respiratory announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved ProAir HFA with a dose counter for use in patients 4 years of age and older for the treatment or prevention of bronchospasm with reversible obstructive airway disease and for the prevention of exercise-induced bronchospasm.

8 Mar 2012

Africare hosts panel discussion on issues of health care, women and economic development

In honor of International Women's Day, Africare in partnership with Global Health & Diplomacy (GHD) and the United Nations Foundation (UNF), hosted a panel discussion and press conference focused on issues of health care, women and economic development in Africa and the developing world.

8 Mar 2012

Public reporting improves diabetes care in Wisconsin clinics

In one of the first studies of the impact of publicly reporting quality measures on outpatient care, a research team has found that clinics made improvements in diabetes care when they began publicly reporting how they were treating patients with the chronic disease.

8 Mar 2012

Australian TGA approves Bayer's EYLEA for treatment of wet AMD

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Bayer HealthCare today announced that Bayer HealthCare has received approval from the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for EYLEA (aflibercept) Injection for the treatment of patients with neovascular (wet) age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD) at a recommended dose of 2 milligrams (mg) via intravitreal injection per month for three consecutive months, followed by 2 milligrams via intravitreal injection every two months.

8 Mar 2012

Tavenner: Final exchange rule release just weeks away

Modern Healthcare and CQ HealthBeat report that the final rule on health insurance exchanges will be out "very soon."

8 Mar 2012

House GOP slows down efforts to pass legislation aimed at Obama contraception coverage rule

In related news, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is reportedly having "voter's remorse" regarding her decision last week to vote for similar Senate legislation - the Blunt amendement.

8 Mar 2012

Romney claims Ohio victory on Super Tuesday but Santorum continues to press health reform issues

Santorum uses election night speech to again assail the former governor's support of a Massachusetts health overhaul that some say was a template for the federal law.

8 Mar 2012

Roundup: Calif. county mum on probe of Medicaid managed care firm; Suit alleges substandard care for Ariz. prisoners

A Ventura County commission is trying to keep secret the details of a state-ordered investigation into the management and claims procedures of a healthcare plan designed to serve the county's neediest residents. Complaints about alleged late payments and poor management prompted the Department of Health Care Services to request that auditors step in and examine the plan's financial condition and claims practices. Gold Coast Health Plan was launched last year to switch an estimated 110,000 Ventura County Medi-Cal beneficiaries into an HMO-style healthcare plan.

8 Mar 2012

Medtech acquires Camelot Healthcare Training Institute

Camelot Healthcare Training Institute, a post-secondary nursing and allied health care education provider in Central Florida, has been acquired by Medtech College. Camelot now joins the Medtech family of schools and will become Medtech College once appropriate state approvals have been obtained.

8 Mar 2012

First Edition: March 7, 2012

Reporting for Kaiser Health News in collaboration with The Washington Post, Susan Jaffe writes: "In the latest effort to enlist seniors in the fight against Medicare fraud, federal officials have overhauled Medicare billing statements to make it easier to find bogus charges without a magnifying glass."

7 Mar 2012

FDA approves Covidien's EverFlex Self-Expanding Peripheral Stent System

Covidien, a leading global provider of healthcare products, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the EverFlex Self-Expanding Peripheral Stent System for use in the superficial femoral artery (SFA) and/or the proximal popliteal artery.

7 Mar 2012

Nuance enters definitive agreement to acquire Transcend

Nuance Communications, Inc. and Transcend Services, Inc. today announced a definitive agreement for Nuance to acquire Transcend, a leading provider of medical transcription and speech editing services, for approximately $300 million, net, in cash.

7 Mar 2012

Viewpoints: WSJ on Super Tuesday; Zeke Emanuel, NY Times on electronic health records; Iowa high-risk pool concerns

Mr. Santorum is also scoring on the stump with his warnings about the threat to freedom posed by ObamaCare. Especially if the economy improves, this will be a crucial issue for Republicans in November because it reflects the great American fault line over the role of government. Yet the issue has bedeviled Mr. Romney's because of his refusal to distance himself from RomneyCare in Massachusetts and to say more than his cursory line that he'll "repeal ObamaCare."

7 Mar 2012

GOP lawmakers face strategic fits and starts in health law repeal efforts

Meanwhile, as some House Republicans push to undo the measure's cost-cutting panel, known as the Independent Payment Advisory Board, its advocates are springing to its defense.

7 Mar 2012

Study: Patients need greater access to their electronic medical data

Health care organizations need to do more to help patients realize the full benefits of electronic data from emerging health information exchange systems, according to a new study commissioned by Consumers Union that appears in the March 2012 Health Affairs.

7 Mar 2012

Minn. GOP offers premium savings accounts as alternative to exchanges

Minnesota Republicans are offering state-based health premium savings accounts as an alternative to a health care exchange that Democrats in the state want to implement as part of the federal health reform law.

7 Mar 2012

HHS: 105 million people no longer face health insurance lifetime limits

A Department of Health and Human Services report released Monday quantified the number of Americans with health insurance who no longer face these benefit limits.

7 Mar 2012

ERH wins PRI's 2012 Best Practices in Risk Management and Patient Safety Award

Physicians' Reciprocal Insurers (PRI), the second largest medical malpractice insurer in New York state, today presented Ellenville Regional Hospital with its 2012 Best Practices in Risk Management and Patient Safety Award.

7 Mar 2012

Health system framework, patterns make change from within unlikely

The New York Times talks to Victor Fuchs, emeritus professor of economics and health research and policy at Stanford University, about the cost control challenges presented by the health system. Meanwhile, the National Journal reports on how individual health care choices also help drive costs.

7 Mar 2012

Majority of Missourians continue to favor nonprescription access to PSE-containing medicines

The Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) released today a recent poll that found a majority of Missourians -- by a margin of 16 percent -- continue to favor nonprescription access to safe and effective medicines containing pseudoephedrine (PSE), such as Advil Cold & Sinus, Allegra-D, Claritin-D, Mucinex-D, and Sudafed over a prescription mandate.

7 Mar 2012