Healthcare News and Research

Latest Healthcare News and Research

Enzi targets HHS regulations, House will consider medical debt relief legislation

CongressDaily reports that Senate Republicans are trying to stop the health care law "one rule at a time." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is expected to table the resolution from Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., regarding the law's "grandfathering" rule, "which allows plans that existed before March 23, 2010 — the date the healthcare law was signed — to be exempt from certain consumer protections enacted in the law, as long as plans do not significantly reduce benefits or raise consumer costs.

29 Sep 2010

GAO, Senate question role of hospital supplies middlemen

Group Purchasing Organizations, "which effectively act as middlemen between hospitals, suppliers and vendors," received mixed reports from the Government Accountability Office and the Senate Finance Committee, CongressDaily reports. "Many GPOs are paid through fees from manufacturers and vendors rather than by hospitals directly. As a result, the industry has enjoyed a special safe harbor from anti-kickback laws.

29 Sep 2010

News outlets examine what you should know about new health law provisions

USA Today, on how the new health law has started helping consumers: "Provisions of the health care reform law that took effect Sept. 23 prohibit some of the industry's most controversial practices." Insurers must now cover children with pre-existing conditions and cover preventive care for everyone.

29 Sep 2010

Study: Employees will pay more for health insurance in 2011

Companies' health costs will rise about 9 percent on average next year as a result of the aging workforce, growing medical costs and health law-related changes, and employees can expect to pick up an ever-growing share, the Los Angeles Times reports. Human resources consultant Hewitt's survey of 350 medium to large firms found companies "will spend $9,821 per employee on average for insurance next year, up from $9,028 this year — an 8.8% increase and more than double what they paid in 2001."

29 Sep 2010

Medicare Advantage plans draw attention

The Boston Globe: "Harvard Pilgrim Health Care has notified customers that it will drop its Medicare Advantage health insurance program at the end of the year, forcing 22,000 senior citizens in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine to seek alternative supplemental coverage." The reason is that federal reimbursements for such plans have been frozen, and Harvard's particular Advantage product, a private fee-for-service plan, would have to develop a network of contracted providers for the first time under the new rules (Weisman, 9/28).

29 Sep 2010

Saudi FDA approves Apligraf for treatment of diabetic foot ulcers, chronic wounds

Organogenesis, Inc. announced that its Apligraf® bilayered living cellular construct has been approved for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers and other chronic wounds by the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Apligraf is a living cell based product used by physicians to heal chronic wounds in patients in the U.S. and around the world.

29 Sep 2010

Hypertension drug market to decline by $3 billion in 2019: Decision Resources

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues finds that, owing to increasing generic availability of antihypertensive agents, the hypertension drug market will decline from $26 billion in 2009 to $23 billion in 2019 in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom and Japan.

29 Sep 2010

National survey shows 60% of U.S. adults not familiar with sepsis

Sixty percent of U.S. adults are not familiar with sepsis, despite the fact that more than 200,000 Americans die from it every year, making sepsis one of the leading causes of death in the nation. Lack of awareness is even higher among adults over age 65, who are at greater risk of sepsis, according to a new national survey sponsored by The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, NY, part of the North Shore–LIJ Health System.

28 Sep 2010

IAPP Privacy Academy attendees to preview findings on healthcare, data privacy

Attendees at the International Association of Privacy Professionals Privacy Academy will preview early findings of The Ponemon Institute's latest research that examines healthcare providers' compliance with the HITECH Act data breach privacy provisions. They will also learn how to protect patients' medical privacy and how to comply with the latest regulations.

28 Sep 2010

Healthcare professionals need appropriate training, support to help people who self-harm: Research

Healthcare professionals are still not receiving the appropriate training and support they need to help people who self-harm and this can result in negative attitudes and inadequate levels of care.

28 Sep 2010

Endo Pharmaceuticals to acquire Qualitest Pharmaceuticals

Apax Partners today announced that Endo Pharmaceuticals has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Qualitest Pharmaceuticals for approximately $1.2 billion in cash. Qualitest, a portfolio company of Apax Partners since 2007, is the sixth largest generic pharmaceutical company in the U.S.

28 Sep 2010

Plackers joins OHA campaign to promote oral health awareness

Plackers, a leading brand of consumer oral care products, has partnered with Oral Health America, the nation's leading independent organization dedicated to eliminating oral disease through access, education and advocacy, on the Fall for Smiles program to promote oral health awareness nationwide.

28 Sep 2010

ManagementPlus' EHR 5.0 software achieves CCHIT certification

On the heels of its pre market and ePrescribing conditional CCHIT certification, ManagementPlus' electronic health record software, ManagementPlus EHR 5.0, has now achieved full certification for its product, CCHIT Certified 2011 Ambulatory EHR.

28 Sep 2010

Endo Pharmaceuticals to acquire Qualitest Pharmaceuticals

Endo Pharmaceuticals announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Qualitest Pharmaceuticals, a leading, privately held generics company in the U.S., for approximately $1.2 billion in cash.

28 Sep 2010

Kindred Healthcare completes acquisition of nursing and rehabilitation centers in Dallas-Fort Worth market

Kindred Healthcare, Inc. today announced that its subsidiaries have completed the previously announced acquisition of three nursing and rehabilitation centers in the Dallas-Fort Worth market for a purchase price of $38 million in cash. The Company financed this transaction with proceeds from its revolving credit facility.

28 Sep 2010

Health Council of Canada releases report on how physicians' decisions affect healthcare services in Canada

A report released today by the Health Council of Canada, Decisions, Decisions: Family Doctors as Gatekeepers to Prescription Drugs and Diagnostic Imaging in Canada, calls for better management of prescription drugs and diagnostic imaging services in this country.

28 Sep 2010

Cintas’s new white paper offers EVS tips to reduce hospital-acquired infections

Cintas Corporation today announced the availability of a new white paper that offers Environmental Service Directors (EVS) tips to improve the handling of cleaning materials to reduce hospital-acquired infections (HAIs).

28 Sep 2010

HCC report supports implementation of medical imaging guidelines for physicians

The Canadian Association of Radiologists (CAR) recently contributed to a report produced by the Health Council of Canada (HCC) entitled “Decisions, Decisions: Family Doctors as Gatekeepers in the Use of Prescription Drugs and Diagnostic Imaging in Canada.” This report, which was released today, supports one of the CAR’s main objectives: to implement medical imaging guidelines at a national level to guide physicians in selecting the most effective diagnostic imaging exam the first time.

28 Sep 2010

ETP Nanomedicine forum to take place in Italy on 14 and 15 October 2010

The 5th General Assembly & Annual Forum of the European Technology Platform on Nanomedicine will take place at Centro Congressi Fondazione Cariplo in Milan, Italy on 14 and 15 October 2010.

28 Sep 2010

Venous thromboembolism drugs to experience robust growth by 2019

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that, driven primarily by the launch and widespread uptake of novel oral anticoagulants, the combined markets for drugs used in the treatment and prophylaxis of venous thromboembolism will experience robust growth, increasing from $2.9 billion in 2009 to more than $5 billion in 2019 in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom and Japan.

28 Sep 2010