Healthcare News and Research

Latest Healthcare News and Research

Medicare-funded nursing homes will be affected by the pending health reform bill: Maine Health Care Association

As Congress reconvened this week in the wake of polls finding the public strongly against slashing Medicare-funded nursing home care to pay for health care reform, local opposition to proposed $32 billion ten year Medicare cuts is garnering a rising level of local press coverage.

14 Sep 2009

IFG urges small business owners to concentrate on accounts receivable factoring

The Interface Financial Group (IFG), North America's largest alternative funding source for small business, suggests that until the nation's health care reform has been resolved, small business owners look to accounts receivable factoring. Small businesses are the engine of the economy, creating at least seventy percent of all new jobs, In the United States small businesses employ more than half of all private sector employees, pay 44 percent of total U.S. private payroll and have generated 64 percent of net new jobs over the past 15 years.

14 Sep 2009

Bangkok Hospital Group and IBM to provide quality healthcare in Thailand

Bangkok Hospital Group is working with IBM (NYSE: IBM) to enhance its patient care services to provide smarter healthcare in Thailand. Delivering on its commitment to provide the highest quality, internationally-accepted standards of medical services, Bangkok Hospital Group continues to invest in best-in-class information technology.

14 Sep 2009

Dresner Partners advises CCHHS in its partnership with HHG

Dresner Partners, a FINRA-registered, middle-market investment bank, and IMAP member firm, announced today that it advised Care Collaborative Home Health Services, Inc. (CCHHS) in its recent strategic partnership with Home Health Group, LLC (HHG), a holding company focused on investments in the home health industry.

14 Sep 2009

TCAD therapy shows potency against seasonal and novel H1N1 influenza viruses

Adamas Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held company, announced today that a multi-center in vitro study of its proprietary triple combination antiviral drug (TCAD) therapy showed substantially greater potency against seasonal and novel H1N1 influenza viruses than currently recommended single or double therapy and that the triple combination is active against drug-resistant flu strains.

14 Sep 2009

Public option, abortion funding unlikely in final health reform bill

News coverage of the Sunday talk shows centered around whether a "public option" will be included in health overhaul legislation.

14 Sep 2009

CBS poll: Americans more favorable about Obama's health plan after speech

President Obama's Wednesday night speech about overhauling the country's healthcare system appears "to have been successful — to some extent" according to a CBS poll, which "shows that Americans now give him the best marks of his presidency on handling health care, but they're still divided over whether he's clearly explained his plan," CBS News' Political Hotsheet blog reports.

14 Sep 2009

Gang of Six focus on thorny issues involved in health reform

After a Friday morning meeting, the Senate Finance Committee "Gang of Six" postponed "extensive discussion of the illegal immigration issue until Monday and said aides would be working on language on that and abortion over the weekend," the Associated Press reports.

14 Sep 2009

Research data reveals why women discontinue treatment with current osteoporosis therapies

Amgen Inc. today announced the presentation of data highlighting the links between medication satisfaction, adherence to therapy and fracture risk reduction among women with postmenopausal osteoporosis. The data were presented at the 31st annual meeting of the American Society for Bone Mineral Research (ASBMR).

14 Sep 2009

Continuing his health overhaul campaign, Obama emphasizes risk of losing insurance

Politico: "....(the) analysis of data from the University of Michigan shows many Americans will be without health insurance at periods of their life ... In his weekly radio and internet address, Obama cites the study to say, 'half of all Americans under 65 will lose their health coverage at some point over the next ten years.'"

14 Sep 2009

Scientists to get funding from The European Research Council

The European Research Council (ERC) expects to fund some 240 top researchers in its second prestigious ERC Starting Grant competition. This new wave of grantees follows the 299 researchers who received grants in the first Starting Grant competition in 2007.

11 Sep 2009

Speech unifies Democrats, for now, could set stage to bypass opponents

The day after President Obama's speech Wednesday, Democrats rallied behind his plan, including several key conservative members of the party, the Los Angeles Times reports. "'If the details live up to the quality of the speech, then it's a good plan,' said Tennessee Rep. Jim Cooper, a conservative Democrat who has been critical of the healthcare bill developed by House leaders." Other Democrats praised the speech for its endorsement of the proposed public insurance plan (Levey, 9/11).

11 Sep 2009

Post-speech debates: Illegal immigrant coverage, tort reform, abortion funding

President Obama's speech opened the door for experts and lawmakers to examine his proposed health reforms, with questions ranging from how reforms affect illegal immigrants' coverage to abortion funding.

11 Sep 2009

Experts, lawmakers wonder if Obama can pay for his health reform push

President Obama and Democrats are scrambling to find a way to pay for the specifics that he laid out in his speech Wednesday night, and they are pushing for a trigger that would rein in spending if cost containment for health care reform isn't met.

11 Sep 2009

Today's editorials and opinions

The Dime Standard The New York Times Barack Obama delivered the finest speech of his presidency. … Which is not to say that this is effective health reform (David Brooks, 9/10).

11 Sep 2009

Joint Commission to help hospitals fix patient safety problems

"The Joint Commission announced today that its newly-formed Center for Transforming Healthcare will work on new collaborative programs with leading hospitals and health care systems to find a cause of the most deadly breakdowns in patient care, and put a stop to them,"

11 Sep 2009

President Obama's proposed changes are not what an already-indebted country needs: BestHealthcareRates.com

The team from BestHealthcareRates.com is less than reassured with the presidential reassurances on the far-reaching effects of health care reform during his September 9th talk on the status of healthcare reform. With more than 46.3 million Americans not having medical insurance the need for changes is long overdue, but many of those proposed by Obama are not what an already-indebted country needs.

11 Sep 2009

Care Support of America on overlooked healthcare issues in eldercare and family caregiving

As healthcare reform is being debated in Congress and on Main Street, vital and practical issues in eldercare and family caregiving are being overlooked. Some 30 million U.S. baby boomers are family caregivers for their aging parents, trying to keep their parents safe at home and helping them navigate the complexities of Medicare and manage an advancing illness. If they had their say, most elderly people would prefer to age in their own homes.

11 Sep 2009

Health Management Associates signs a five-year medical transcription services contract with Transcend

TRANSCEND SERVICES, INC. (NASDAQ: TRCR), the third largest provider of medical transcription services to the U.S. healthcare market, announced today that it has entered into a five-year single-source contract to provide medical transcription services to Health Management Associates, Inc. (NYSE: HMA) (“HMA”).

11 Sep 2009

Results from the BRITE-MD trials published in Psychiatry Research: Aspect Medical Systems

Aspect Medical Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASPM) today announced that two companion articles highlighting results from the BRITE-MD (Biomarkers for Rapid Identification of Treatment Effectiveness trial in Major Depression) were published in the September issue of the journal Psychiatry Research.

11 Sep 2009