Primary Care News and Research

Latest Primary Care News and Research

State roundup: Health costs cloud forecast for state budgets; Minnesota to use HMO refund on personal care

U.S. state and local governments' fiscal situations have improved recently but will still deteriorate through 2060, the Government Accountability Office said on Thursday. ... The outlook remains gloomy for the future, with healthcare costs, both for public employees and for the Medicaid insurance program for the poor, swelling and weighing on budgets, GAO said.

7 Apr 2012

State roundup: Advocates in Va. back shifting disability care from state institutions; New Vt. law overhauls mental health system; Aetna mistakenly tells thousands in Calif. their doctors were dropped

A state agency that looks out for the rights of people with disabilities is advocating for a proposed settlement that would shift the care of Virginians with intellectual disabilities from state-run institutions.

6 Apr 2012

Allscripts Wand now available for EHR users

Allscripts announced the much-anticipated release of Allscripts Wand, which provides users of Allscripts Electronic Health Records a unique, native iPad application that extends the most commonly used functions of Allscripts Professional and Enterprise solutions.

6 Apr 2012

Ameritox, Ridge Diagnostics partner to develop MDDScore test

Ridge Diagnostics, Inc., a neurodiagnostic company, announced today it has entered into an exclusive agreement with Ameritox, Ltd., a leader in medication monitoring, for the license rights to its proprietary developmental blood test MDDScore, a multiple biomarker analysis for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) for primary care and pain physicians.

6 Apr 2012

AHS announces acquisition of COMPUDATA

AdvantEdge Healthcare Solutions (AHS), one of the nation's leading providers of medical billing, practice management, and coding services for specialty physicians, hospitals, and surgery centers, announced today that it has acquired COMPUDATA, Inc., an Ohio-based medical billing company. This represents AHS' fifth acquisition since mid-2009, and expands the company's footprint in Ohio and Pennsylvania while strengthening the company's anesthesia practice customer base.

6 Apr 2012

Dentists to screen for too much alcohol intake

The UK Government is proposing that dentists should question their patients on alcohol consumption, or that dental receptionists hand out drinking questionnaires to patients to be filled in while they wait for appointments. The plans have been drawn up by dentists at Cardiff University to try to combat excessive drinking. Patients who are deemed to drink too much would be referred on to sessions with dental nurses or hygienists for advice on cutting down.

5 Apr 2012

Health reform means ER use jumps in Colo.; Calif. insurance premiums rise; Ore. waits to see who wants in on coordinated care

Even people who just got health insurance use the emergency departments to access their care, according to a new study by University of Colorado School of Medicine researchers. It's not just people who lost insurance or people living long without it, the researchers note -- any change in health insurance status, whether positive or negative, tends to send people to the ER because they don't know where else to go.

3 Apr 2012

New ACR guidelines recommend use of topical NSAIDs for older patients with knee OA

The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Subcommittee on Osteoarthritis Guidelines has approved and issued several updates to clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA).

31 Mar 2012

Drexel experts available to comment on new CDC study on autism prevalence

Experts from Drexel University are available to comment on a new study on autism prevalence released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

30 Mar 2012

Thyroidectomy may increase risk of postoperative complications in the elderly

Elderly patients who undergo thyroid surgery are at a much higher risk than their younger counterparts for serious cardiac, pulmonary and infectious complications, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

30 Mar 2012

State roundup: Georgia's child-only insurance policies; N.Y. exchange impasse

The Senate's Republican majority refused to agree to create a "health exchange," or state-based health insurance market required under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, for individuals and small businesses to insure more Americans.

29 Mar 2012

Sun damage revealed by UV photographs show skin cancer risk

Look at a middle school assembly - during their lifetime one in 50 of these kids will develop melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer that kills 48,000 people every year, worldwide. Now look at these kids again - which are at highest risk? You can't tell, but a study recently published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology shows that UV photography might provide important information about risk, not visible to the naked eye.

29 Mar 2012

BHECN designs new online training modules to treat mental health issues

It's estimated that more than half of all U.S. mental health care takes place at the primary care level and that percentage jumps considerably in rural areas where there often are no mental health practitioners for hundreds of miles. New online training modules have been designed by the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska (BHECN) to help primary care providers better treat patients with mental health issues.

29 Mar 2012

CryoConcepts introduces breakthrough low-cost and disposable cryosurgical device

CryoConcepts, LP is announcing the introduction of the first disposable, nitrous oxide-based cryosurgical device to physicians in the US and abroad. The pen-shaped device is called CryOmega® and tests have shown the unit is clinically effective and provides pinpoint accuracy at freezing temperatures of -89C.

28 Mar 2012

Greater out-of-pocket asthma medication costs associated with frequent hospitalizations among children

Greater out-of-pocket asthma medication cost was associated with small reductions in medication use and with more frequent asthma-related hospitalizations among children ages 5 years or older, according to a study in the March 28 issue of JAMA.

28 Mar 2012

Study: Insurance loss or acquisition means more ER visits

Changes in health insurance status -- whether gaining or losing coverage -- are associated with increased likelihood of an emergency department (ED) visit, researchers said. Among some 160,000 people completing the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) from 2004 to 2009, both newly insured and newly uninsured respondents reported using an ED in excess of 30% more often than those who were continuously insured.

28 Mar 2012

Mount Sinai researchers present 86 abstracts and plenary sessions at ACC meeting

Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers presented 86 abstracts and plenary sessions at the American College of Cardiology's (ACC) 61st Annual Scientific Session, including ground-breaking research on aggressive statin therapy, the prevalence of unrecognized cardiovascular disease symptoms in women, and morbidity associated with non-adherence to medication after stent implantation. The meeting took place March 23-27, 2012 in Chicago.

28 Mar 2012

Research briefs analyze health centers' and Medicaid's role in growth

Two new policy research briefs analyze health centers' growth over the past two decades and Medicaid's role in propelling and sustaining that growth. The analyses chronicle federal health center growth initiatives pursued by Republican and Democratic Administrations alike, as well as the 2011 retrenchment in the growth trajectory.

27 Mar 2012

Chronically ill Central American immigrants struggle to pay for health care

The national recession didn't just hit people living in the U.S. - it's made it more difficult for people to pay for medical bills in poor countries like Honduras, according to a new University of Michigan study.

27 Mar 2012

State roundup: Wash. state exchange bill now law

Gov. Chris Gregoire on Friday signed into law a bill setting rules for insurers preparing for the state's online-insurance exchange. ... The state exchanges for individual and small-group plans are set to go live on Jan. 1, 2014. ... State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler said that his office is committed to getting the exchange in place on schedule. "If we slowed down to be anxious, we'd be in trouble," Kreidler said. "It's the health law, and we're proceeding as quickly and as prudently as we can."

27 Mar 2012