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Capsules: Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP all targets for fraud

Now on Kaiser Health News' blog, Alvin Tran reports: When it comes to health care fraud, medical facilities and hospitals are the top two offenders.

15 Oct 2012

AAPS recognizes top scientists in pharmaceutical sciences

During the Opening Session of the 2012 American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Annual Meeting and Exposition, AAPS President David Y. Mitchell, Ph.D., presented the following ground-breaking researchers with awards commemorating their contributions to the pharmaceutical sciences:

15 Oct 2012

PEPFAR releases FY13 Country Operational Plan Guidance

PEPFAR has released its "Fiscal Year 2013 Country Operational Plan (COP) Guidance" on its website.

15 Oct 2012

Blog examines contraceptive coverage in sub-Saharan Africa

"Between 1970 and 2010, most emerging countries achieved impressive gains in contraceptive coverage," but, "[b]y contrast, many sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries ... have started their contraceptive revolution very late and progress to date has been minimal," John May, a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD), and Jean-Pierre Guengant, researcher emeritus at the Research Institute for Development (IRD) in Marseille, France, write in CGD's "Global Health Policy" blog.

15 Oct 2012

Study helps uncover how brain processes and interprets facial expressions

Research released today helps reveal how human and primate brains process and interpret facial expressions, and the role of facial mimicry in everything from deciphering an unclear smile to establishing relationships of power and status.

15 Oct 2012

Wal-Mart expanding program for no-cost employee surgeries

Wal-Mart announced this week that it will expand a program that ends out-of-pocket procedure and travel costs for employees seeking some heart and spine surgeries if they go to hospitals across the country that have agreements with the retailer.

15 Oct 2012

Sitting for longer periods doubles risk of heart disease, diabetes and death

A new study led by the University of Leicester, in association with colleagues at Loughborough University, has discovered that sitting for long periods increases your risk of diabetes, heart disease and death.

15 Oct 2012

Capitol Hill fights over health law, EHR doc payments continue

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill sound off on the Obama administration's "meaningful use" payments to doctors as the fight over parts of the health law -- its oversight and D.C's insurance exchange -- continue.

15 Oct 2012

No link between folic acid, vitamin B6 and 12 and increased risk of colorectal adenoma

Combined folic acid, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12 supplements had no statistically significant effect on the risk of colorectal adenoma among women who were at high risk for cardiovascular disease, according to a study published October 12 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

15 Oct 2012

Romney's clues on pre-existing conditions, lack of health coverage

During a meeting with the Columbus Dispatch, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney offered a comment about people who lack insurance which is being characterized by some news outlets as "controversial." Romney plans to repeal the health law but says uninsured people could still visit an emergency room and that people with preexisting conditions could keep their insurance. On this point, however, he has yet to provide specifics, news outlets report.

15 Oct 2012

Researchers identify keys and doors of Anaplasmataceae tick-borne bacterium

Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine researchers have identified the "keys" and "doors" of a bacterium responsible for a series of tick-transmitted diseases. These findings may point researchers toward the development of a single vaccine that protects against members of an entire family of bacteria that cause disease in humans, domestic animals and livestock.

15 Oct 2012

Indonesia issues order to override patents on 7 HIV, hepatitis drugs

"Indonesia's government has quietly issued an order to override the patents on seven important medicines used to treat people with HIV and hepatitis B and allow cheap versions to be made by local drug companies," Guardian Health Editor Sarah Boseley reports in her "Global Health Blog."

15 Oct 2012

Walmart, Humana to help Medicare beneficiaries afford their prescriptions

Annual enrollment begins today for 2013 Medicare plans and Humana Inc. and Walmart will once again help beneficiaries afford their prescriptions.

15 Oct 2012

GlaxoSmithKline to make clinical trial data available to other researchers

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) CEO Andrew Witty "said on Thursday detailed data from its clinical trials would be made available to other researchers," Reuters reports, adding, "That would include anonymized patient-level results that sit behind clinical trials of approved and failed drugs."

15 Oct 2012

Scientists take first steps to create neural-like stem cells from muscle tissue

Scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have taken the first steps to create neural-like stem cells from muscle tissue in animals.

15 Oct 2012

PEPFAR launches training initiative for HIV/AIDS organizations in Bahamas

"On Wednesday, October 10, U.S. and Bahamian officials attended the official launch of 'The Caribbean Grant Solicitation and Management Program,' a new PEPFAR initiative that will be executed locally by the U.S.-based nonprofit World Learning through USAID," a press release from the U.S. Embassy in Nassau, Bahamas, reports.

15 Oct 2012

Scientists resolve new molecular circuit controlling cellular metabolism

Cancer, diabetes, and excess body weight have one thing in common: they alter cellular metabolism. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg and the Medical University of Vienna together with an international research team have jointly resolved a new molecular circuit controlling cellular metabolism.

15 Oct 2012

Maternal, child health programs must reach poorest families to be successful

"Worldwide, evidence-based interventions are being implemented in an effort to drive down child mortality and there are some signs that they are working," a Lancet editorial states. "However, few countries are on course to meet the targets set by Millennium Development Goal 4," the editorial notes.

15 Oct 2012

Prize-winning study on single-bicycle crashes and accident prevention

Crashes are an unfortunate fact of life for many travelling on our roads and bicycle paths, but how and why they happen is not always well understood. In the Netherlands alone, A&E Departments treat 46,000 injuries sustained in single-bicycle incidents each year, 6000 of which lead to hospital admission. Reducing the number of bicycle accidents is thus good for the public purse as well as for the cyclists themselves.

15 Oct 2012

S. African National AIDS Council CEO speaks to PlusNews about reform, funding

Fareed Abdullah, CEO of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), who took office in July, spoke with PlusNews regarding the body's reform, the revival of provincial AIDS councils, resource mobilization, and the appointment of a new board that allows SANAC to operate independently.

15 Oct 2012