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MedPAC recommendations may jeopardize access to care: ACS

Yesterday, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) reviewed draft recommendations related to the flawed and unsustainable Medicare Physician Payment system. The American College of Surgeons (ACS) is pleased that the MedPAC has recognized the need to eliminate the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) and move towards a reimbursement system that is based on quality of care.

17 Sep 2011

List of top-performing hospitals includes small and rural hospitals

Small and rural hospitals headed the list of top performing hospitals in using evidence-based processes closely linked to positive patient outcomes, according to the Joint Commission's annual report on quality and safety, Improving America's Hospitals.

17 Sep 2011

Power wheelchairs are not 'government waste', they give freedom and independence to people with disabilities

"The public would be better served if policymakers left their desks in Washington and met with us in our homes, where every day is a struggle."

17 Sep 2011

Chad faces food security and health challenges, but opportunity exists for improvement, U.N. official says

U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Chad Thomas Gurtner "says Chad faces daunting food security and health challenges" but that "peace and growing stability in Chad bodes well for the country's future," VOA News reports.

17 Sep 2011

An evening of grace and glamour to benefit people living with HIV/AIDS in Orange County

AIDS Services Foundation Orange County (ASF) will literally roll out the red carpet for its signature fund raising event – Red Ball II on Saturday, September 24 at the Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach at 6 p.m.

17 Sep 2011

High-fat maternal diet during pregnancy results in deposition of excess body fat in the newborn

New research in mice indicates that babies born to moms who eat a high-fat diet before and during pregnancy have a higher fat mass and smaller livers than babies whose moms consume low-fat fare, according to scientists at Oregon Health & Science University Doernbecher Children's Hospital.

17 Sep 2011

Prevention is global health community's greatest challenge in fight against chronic diseases

"A new pandemic has emerged and is beginning to overshadow all others," "The chronic-disease pandemic will be the 'face' of global health in the coming decades ... an insidious pandemic for those who are affected, causing slow and subtle declines in health over years."

17 Sep 2011

MDC Partners acquires majority stake in Concentric Pharma Advertising

MDC Partners announced today that they have acquired a majority stake in leading healthcare and pharma advertising and marketing agency, Concentric Pharma Advertising.

17 Sep 2011

Congressional cuts to global health R&D spending would hinder preparations for new pandemic threats

The movie "'Contagion' is fiction, but truth closely trails behind. It tells an effective story of why we need new vaccines, tests, drugs, and other tools to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases to address existing and emerging global health threats," Kaitlin Christenson, coalition director of the Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC), writes in an opinion piece in The Hill's "Congress Blog."

17 Sep 2011

UK taxpayers may bail out failing NHS hospitals in a £5 billion rescue mission

Many failing NHS hospitals across the UK will be bailed out by the taxpayer in a £5 billion rescue mission, according to a leading figure.

17 Sep 2011

Perry attacks Romney on Mass. health plan, similarities to Obama

In a campaign swing through Iowa, GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry drew distinctions between himself and Mitt Romney, another Republican presidential candidate, by highlighting the similarities between the federal health law and the Massachusetts health plan that became law while Romney was the state's governor.

17 Sep 2011

MedPAC proposal for additional reimbursement cuts to clinical laboratories are unsustainable: ACLA

The proposal now under consideration by the Medicare Payment Advisory Committee to slash Medicare reimbursement rates for clinical laboratory services as part of a broader effort to fix the Medicare physician-payment system would threaten the economic survival of many clinical labs. That was the message of a letter signed by ACLA President Alan Mertz and sent today to MedPAC Chairman Glenn Hackbarth.

17 Sep 2011

Bioethicists up the ante in Bachmann's HPV brouhaha

Since Monday's GOP presidential primary debate, Michele Bachmann, a Republican candidate, has been under the microscope for criticizing fellow GOP hopeful Rick Perry for his policy in Texas requiring girls to get the Gardisil vaccine against HPV. Now, two bioethicists have offered cash prizes if she can prove a claim she made about the vaccine's link to mental retardation.

17 Sep 2011

Blue Cross plans push HHS to release regs by early 2012

"Health plans don't have the information they need to carry out some important health reform changes – and they don't have enough time to get the work done either, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association says.

17 Sep 2011

HHS awards SwRI $4.4M contract to develop nasal system for treating cyanide poisoning

Southwest Research Institute was awarded a $4.4 million contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to develop a nasal-delivery, first-line treatment system to combat cyanide poisoning.

17 Sep 2011

Novel therapies remove the brakes cancer puts on the immune system

Some of the newest therapies in the war on cancer remove the brakes cancer puts on the immune system, Georgia Health Sciences University researchers report.

17 Sep 2011

CLASS Act criticism continues, but new report sees 'fixes'

Though conventional wisdom and partisan positions suggest the program is fiscally "out of whack," experts say there are multiple ways to try to make it more sound.

17 Sep 2011

Researchers discover molecular-level changes in brains of women with major depressive disorder

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have discovered molecular-level changes in the brains of women with major depressive disorder that link two hypotheses of the biological mechanisms that lead to the illness. Their results, published online this week in Molecular Psychiatry, also allowed them to recreate the changes in a mouse model that could enhance future research on depression.

17 Sep 2011

U.N. expresses concern over flooding in Pakistan; UNICEF says 2.5M children affected

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday expressed concern over widespread flooding in Pakistan and "pledged the United Nations' continued commitment to supporting the government in its efforts to respond to the humanitarian needs of the more than five million people in the affected areas," the U.N. News Centre reports.

17 Sep 2011

IHA introduces 'Value Based Pay for Performance' to assure physician accountability

Reflecting the importance of measuring and rewarding both quality and cost-efficiency, the Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA), now in its 10th year of physician organization measurement and reporting, is taking another leap forward in its efforts to assure physician accountability with the introduction of "Value Based Pay for Performance."

17 Sep 2011

Medical News

MedPAC recommendations may jeopardize access to care: ACS

List of top-performing hospitals includes small and rural hospitals

Power wheelchairs are not 'government waste', they give freedom and independence to people with disabilities

Chad faces food security and health challenges, but opportunity exists for improvement, U.N. official says

An evening of grace and glamour to benefit people living with HIV/AIDS in Orange County

High-fat maternal diet during pregnancy results in deposition of excess body fat in the newborn

Prevention is global health community's greatest challenge in fight against chronic diseases

MDC Partners acquires majority stake in Concentric Pharma Advertising

Congressional cuts to global health R&D spending would hinder preparations for new pandemic threats

UK taxpayers may bail out failing NHS hospitals in a £5 billion rescue mission

Perry attacks Romney on Mass. health plan, similarities to Obama

MedPAC proposal for additional reimbursement cuts to clinical laboratories are unsustainable: ACLA

Bioethicists up the ante in Bachmann's HPV brouhaha

Blue Cross plans push HHS to release regs by early 2012

HHS awards SwRI $4.4M contract to develop nasal system for treating cyanide poisoning

Novel therapies remove the brakes cancer puts on the immune system

CLASS Act criticism continues, but new report sees 'fixes'

Researchers discover molecular-level changes in brains of women with major depressive disorder

U.N. expresses concern over flooding in Pakistan; UNICEF says 2.5M children affected

IHA introduces 'Value Based Pay for Performance' to assure physician accountability

Membrane proteins in focus: Turning high-risk targets into routine workflows

How metabolic phenotyping can detect viral infections in minutes

Directed enzyme evolution and the Nobel Prize: Making enzymes evolve in the lab

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