HHS call for more insured children clashes with state budget troubles
(American Medical News © 09/20/2010)
Washington -- Federal health officials are challenging states and others to enroll nearly 5 million uninsured children who are eligible for Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program. Dept. of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issued the call during a Sept. 3 event highlighting the Connecting Kids to Coverage Challenge, a national campaign to enroll the 4.7 million ...
Accountable care organizations: How your practice can profit
(American Medical News © 09/20/2010)
[Illustration by C.J. Burton / www.cjburton.com] Accountable care organizations are coming. You might not be sure what they are, yet you might have received a call from someone asking you to join one. The accountable care organization hit the mainstream when, in its June 2009 report, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission discussed the concept as a way to reduce costs and improve care for M...
AMA urges debt commission to reform SGR
(American Medical News © 09/20/2010)
Washington -- The American Medical Association wants the bipartisan debt commission created by President Obama to consider sending Congress a proposal to repeal the sustainable growth rate formula before lawmakers recess in early October to head home for the November midterm elections. The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform is set to meet Sept. 29, and the AMA is strongly u...
Physician ratings process needs transparency
(American Medical News © 09/20/2010)
Health plans say they rate physicians so they can give their members a list of the doctors deemed most cost-efficient. Those doctors often end up in a tiered plan, where those members spend a lower co-pay for seeing them, or pay lower premiums if they stay away from physicians who aren't on the list. Unfortunately, far too often, there are serious accuracy problems with the ratings. * Links...
Insurers warned against "misleading" claims on rate hikes
(American Medical News © 09/20/2010)
Insurers around the country are blaming new requirements under health system reform for rising premiums, telling regulators and policyholders that new mandates will force them to charge more for coverage than they would otherwise. The Obama administration, which maintains that health system reform will add no more than 1% to 2% to the cost of premiums, reacted angrily to claims by nonprofit Blue...
FDA and CMS Propose Jointly Reviewing Devices
(Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation © 09/20/2010)
In a move that could speed up reimbursement decisions, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are considering parallel reviews for medical devices. “This process will serve the public interest by reducing the time between FDA marketing approval or clearance decisions and CMS national coverage determina...
The Chronicle endorses former Houston Mayor Bill White for governor of Texas
(Austin KLBJ 590 AM © 09/20/2010)
9/20/2010 Texas faces an unprecedented budget deficit estimated at $21 billion, faltering health care and public education systems, and demands for new energy sources and transportation funding. For nearly a decade, Rick Perry —...
Reform not quite there
(Cincinnati Enquirer © 09/20/2010)
This story first appeared in The Sunday Enquirer, Sept. 19, 2010. As a provider of health services (as opposed to an employer), I can characterize the recent health reform legislation using three words: needed, insufficient, unclear. Health reform is needed, and is supported by our industry and by TriHealth. We see the results every day of people not having access to basic medical ...
The formerly uninsurable now have options
(Cincinnati Enquirer © 09/20/2010)
This story first appeared in The Sunday Enquirer, Sept. 19, 2010. Even when Steve Brown and Angie Sexton could get a quote for health insurance, there's no way they could afford it. Brown, a pastor from Forest Park diagnosed with prostate cancer two years ago, received one offer for $1,030 a month only for himself. "I thought that was just a way of saying, 'We don't want to insure...
Medicare drove doctor from GOP
(Cincinnati Enquirer © 09/20/2010)
This story first appeared in The Sunday Enquirer, Sept. 19, 2010. Up until December, Michael Pryce, an independent candidate for Ohio's open U.S. Senate seat, was a card-carrying Republican, having served on the Summit County GOP's executive committee for 22 years. Then, during the debate over health care reform, "it became apparent that his political party was the one voting unani...
Insurers, hospitals push doctors' recertification
(Columbus Dispatch © 09/20/2010)
You might expect your physician to be board-certified and current in his or her specialty, whether it is cardiology, orthopedics or family medicine. But how do you know if your doctor was ever certified or if the last board test he or she took was decades ago? Physician licenses are issued by state medical agencies. That's not the same with specialty boards, which used to test doctors once and...
GOP's plan for health-care overhaul unclear
(Columbus Dispatch © 09/20/2010)
WASHINGTON - Republicans are promising to repeal and replace President Barack Obama's health-care overhaul if they win control of Congress. But with what? Not even they know. Some have proposed major changes to workplace coverage, even turning Medicare into a voucher plan. Many prefer small steps. Others want a clean start. "During the health-care debate, there was just as much division with...
Health insurers seek rate hikes, citing new reform law
(Health Leaders © 09/20/2010)
Health-insurance companies are raising rates in Colorado, ending sales of child-only policies and blaming their actions in part on the federal health reform law, moves that regulators call "bizarre" and consumer advocates are vowing to watch. The election-season changes by insurers come as Democrats and Republicans escalate harsh rhetoric on the reforms passed in March. The White House ...
Health care reform's first wave approaching
(Houston Chronicle © 09/20/2010)
Jud Ivy, 24, doesn't remember the last time she had a doctor's exam."That hasn't been since" she says, pausing. "Hold on, hold on I was at least 18."Because she's young enough, a new health care reform provision effective Thursday may make it possible for Ivy to become covered under her mother's health plan. "I don't have insurance, and I don't want to rack up any more bills," the Te...
Doctors to push tubing changes
(Las Vegas Review Journal © 09/20/2010)
The president of the Nevada State Medical Association, concerned that the lives of hospitalized patients are needlessly put at risk on a daily basis, wants the American Medical Association to encourage new federal directives that would make it far less possible for patients to receive the wrong medication or fluids through look-alike tubes. Dr. Ron Kline, the state association president, said Thu...
Proposed rules aim to prevent Medicare, Medicaid fraud
(Nashville Tennessean © 09/20/2010)
Proposed regulations being unveiled today seek to crack down on Medicare and Medicaid fraud by subjecting operators of certain medical firms to fingerprinting and stopping payments when credible fraud allegations are made, documents show. The rules would give federal health officials key powers to identify fraud early and reduce the estimated $55 billion in improper payments made each ...
TDI launches Healthy Texas
(Pasadena Citizen © 09/20/2010)
AUSTIN – Healthy Texas, a statewide public/private partnership established by the 81st Legislature, provides a new health insurance option for small employers in Texas.Eligible employers that purchase coverage for employees and their dependents through an approved participating private health plan can save, on average, up to one-third on premiums.Launch of the Healthy Texas partnership was announc...
GOP on tough road to health repeal
(Politico.com © 09/20/2010)
For some Republicans, it’s one of the most potent attack lines this fall, prized for its simplicity. Want to kill the new health care law? Just starve it of cash and replace it with something else. But there’s nothing simple about it. Experts — and even some Republicans — say a GOP-controlled Congress next year would have to struggle to erase nearly $1 trillion in hea...
House Probes Possible Secret Motrin Recall
(San Antonio KSAT (ABC) 12 © 09/20/2010)
TRENTON, N.J. -- Congress is investigating whether Johnson & Johnson carried out a second secret recall of faulty pain relievers last year, as a major probe of a dozen J&J recalls escalates. In the first such recall, packets of possibly defective Motrin were quietly bought from stores across the U.S. in spring 2009. E-mails just released by the House Committe...
Florida Republicans are foolish to fight against to health care reform
(St. Petersburg Times © 09/20/2010)
Florida's top Republican candidates — Marco Rubio for U.S. Senate, Rick Scott for governor and Pam Bondi for attorney general — are whipping up supporters by promising to fight health care reform to the death. Their time would be better spent figuring out how to best make the reforms work for Floridians desperate for accessible, affordable coverage. Contrary to the Republican rhetoric, the health...
The Houston Chronicle Endorses Bill White
(Texas Tribune © 09/20/2010)
First out of the gate among the big-city newspaper endorsers, the Houston Chronicle today threw its support behind favorite son Bill White, Houston's former mayor: Texas faces an unprecedented budget deficit estimated at $21 billion, faltering health care and public education systems, and demands for new energy sources and transportation funding. For nearly a decade, Rick Perry — the lo...
GOP Aims to Erode White House Agenda
(The Wall Street Journal © 09/20/2010)
Eyeing a potential Congressional win in November, House Republicans are planning to chip away at the White House's legislative agenda—in particular the health-care law—by depriving the programs of cash. The emerging plan has been devised in part to highlight the policy differences between the two main parties, especially over legislative achievements of the Obama administration that have proven u...
Don't Blame the Messenger if New Services Raise Prices
(The Wall Street Journal © 09/20/2010)
How funny to see Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, chastising insurers for wanting to raise rates for this administration's new health-care mandates ("U.S. Rebukes Health Insurers," Marketplace, Sept. 10). What did she expect? Mrs. Sebelius's health-care cosmos seems to have unbounded expectations devoid of basic economics. K. Russell Peterman Georgetown, Texas We...
Obama to Tout Health-Care Law in Election Push
(The Wall Street Journal © 09/20/2010)
The Obama administration this week plans to revive its pitch for the health-care overhaul, hoping that a slate of consumer-friendly provisions will boost public support before midterm elections. Starting Thursday, insurers officially must adhere to about a half-dozen key changes under the law, including eliminating co-payments for preventive services and allowing children to stay on their parents...
GOP Divided on How to Replace Health Overhaul
(Time Magazine © 09/20/2010)
(WASHINGTON) — Republicans are promising to repeal and replace President Barack Obama's health care overhaul if they win control of Congress. But with what? Not even they know. Some have proposed major changes to workplace coverage, even turning Medicare into a voucher plan. Many prefer small steps that tiptoe around political land mines. Others want a clean start. "During the health care de...
State lawmaker expects 'tough session'
(Abilene Reporter-News © 09/21/2010)
Rep. Lois Kolkhorst says that the upcoming 82nd session of the Texas Legislature will be a “tough session,” and that the committee she chairs, the Public Health Committee, “will be right in the middle of the biggest issues.” Kolkhorst, a state representative from Brenham who was first elected in 2000, was in Abilene on Monday to tour local health care and medical facilities with Rep. Susan King...
House GOP starts to pick away at health law
(Austin American-Statesman © 09/21/2010)
Republicans are serious. Hopeful about picking up substantial numbers of seats in the congressional elections, they are developing plans to try to repeal or roll back President Barack Obama's health care law. House Republicans are expected to include some specifics in an election agenda they intend to issue Thursday. Although they face tremendous political and practical hurdles to undoing a law...
Hard calls for hospitals
(Boston Globe © 09/21/2010)
Boston Medical Center and Cambridge Health Alliance, two big hospital groups that treat lots of poor patients, are struggling in the age of health care reform. In fact, all Massachusetts hospitals that treat a large share of poor patients rightly feel they got the short end of the stick in the state’s closely watched experiment to insure the health of almost everyone. Public financial suppo...
Repeal of health bill to be GOP battle cry
(Boston Globe © 09/21/2010)
WASHINGTON — Republicans are serious. Hopeful of picking up substantial numbers of seats in the congressional elections, they are developing plans to try to repeal or roll back President Obama’s new health care law. This goal, although not fleshed out in a detailed legislative proposal, is much more than a campaign slogan. That conclusion emerged from interviews with a range of Republ...
Nursing home sweeps find residents with arrest warrants
(Chicago Tribune © 09/21/2010)
Standing in front of a Northwest Side nursing home Monday, state Attorney General Lisa Madigan said her office has identified more than 100 nursing home residents with active arrest warrants during 21 unannounced sweeps of the facilities in the last nine months. "Felons are using nursing homes in Illinois as safe houses," said Madigan, calling the number an "unfortunate milestone." "We w...
WellPoint says Medicare renews medical equipment contract worth $87M over 5 years
(Chicago Tribune © 09/21/2010)
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Health insurer WellPoint Inc. said Tuesday it received a Medicare medical equipment contract worth as much as $86.7 million over five years. The company said the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services renewed its durable medical equipment administrative contract for a region that covers Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin....
Medicaid will cost NY state $63.5 billion in 2014
(Dallas KERA (PBS) 13 © 09/21/2010)
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Medicaid will cost New York state $63.5 billion by 2014, a 27 percent increase over 2010, without a drastic overhaul of the state-federal health plan that includes barring the middle class from qualifying. That was the estimate issued on Monday by Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch in a report. Medicaid "has an unwieldy and overly decentralized structure that serves contrad...
More doctors moving to e-prescriptions
(Dallas KERA (PBS) 13 © 09/21/2010)
By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. doctors increasingly are ditching pen and paper and sending prescriptions to pharmacies electronically, lured by up to $27 billion in government funds aimed at speeding the switch to electronic medical records. There are now 200,000 doctors who use e-prescribing, or roughly one in three office-based doctors. That compares with 156,000 at the end of ...
Colorado insurance commissioner confident insurers will stay in market and cover kids
(Denver Post © 09/21/2010)
The Colorado insurance commissioner said Monday she is confident health insurers will reach an agreement to stay in the market for new child-only policies but added that the state agency is reviewing its powers in case talks fall through this week. At least six major Colorado carriers said last week they would stop writing policies for children not covered by their parents' insurance, policies ...
San Francisco health chief in running to head L.A. County's massive health department
(Los Angeles Times © 09/21/2010)
Los Angeles county's chief executive, William T Fujioka, said Monday he believes he has identified the right person to lead the $3.4-billion-a-year Department of Health Services: Dr. Mitchell H. Katz, currently director of health for the city and county of San Francisco. “Given the system that he runs in San Francisco and the similarities in both the mission and the type of services provided,...
Doctor-run Medicare plan to exit Kentucky, Indiana
(Louisville Courier-Journal © 09/21/2010)
Essence Healthcare, a Medicare managed-care organization founded by doctors, will stop providing coverage Jan. 1 in Kentucky and Southern Indiana. Nearly 9,000 people in the Louisville and Lexington areas are members of Essence, whose health plans focus on wellness and charge only a $10 co-payment for seeing a primary-care doctor. ?I just hate to see them leave,? said David Doherty, a...
Short of Repeal, G.O.P. Will Chip at Health Law
(New York Times (State Version) © 09/21/2010)
WASHINGTON — Republicans are serious. Hopeful of picking up substantial numbers of seats in the Congressional elections, they are developing plans to try to repeal or roll back President Obama’s new health care law. This goal, though not fleshed out in a detailed legislative proposal, is much more than a campaign slogan. That conclusion emerged from interviews with a wide range o...
American College of Physicians reaffirms support for increased health care transparency
(News-Medical.Net © 09/21/2010)
In a policy paper released today the American College of Physicians reaffirmed its support for increased health care transparency. Healthcare Transparency-Focus on Price and Clinical Performance Information, the first paper in a series of policy papers about transparency, is an introduction and overview of the issues and challenges faced with increased health care transparency. "We believe that in...
New health care model: Accountable Care Organizations
(Austin American-Statesman © 09/22/2010)
Published: 10:54 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010 Get ready for a new health care acronym that could one day become as common as HMO and PPO. Introducing ACO. It stands for accountable care organization, and if its advocates are right, it will deliver more efficient health care to patients at a lower cost. ACOs are part of America's health care overhaul law, and proponent...
Palin wades into Texas race
(Austin American-Statesman © 09/22/2010)
Palin backs Eddie Bernice Johnson’s opponent, ESPN writer takes a shot at Perry and we learn a lot about what the candidates like to eat and cook. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has shown incredible political power around the country this year just by writing simple Facebook messages to anoint her favorite candidates in Republican primaries. Last night, she posted such a message about a Te...
Omnicare to pay $21M
(Cincinnati Enquirer © 09/22/2010)
Covington-based Omnicare Inc. has entered into settlement agreements worth more than $21 million from charges that the firm overcharged Medicaid programs of Michigan and Massachusetts. The settlement by the nation's largest provider of pharmaceutical care for the elderly stems from a whistleblower lawsuit filed in federal court in Chicago in 2003 by a former Omnicare financial analyst...
Obama to mark six-month enactment of health care reform
(CNN.com © 09/22/2010)
Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama is set to take a victory lap Wednesday on what is arguably the signature legislative accomplishment of his first two years in office: the enactment of comprehensive health care reform. The president will travel to the home of an individual with a chronic ailment who, according senior administration officials, is benefiting from the new law's repeal of lif...
Some insurers drop child-only coverage
(Columbus Dispatch © 09/22/2010)
WASHINGTON - Some of the country's most prominent health-insurance companies have decided to stop offering new child-only plans, rather than comply with rules in the new health-care law that will require such plans to start accepting children with pre-existing medical conditions after Thursday. The companies will continue to cover children who already have child-only policies. They also will acc...
Private Medicare premiums to drop
(Columbus Dispatch © 09/22/2010)
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration announced yesterday that average premiums paid by individuals for private Medicare Advantage plans will decline slightly next year, even as insurers provide additional benefits required by the new health-care law. About one-fourth of all Medicare beneficiaries are insured by Medicare Advantage. By contrast, commercial insurance premiums for many people you...
TAB urges lawmakers to expand Medicaid managed care
(Deer Park Progress © 09/22/2010)
In a letter to state lawmakers and leadership, the Texas Association of Business President and CEO Bill Hammond advocated strongly in favor of an expansion of Medicaid Managed Care (MMC) to help address the state’s budget crisis, while at the same time ensuring a higher quality of health care for the clients of the state and federal taxpayer-funded program.“An estimated $21 billion budgetary short...
Health reform helps Coloradans
(Denver Post © 09/22/2010)
For years, Coloradans have lived with uncertainty about their health insurance: lifetime caps, recisions, coverage for life-saving screenings. New provisions that begin Thursday, the six-month anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act, address some of the biggest concerns consumers had about the failing health system. These new requirements will help transform worry about coverage i...
A consumer's guide to healthcare overhaul
(Fort Worth Star-Telegram © 09/22/2010)
Here's a look at how the healthcare overhaul law affects people who get their coverage at work, buy their own health insurance or are enrolled in Medicare.I get my coverage through work, and the "open enrollment" period for next year is approaching. I'd like to keep my current health plan. Will the new law affect it?Your plan will feature some new consumer protections. For example, it won't be abl...
Blue Dog Democrats Use Health Care Overhaul as Campaign Punching Bag
(Fox News © 09/22/2010)
When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi let 30 Blue Dog Democrats break ranks to vote against the controversial health care overhaul in March, she probably didn't expect them to go the extra mile and campaign against it in the fall. But for several of these fiscal conservatives, the bills they didn't vote for have become far more important to their campaign message than the legislation they support...
AP Poll: Americans Don't Understand Health Care Law
(Fox News © 09/22/2010)
AFP July 13: President Obama gives a statement about the new National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) in the East Room of the White House. WASHINGTON -- Six months after President Obama signed landmark legislation that will extend health care coverage to millions of people, Americans still do not really know what the law does. More than half mistakenly believe the overhaul will...
Medicare Advantage Enrollment to Rise, Premium Costs Dip
(Health Leaders © 09/22/2010)
Enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans, which provide services to about a quarter of the nation's Medicare beneficiaries, is predicted to go up by about 5% in 2011, while premiums on average will dip by 1% from this year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Tuesday. While the monthly premium decrease is smalla??from an average of $36.14 this year to $35.69 in 2011 (a 45-ce...
HHS pumps up fraud prevention efforts
(Healthcare Finance News © 09/22/2010)
WASHINGTON – The Department of Health and Human Services on Monday proposed new rules to help fight waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. The HHS also launched new resources to assist in busting fraud. "These important provisions of the Affordable Care Act will not only help us crack down on criminals who are seeking to scam the ...
Texas Commissioner: Health Insurance Reforms Effective Sept. 23
(Insurance Journal © 09/22/2010)
The federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and related Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, enacted by Congress in March 2010, include significant insurance market reforms effective for most group and individual health insurance policies with plan years that begin on or after Sept.23, 2010. Under the Act, most health benefit plans in Texas (including both fully insur...
Blue Cross To Refund Policyholders Nearly $156 Million In North Carolina
(Kaiser Health News © 09/22/2010)
USA Today: "Health insurance regulators in North Carolina have identified nearly $156 million in refunds owed to Blue Cross policyholders because of changes coming under the nation's new health law. Consumers with policies at other companies across the nation also may deserve refunds, says North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin. ... The health care law will dramatically change how hea...
Republicans Plan To Chip Away At Health Law; Senators Call For Insurance Rate Hearings
(Kaiser Health News © 09/22/2010)
The New York Times: Republicans are hopeful they can pick up enough seats in November's midterm elections to chip away at the new health law. "This goal, though not fleshed out in a detailed legislative proposal, is much more than a campaign slogan. That conclusion emerged from interviews with a wide range of Republican lawmakers, who said they were determined to chip away at the law if they could...
AP Poll: Health care law making U.S. citizens muddle-minded
(Lubbock Avalanche-Journal © 09/22/2010)
WASHINGTON - Six months after President Barack Obama signed the landmark health care law, the nation still doesn't really know what's in it. More than half of Americans mistakenly believe the overhaul will raise taxes for most people this year, an Associated Press poll finds. But that would be true only if most people were devoted to indoor tanning, which got hit with a sales tax. Many who wa...
Small firms' rates soaring
(Boston Globe © 09/23/2010)
Many small Massachusetts businesses are grappling with major increases in health insurance costs, despite an aggressive effort by the Patrick administration to cap rate increases. As a result of premium increases that in some cases top 30 percent, companies say they are reducing coverage to save money, and using more independent contractors instead of payroll employees to avoid having to offer in...
Obama extols health overhaul on eve of changes
(Columbus Dispatch © 09/23/2010)
FALLS CHURCH, Va. - Blaming himself for coolness to his health-care overhaul, President Barack Obama is seeking to reintroduce the law to voters who don't much like or understand it six months after he signed it. Yesterday, the White House gathered patients from across the country who have benefited from the measure, and the president rolled up his sleeves to address them in a sunny Virginia bac...
New healthcare law kicks in today
(Houston Chronicle © 09/23/2010)
Tens of thousands of Texas children will be directly affected by the 11th-hour decision of a number of major health insurance companies to stop selling child-only policies rather than comply with the new federal law that requires they cover youngsters with pre-existing conditions. All insurance companies starting today will accept children in family plans regardless of medical history, but Texas...
OSHA whistle-blower policy faulted
(Houston Chronicle © 09/23/2010)
WASHINGTON — The federal agency responsible for worker safety and other protections for tens of millions of Americans has failed for decades to establish a system to shield whistle-blowers from retaliation from their employers, according to government auditors. The Government Accountability Office's report criticizes the Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration for "...
GOP 'Pledge' makes closing argument to voters
(Houston Chronicle © 09/23/2010)
WASHINGTON — Republicans are putting their leading midterm congressional campaign arguments into a new manifesto designed to show they're listening to an angry public and are focused on creating jobs. GOP lawmakers later Thursday will roll out their "Pledge to America" — a 21-page document filled with familiar proposals to slash taxes and spending and cut down on government r...
As the health law kicks into second gear, how does it help you now?
(Lubbock Avalanche-Journal © 09/23/2010)
CHICAGO — The nation's new health care law turns 6 months old Thursday and starts delivering protections and dollars-and-cents benefits that Americans can grasp. But it won't affect all consumers the same way, which may cause confusion. Q: Will everyone's health insurance change on Thursday? A: No. It depends on when your health insurance plan year starts. Many of the new requirements begin with p...
White blasts Perry over 'Ouija board' estimates
(Lufkin Daily News © 09/23/2010)
A massive budget hole Texas faces emerged again in the race for governor Wednesday after Gov. Rick Perry equated early shortfall estimates to "Ouija board" projections. Democratic challenger Bill White seized on the remark, saying Perry lacked business sense for comparing an estimated $18 billion shortfall from state budget officials to crystal ball readings. Perry said he was referring ...
Pelosi: Health Insurance Companies Are Violating Their Promise To Cover Children With Pre-Existing Conditions
(Medcompare © 09/23/2010)
9/21/2010 12:39:00 PM Source: Office of the Speaker of the House WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement today on reports that health insurance companies in some states will stop offering child-only coverage - just before health insurance reform's Patient's Bill of Rights takes effect on Thursday and insurers are no longer permitted to ...
Medicaid issues to be discussed at meeting
(New Orleans Times Picayune © 09/23/2010)
Families of individuals with special needs often face unique problems finding and providing affordable health-care coverage. Applying for Medicaid has been an important lifeline for individuals and families. The federal program provides medical and health-related services for eligible individuals and families with low incomes. Jointly funded by local state and federal governments, Medicaid...
Shift in Medicaid dollars approved
(New Orleans Times Picayune © 09/23/2010)
The federal government Wednesday gave its official blessing to a Louisiana proposal to steer a portion of its Medicaid budget from hospitals to the network of primary care clinics that have proliferated since Hurricane Katrina. The move is the final piece of a financing puzzle that will distribute at least $97.5 million to the clinics and bolster their efforts to provide primary medical homes ...
For Many, Health Care Relief Begins Today
(New York Times (State Version) © 09/23/2010)
Sometimes lost in the partisan clamor about the new health care law is the profound relief it is expected to bring to hundreds of thousands of Americans who have been stricken first by disease and then by a Darwinian insurance system. On Thursday, the six-month anniversary of the signing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a number of its most central consumer protections t...
Medical loss ratio debate drags on, drags down stock prices
(News-Medical.Net © 09/23/2010)
The failure to clearly define the key health law requirement that many insurers must spend at least 80 percent of premium dollars on health services has left investors tepid about health plan stocks and has complicated corporate decisions in the sector, Bloomberg reports. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners, a group of state regulators, were supposed to offer a definition to federa...
It's Time for Flu Shots Again
(Amarillo KAMR (NBC) 4 © 09/24/2010)
AMARILLO-- New developments in this year's flu shot mean you don't need to get two shots to defend yourself against flu and H1N1. It's that time of year again, flu season is coming to the area, and you can get your flu shot at local pharmacies. They're about $30, and they're usually free for Medicaid patients. The CDC recommends pregnant women, children under five, those over...
Study: 75 percent of Americans will be overweight by 2020
(Austin KVUE (ABC) 24 © 09/24/2010)
PARIS – Citizens of the world's richest countries are getting fatter and fatter and the United States is leading the charge, an organization of leading economies said Thursday in its first ever obesity forecast. Three out of four Americans will be overweight or obese by 2020, and disease rates and health care spending will balloon, unless governments, individuals and industry cooperate on a...
Insurers to pull the plug on child-only health plans
(Beaumont Enterprise © 09/24/2010)
Tens of thousands of Texas children will be directly affected by the 11th-hour decision of a number of major health insurance companies to stop selling child-only policies rather than comply with the new federal law that requires they cover youngsters with pre-existing conditions. All insurance companies starting today will accep...
Study: Doctors Overprescribe Antibiotics For Respiratory Infections
(Biocompare © 09/24/2010)
Doctors frequently misuse antibiotics when treating patients hospitalized with respiratory tract infections (RTIs), according to a study to be published in the November issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. advertisement The study, which tracked patients in two Pennsylvania hospitals, found that doctors often use antibiotics to treat patients whose infections are k...
In 'Pledge to America,' GOP vows to stop Obama's efforts
(Boston Globe © 09/24/2010)
WASHINGTON — Republicans long have chafed under criticism from President Obama that they are “the party of no.’’ What their new campaign blueprint shows is that, if they take control of the House, Republicans will become “the party of stop.’’ At its heart, the “Pledge to America’’ represents a promise to stop Obama in his tracks — ...
White paper will push NHS into 'open market'
(British Medical Association © 09/24/2010)
The government's white paper moves the NHS towards a more open market in healthcare, the BMA has been warned. NHS West Midlands chief executive Ian Cumming told the BMA West Midlands regional council that Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS would bring a??huge changesa??. Mr Cumming told last weeka??s meeting in Birmingham that the proposed changes could see the end of controls on competitio...
Insurance industry to go after 20-somethings
(Columbus Dispatch © 09/24/2010)
They are young and generally healthy, and make up the largest segment of the nation’s uninsured population. Many of these 20-somethings work jobs that don’t offer health coverage or they don’t earn a lot and don’t buy it. The insurance industry calls them “young invincibles” because they tend not to worry about health coverage and don’t think they need it. “They live fearl...
Increasing taxes on alcoholic beverages reduces disease, injury, crime and death rates
(E-Science News © 09/24/2010)
Increasing the costs to consumers of beer, wine, and hard liquor significantly reduces the rates of a wide range of alcohol-related deaths, diseases, injuries, and other problems, according to a new study published in today's online edition of the American Journal of Public Health and scheduled for inclusion in the November print edition. Researchers at the University of Florida (UF) report that p...
1 in 3 Prescriptions Are Now E-Prescriptions in Massachusetts as Number of E-Prescribing Physicians Grows to 200,000 Nationwide
(Fierce HealthIT © 09/24/2010)
WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwire - September 21, 2010) - At an event on Capitol Hill today featuring elected officials and leaders from throughout the nation's health care system, Surescripts announced that Massachusetts ranks first in the nation when it comes to use of electronic prescribing. The announcement took place at the annual Safe-Rx Awards, where Surescripts also announced that more tha...
Medicare drug-plan premiums rising
(Fort Worth Star-Telegram © 09/24/2010)
WASHINGTON -- Millions of seniors face double-digit hikes in their Medicare prescription premiums next year unless they shop for cheaper coverage.A new analysis of government data finds that premiums will go up an average of 10 percent among the top plans that have signed up some 70 percent of seniors. That's according to Avalere Health, a private research firm that crunched the numbers.Marketing ...
Doctors urge action at schools on concussions
(Fort Worth Star-Telegram © 09/24/2010)
WASHINGTON -- Doctors told lawmakers Thursday that student-athletes risk altered lives and permanent brain damage if schools don't protect them from the effects of blows to the head.A House committee grappling with how best to safeguard young athletes also heard from an NFL player who recently retired because of post-concussion problems; a mother whose son, a University of Pennsylvania football pl...
FDA will strictly curtail access to diabetes drug Avandia because of risks
(Fort Worth Star-Telegram © 09/24/2010)
LOS ANGELES -- The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that it will sharply limit access to the anti-diabetes drug Avandia because of concerns about an increased cardiovascular risk associated with the drug.Patients who are now taking the drug will have to sign an informed-consent statement acknowledging that they understand all the risks before they will be allowed to continue refilling pr...
Poll: Dems Disliked, But So Is GOP
(Houston KPRC (NBC) 2 © 09/24/2010)
WASHINGTON -- If anyone is scorned as much as Democrats these days, it's Republicans - the party that may recapture the House and perhaps the Senate in November's elections. Yet Democrats trying to exploit the GOP's unpopularity in hopes of hanging onto control of Congress face a problem: People who dislike Democrats seem ready to vote in greater numbers than those with little use ...
Insurers still hold the cards on care
(Kansas City Star © 09/24/2010)
So, what’s this baloney about a “government takeover” of health care? Seems like the insurance companies still call the shots. As some provisions of the federal health care plan took effect Thursday, insurers were cherry-picking the regulations. That congressionally mandated requirement that insurers cover parents’ adult offspring up to age 26 on the family health plan? T...
GOP 'Pledge to America' infuriates some conservatives
(Kansas City Star © 09/24/2010)
The Republican Party’s new “Pledge to America,” already battered by liberals, is now facing criticism from an unlikely source — some conservatives, who say it doesn’t go far enough to rein in big government. “This is the most fiscally irresponsible document ever offered by the GOP,” blogger and columnist Andrew Sullivan wrote Thursday. “It is an act...
Cancer drugs fueling debate on life
(Abilene Reporter-News © 09/27/2010)
BOSTON — Cancer patients, brace yourselves. Many new drug treatments cost nearly $100,000 a year, sparking fresh debate about how much a few months more of life is worth. The latest is Provenge, a first-of-a-kind therapy approved in April. It costs $93,000 a year and adds four months’ survival, on average, for men with incurable prostate tumors. Bob Svensson is honest about why he got it: insur...
What editorial writers are saying about the effects of health system reform
(American Medical News © 09/27/2010)
Even before limits on health insurers' coverage rescissions and expansions of coverage for children, among other items, were official, assessments of whether health system reform was having good or ill effects already were taking place. Reform's arrival [P]eople's lives will change -- for the good -- because of the health care reform bill that was passed earlier in the year. The "Patient's Bill of...
Million-dollar payouts to researchers often go undisclosed in journal articles
(American Medical News © 09/27/2010)
Highly paid consultants for orthopedic device makers disclose their company ties about half the time and rarely share details with readers about their financial relationships, according to a new study calling for more transparency. Researchers examined payments from five orthopedic device makers to consultants in 2007 and then zeroed in on the 32 researchers, nearly all physicians, who received ...
California physicians sue over quality ratings
(American Medical News © 09/27/2010)
What started as a collaboration on physician quality reporting in California by insurers, businesses and physicians has turned into a feud that has gone to court. The California Medical Assn. and two physicians filed a class-action lawsuit against Blue Shield of California on Sept. 9, asking the court to block the insurer from using its Blue Ribbon program to distinguish physicians the insurer d...
Mass. recasting health payments
(Boston Globe © 09/27/2010)
Governor Deval Patrick’s administration is reviving the state’s ambitious plan to change how doctors and hospitals are paid, aiming to hand the Legislature a specific proposal by Jan. 1 and end months of disagreement over how to control health care spending. Dr. JudyAnn Bigby, secretary of health and human services, convened a small group of state officials and health care executives ...
New cancer drug: $93K for four months of life
(Bryan-College Station Eagle © 09/27/2010)
BOSTON -- Cancer patients, brace yourselves. Many new drug treatments cost nearly $100,000 a year, sparking fresh debate about how much a few months more of life is worth. The latest is Provenge, a first-of-a-kind therapy approved in April. It costs $93,000 a year and adds four months' survival, on average, for men with incurable prostate tumors. Bob Svensson is honest about why he got it: insura...
United States restricts, European Union bans controversial diabetes pill Avandia
(Lubbock Avalanche-Journal © 09/27/2010)
European regulators ordered the diabetes drug Avandia off the market and the Food and Drug Administration placed stringent restrictions on its use in the United States, saying heart attack risks associated with the former blockbuster are too great a safety concern to continue its use for most people. In simultaneous news briefings Thursday, the European Medicines Agency and the U.S. Food and Drug ...
Chicken producers debate 'natural' label
(Lubbock Avalanche-Journal © 09/27/2010)
SAN FRANCISCO — A disagreement among poultry producers about whether chicken injected with salt, water and other ingredients can be promoted as "natural" has prompted federal officials to consider changing labeling guidelines. The U.S. Department of Agriculture had maintained that if chicken wasn't flavored artificially or preserved with chemicals, it could carry the word "natural" on the package....
Healthcare reform means new rules for Valley businesses
(McAllen Monitor © 09/27/2010)
McALLEN — Jim Thompson doesn’t want to lay off more employees. Revenue declines forced the president of Palmer Steel Supplies to cut production costs and skim 30 percent of his staff earlier this year. Though most of the workers were recently rehired, Thompson said some could receive pink slips again as the small business adjusts to new healthcare reform rules. “We may have t...
Perry, White address Texas’ hefty uninsured population
(San Antonio Business Journal © 09/27/2010)
A new U.S. Census Bureau report indicates that nearly a third of the 50.7 million Americans who were without health insurance in 2009 lived in the South, a region that includes Texas. But Texas’ leading gubernatorial candidates, incumbent Republican Rick Perry and Democratic challenger Bill White, differ dramatically in how they plan to address what some have characterized as an uninsured ...
U.S. outpatient surgery passes inpatient, to 53 million a year
(St. Petersburg Times © 09/27/2010)
Every day, dozens of people visit the Carol and Frank Morsani Center for Advanced Health Care at the University of South Florida. They get their knees repaired, tonsils removed and even undergo mastectomies — all without having to spend a night in the hospital. Outpatient surgery has increased dramatically over the past few decades, to more than 50 million procedures a year in the United States. ...
Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA)
(Texas Tribune © 09/27/2010)
The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) is public-private agency that's a pool of property and casualty insurance companies in Texas. It serves as an insurer of last resort for homeowners along the Texas coast. After several for-profit insurance companies stopped writing windstorm policies along the coast, the state created the Texas Catastrophe Property Insurance Association, now TWIA, i...
Senate Republicans want closer look at reform's effect on private Medicare plans
(The Hill © 09/27/2010)
A quartet of Senate Republicans is calling on Medicare's top accountant to release the numbers behind his analysis of health reform's impact on the Medicare Advantage (MA) program. The lawmakers — Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) — say the steep cuts to MA under the new reform law will cause many plans to fold, while many others wil...
ObamaCare Will Help Most Seniors
(The Wall Street Journal © 09/27/2010)
"How Seniors Will Pay for ObamaCare" by John C. Goodman (op-ed, Sept. 23) provides a grossly misleading analysis of the health-care law's effect on seniors and the value of Medicare to 45 million older Americans. Of course, Medicare is not perfect. But the new law significantly improves it, with better benefits for prescription drugs (phasing out the "doughnut hole") and the elimination of co-pay...
Poll: Many think health care overhaul should do more
(Austin American-Statesman © 09/26/2010)
A new AP poll finds that Americans who think the law should have done more outnumber those who think the government should stay out of health care by 2-to-1. "I was disappointed that it didn't provide universal coverage," said Bronwyn Bleakley, 35, a biology professor from Easton, Mass., who was uninsured early in her career. More than 30 million people would gain coverage in 2019 when the law i...
Health system recovering from weather and market blows
(Brownsville Herald © 09/26/2010)
Two years after Hurricane Dolly, Valley Baptist Health System is still recovering from the storm. Among the lingering effects, the health system has seen its bond rating reduced from BBB to BB by Fitch Ratings, largely as a result of the financial hit the system’s Harlingen campus took as a result of the storm. Bond ratings are basically credit scores for corporations or, in Valley Bapti...
Edwards, Flores tout abilities to create jobs
(Bryan-College Station Eagle © 09/26/2010)
In commercials and campaign events, Republican Bill Flores has pushed job creation more than any other issue in his race to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards. That's no surprise. In a recent New York Times/CBS poll, 60 percent of voters listed the economy or jobs as the top problem facing the United States today. The unemployment rate nationally is about 9.6 percent. Flores has argued tha...
Higher health care bills ahead
(Chicago Tribune © 09/26/2010)
Workers can expect to pay hundreds of dollars more for their health care coverage next year. In 2011, the combined average of premium and out-of-pocket costs for health care coverage for an employee is projected to climb to $4,386, according to an annual study by Hewitt Associates to be released this week. That's a 12.4 percent increase, or $486, over this year. Companies, meanwhile, will see th...
What's with AARP and health law?
(Cincinnati Enquirer © 09/26/2010)
Ever wondered why the very same AARP that went ballistic in their opposition to Bush’s plan to reform and save Social Security suddenly rolled over like pussycats for Obamacare that will destroy the popular Medicare Senior Advantage program and take a half trillion dollars from the Medicare budget during the decade when all the baby boomers become eligible? Maybe, the recent surge in TV advertisem...
What you need to know as the new health care law kicks in
(Detroit Free Press © 09/26/2010)
WASHINGTON -- The six-month anniversary of the enactment of the health care overhaul has passed, and many of the law's provisions took effect last week. Most consumers, however, won't see any changes until after Jan. 1, when their new health plan year begins. Meanwhile, employees will be getting ready for fall's open enrollment period, when they pick their health care coverage for the following y...
WellPoint Recognized on the 2010 InformationWeek Top Technology Innovators Across America List
(Fierce HealthIT © 09/26/2010)
INDIANAPOLIS, Sept 20, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- WellPoint, INC, (NYSE: WLP) is pleased to announce that it made this year's InformationWeek 500, an annual listing of the nation's most innovative users of business technology. The 2010 list was revealed at the gala awards ceremony during the exclusive InformationWeek 500 Conference that took place at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort, ...
Poll: Americans Want More Health Care Than Government Plan Provides
(Fox News © 09/26/2010)
President Barack Obama's health care overhaul has divided the nation, and Republicans believe their call for repeal will help them win elections in November. But the picture's not that clear cut. A new AP poll finds that Americans who think the law should have done more outnumber those who think the government should stay out of health care by 2-to-1. "I was disappointed that it didn't provide u...
Seniors in Medicare doughnut hole to get discounts on brand-name drugs in 2011
(Healthcare Finance News © 09/26/2010)
WASHINGTON – The nation’s pharmaceutical manufacturers will provide 50-percent discounts on the cost of covered brand-name prescription drugs for beneficiaries in the Medicare Part D coverage gap – the so-called doughnut hole – starting in 2011. “Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, millions of people with Medicare who will fall into the Part D doughnut hole next y...
College Health Plans Sidestep New Health Law Regulation
(Kaiser Health News © 09/26/2010)
The Wall Street Journal explores college health plans and notes that as the health overhaul has progressed they "have managed to sidestep, at least for now, the regulatory clampdown that has sent hospitals, insurers and corporations scrambling. How'd they pull it off? Since student plans for the 2010-11 school year were negotiated before Sept. 23, they aren't subject to the regulations this year. ...
Pfizer recalls ThermaCare HeatWraps Menstrual lot
(Amarillo KFDA (CBS) 10 © 09/28/2010)
NEW YORK (AP) -- Drugmaker Pfizer Inc. said Friday its Consumer Healthcare business is recalling a specific lot of its ThermaCare HeatWraps Menstrual product after discovering the potential for a leak that could irritate or burn the skin. The issue is limited to the recalled lot, and no other ThermaCare products are impacted, Pfizer said. The lot number, which is listed on the outer carton and f...
Changes to Physician Medicare Enrollment Process Aimed at Preventing Fraud, Abuse
(American Academy of Family Physicians © 09/28/2010)
By News Staff 9/27/2010 At first glance, it may appear that an HHS proposed rule published in the Sept. 23 issue of the Federal Register (45-page PDF; About PDFs) imposes an application fee on the treatment of Medicare patients. However, a closer look indicates that the fee may be limited to types of health care suppliers other than physicians. ...
Most Toddler Vaccination Rates Near National Goals
(American Academy of Family Physicians © 09/28/2010)
But Outbreaks Show Need for Docs to Continue Educating Parents By David Mitchell 9/27/2010 The nation's toddlers are being immunized at or near Healthy People 2010 goals of 90 percent for longer-standing recommended vaccines, according to the results of the 2009 National Immunization Survey. However, one top CDC official says that sporadic disease outbreaks i...
Nurses not shy when asked how they think
(Atlanta Journal-Constitution © 09/28/2010)
Pulse editor Nurses rarely talk about how they think through what they do. They’re too busy doing it. But when you ask them, “What does it mean to think like a nurse?” they have plenty to say, we discovered. In an increasingly complex health care system, critical-thinking skills are indispensable for nurses. Nursing students learn to sharpen those skills through simulation ...
Why would GOP contest health plan?
(Columbus Dispatch © 09/28/2010)
With the unveiling of the Republican Party agenda on Thursday, House Republican leader John Boehner pledged to repeal the health-care bill championed by President Barack Obama. Among the provisions of the bill that became active last week are: allowing young people to remain on parents' insurance until age 26; eliminating discrimination against children with pre-existing cond...
Workers' health-coverage costs set to climb
(Columbus Dispatch © 09/28/2010)
CHICAGO - Workers can expect to pay hundreds of dollars more for their health-care coverage next year. In 2011, the combined average of premium and out-of-pocket costs for health-care coverage for an employee is projected to rise to $4,386, according to a study released yesterday by Hewitt Associates, a human-resources outsourcing and consulting firm based in Lincolnshire, Ill. That's a 12.5 p...
To cut costs, seniors get drugs from online Canadian pharmacies
(Dallas Morning News © 09/28/2010)
To cut costs, seniors get drugs from online Canadian pharmacies 10:08 PM CDT on Monday, September 27, 2010 By JASON ROBERSON / The Dallas Morning News jroberson@dallasnews.com In nine months, the prescription eye medication 72-year-old John Lair uses jumped from $47.13 to $113.23 at his neighborhood drugstore. "That's capitalism out of control,&...
Health chief says reform bill will expand care
(Dallas WFAA (ABC) 8 © 09/28/2010)
HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — President Barack Obama's health care chief said Monday that animosity toward health care reform will continue to wane as insured and uninsured Americans learn more about the sweeping legislation that was signed into law in March. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius blasted health insurance companies for denying coverage to the nation's...
Nestle to invest $500 million in medical nutrition business
(Denver Post © 09/28/2010)
LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Nestle will invest $500 million to expand its medical- nutrition business over the next decade, with the aim of capitalizing on a growing market for foods to help treat chronic conditions such as diabetes and obesity, the Swiss consumer company said Monday. Nestle SA said it wants to "pioneer a new industry between food and pharma" by creating a medical-nutrition i...
90,000 Coloradans to share in insurer's $20 million settlement
(Denver Post © 09/28/2010)
About 90,000 people who have been insured by Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield this year will share in a $20 million settlement. An agreement announced Thursday between Anthem and the Colorado Division of Insurance centers on complaints by individual health policyholders about three rate hikes in a 13-month period. Anthem's overall increases of as much as 30 percent weren't out of line, the divi...
FDA approves contraceptive Beyaz
(Drug Store News © 09/28/2010)
SILVER SPRING, Md. (Sept. 27) The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new oral contraceptive from Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals. The FDA announced Friday the approval of Beyaz (estrogen and progestin) tablets. The pills also contain a folate known as levomefolate calcium. Low folate levels in the body are associated with such conditions as spina bifida, and physicians recommen...
Electronic health record rules pose problems for some dermatologists
(Drug Topics © 09/28/2010)
Key Points * 'Meaningful use' may stall specialty's adoption of EHRs * Incentives difficult to reach for dermatologists, experts say * Waivers available for some criteria EDITOR'S NOTE: Not all physicians are rushing to embrace electronic health records (EHRs). In this issue, we look at what the new "meaningful use criteria" may mean to dermatologists who are considering making the...
UnitedHealthcare Launches ‘Medicare Made Clear’ Consumer Education Campaign
(Fierce HealthIT © 09/28/2010)
Retail partners to distribute easy-to-use guides to Medicare at more than 8,000 locations nationwide MINNETONKA, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Most adults 65 and older are confused about or unaware of important aspects of the new health care law, according to a recent survey conducted for the National Council on Aging. In response to this and at the request of many of its Medicare-eligible health pla...
Embry: Stimulus funds make Perry's pitch easier
(Fort Worth Star-Telegram © 09/28/2010)
AUSTIN -- Gov. Rick Perry says in his first campaign ad of the general election, "We've cut taxes for small business, balanced our budgets, set aside $8 billion for a rainy day."That's all true. But what Perry doesn't mention is that this budget-balancing and money-saving was made easier by the $787 billion federal stimulus package that came last year from, of all places, Washington.Ah, the stimul...
Wider statin use could be cost-effective preventive measure, Stanford study finds
(Genetic Engineering News © 09/28/2010)
Source:EurekAlert Contact: Michelle Brandt mbrandt@stanford.edu 650-723-0272 Stanford University Medical Center STANFORD, Calif. - A new analysis suggests that broader statin use among adult patients may be a cost-effective way to prevent heart attack and stroke. The Stanford University School of Medicine study also found that using a popular te...
HHS awards $68M to help seniors, disabled navigate healthcare options
(Healthcare Finance News © 09/28/2010)
WASHINGTON – Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced $68 million in grants to help seniors, the disabled and caregivers better understand and navigate their health and long-term care options. “We know how difficult it can be for individuals and caregivers to deal with a sudden illness or chronic disease while at the same time trying to navigate through a c...
Taking health care to the highway
(Atlanta Journal-Constitution © 09/29/2010)
Pulse editor Running the Roadside Medical Clinic & Lab location in Cartersville has been a dream come true for Karen Fegely, FNP, RN. After 15 years in mother/baby and public health nursing, Fegely earned her family nurse practitioner degree from Kennesaw State University in 2009. Barry Williams, Special Nurse practitioner Karen Fegely (left) and certifield medical assistant Danee Farrar-Baski...
Perry's lead among women bucks trend
(Austin American-Statesman © 09/29/2010)
But this year in Texas, there's something unusual going on. Republican Gov. Rick Perry has a significant lead over Democrat Bill White among women. "Perry is doing extraordinarily well among women," said Mickey Blum, whose firm, Blum & Weprin Associates Inc., conducted a poll on behalf of the American-Statesman and other newspapers. She said that in years of polling in Texas, this might be the fi...
To Baker, R.I. pullout was right move
(Boston Globe © 09/29/2010)
In December 1999, an ailing Harvard Pilgrim Health Care pulled out of Rhode Island with two months’ notice, shuttering the company’s three health centers there and forcing 1,200 physicians and other employees to search for new jobs. Thousands of patients suddenly had to find new doctors, and about 128,000 subscribers scrambled for other health insurance. The Ocean State accounted for ...
Chicago's uninsured ahead of national average
(Chicago Tribune © 09/29/2010)
One in 5 Chicago residents was without health insurance in 2009, a figure that puts the city higher than the national average of those without medical coverage, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data released Tuesday. There were more than 550,000 uninsured people — or 19.7 percent of the population — in the city of Chicago last year, according to the bureau's American Com...
Medicare drove doctor from GOP
(Cincinnati Enquirer © 09/29/2010)
Up until December, Michael Pryce, an independent candidate for Ohio's open U.S. Senate seat, was a card-carrying Republican, having served on the Summit County GOP's executive committee for 22 years. Then, during the debate over health care reform, "it became apparent that his political party was the one voting unanimously to cut doctors' Medicare reimbursements by nearly 50 percent, ...
Insurers must explain child changes
(Cincinnati Enquirer © 09/29/2010)
FRANKFORT - Kentucky's insurance commissioner has ordered health insurers to appear in Frankfort next month to explain their decisions to stop offering new child-only policies. Several major insurers - including Louisville-based Humana and Anthem, the state's largest health insurer - said they decided to stop selling child-only policies partly because the new health reform law. Th...
Rand Paul belongs to conservative doctor group with unusual views
(Cincinnati Enquirer © 09/29/2010)
Republican U.S. Senate nominee Rand Paul belongs to a conservative doctors? group that, among other things, has expressed doubts about the connection between HIV and AIDS and suggested that President Barack Obama may have been elected because he was able to hypnotize voters. The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, based in Tucson, Ariz., advocates conservative and free-ma...
Parkland family planning program prospering
(Dallas Morning News © 09/29/2010)
Parkland family planning program prospering 12:00 AM CDT on Wednesday, September 29, 2010 By SHERRY JACOBSON / The Dallas Morning News sjacobson@dallasnews.com A family planning program that was nearly canceled five years ago for lack of funding is attracting more money and clients than ever before, officials at Parkland Memorial Hospital were told Tuesday. The county hospital...
Aetna to drop small groups in Colorado
(Denver Post © 09/29/2010)
Aetna will stop selling new health insurance to small groups in Colorado and move companies that are existing clients off the plan in the next year, affecting 1,200 companies and 5,200 employees and their dependents. The state Division of Insurance confirmed Aetna's plans, although the insurance giant said it was not planning to notify policyholders until Friday. "After reviewing our portfol...
Walgreens posts strong earnings gains as divisions push through renewal plan
(Drug Store News © 09/29/2010)
DEERFIELD, Ill. (Sept. 28) Walgreens stock was up nearly 9% in early trading Tuesday morning after the company posted solid earnings results and steadily improving sales trends in its 1,800 renovated stores. The 7,561-store drug chain drove its fourth-quarter net income up 7.9%, compared with the same period a year ago, to $470 million for the period ended Aug. 31. For the full fiscal year, n...
Aetna Becomes First Georgia Insurer to Cover Medically Fragile Children for ‘Dream House’
(Fierce HealthIT © 09/29/2010)
ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Aetna (NYSE: AET) announced today that it will cover the transition care services for members of “Dream House for Medically Fragile Children Inc.,” the first insurance company in Georgia to do so. Dream House provides hospital-to-home services at the Family for Keeps® Transition Care Home in Lilburn, Ga., which is the only licensed children’s transition care center in ...
Nurses at Massachusetts hospital take pay cut for safer staffing levels
(Healthcare Finance News © 09/29/2010)
QUINCY, MA – After months of battling with hospital management, the registered nurses of Quincy Medical Center have ratified a new union contract that includes a 3 percent wage cut in hopes of getting what they consider to be safer staffing conditions. The nurses reached a tentative agreement on the new pact on Sept. 10, a few weeks after placing a full-page ad in local newspapers seekin...
Ohio Adopts Emergency Rule for Children with Pre-Existing Conditions
(Insurance Journal © 09/29/2010)
The Ohio Department of Insurance has issued an emergency rule to better protect children under age 19 with pre-existing medical conditions by establishing uniform open enrollment periods in Ohio's individual market for coverage to be secured "Recently enacted federal health care reforms provide that children under age 19 cannot be denied coverage or subjected to coverage limitations or exclusion...
GAO, Senate Question Role Of Hospital Supplies Middlemen
(Kaiser Health News © 09/29/2010)
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 ant...
Phone More Popular Than Internet When Seeking Prices For Health Care
(Kaiser Health News © 09/29/2010)
If you want to know the price of something in health care, we wish you luck. There's no easy way to comparison shop. And the particulars of insurance coverage, if you're fortunate enough to have it, can add another confusing layer to cost questions. We wondered if smarter people had figured out a way to do this. And the folks at Thomson Reuters agreed to help us find out. In a survey ...
Past Malpractice Claims Help Doctors Avoid Future Mistakes
(Kaiser Health News © 09/29/2010)
Medical providers are using past malpractice cases to help avoid future mistakes, The Wall Street Journal reports. "By analyzing the breakdowns in care that led to missed, delayed or incorrect diagnoses, insurers and health-care providers are developing programs to avert mistakes. ... Diagnostic errors are the leading cause of malpractice suits, accounting for as many as 40 percent of cases...
Manage rising health care costs
(Atlanta Journal-Constitution © 09/30/2010)
The Obama administration has released its rules governing “grandfathered” insurance plans. Those that qualify will remain legal under the new health care law. Those that don’t will have to comply with costly new mandates. Throughout his campaign for health reform, the president vowed that he wouldn’t disrupt Americans’ existing policies. These rules are meant to f...
Carter has stomach virus
(Atlanta Journal-Constitution © 09/30/2010)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Former President Jimmy Carter has a stomach virus that seems to be going away, according to a statement from MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland. FILE - In an Aug. 31, 2010 file photo, former President Jimmy Carter leaves the State Department in Washington. An airport spokeswoman in Cleveland says former President Jimmy Carter has been hospitalized. (AP Pho...
Shorter work days adopted for rookie doctors
(Boston Globe © 09/30/2010)
CHICAGO — Rookie doctors will be getting shorter work shifts, along with stricter supervision, but a medical student group said yesterday that the changes don’t do enough to protect sleep-deprived residents and their patients. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s board of directors approved new rules on Tuesday for more than 110,000 new doctors training at ...
Alzheimer's hard to diagnose
(Cincinnati Enquirer © 09/30/2010)
It's painful to watch Peter Kenney take a memory test. "Can you tell me what year it is?" asks Alyssa Bergey, a research assistant at the Memory and Alzheimer's Treatment Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Kenney's brow wrinkles in thought, but after a minute, confusion clouds his eyes and he shakes his head. "How about what season it is?" she presses on. "The month?" Kenney, 78, th...
Panel: Wellness programs pay off for employers
(Dallas Business Journal © 09/30/2010)
Company wellness programs should be a lot like personal exercise programs: You start with a plan. You start slowly. It doesn't have to be expensive to be effective. And it should pay off in the end. That was the message from a panel of health care experts who discussed strategies for wellness in the workplace in a seminar Wednesday held at The Tower Club by the Dallas Business Journal. Emplo...
Rove boosts GOP candidates
(Denver Post © 09/30/2010)
GOP strategist and midterm-election-fundraising rainmaker Karl Rove said Wednesday that young voters are natural Republicans because they are independent in nature and that "the generation that goes around with an iPod is not a generation that likes to be dictated to." "They're our kind of people," Rove said. "They have an instinctive knowledge that markets work." Rove also told the audience...
Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center names Craig Cordola CEO
(Dotmed © 09/30/2010)
Southeast Texas hospital chain Memorial Hermann Healthcare System said Tuesday it tapped Craig Cordola to be Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center's new CEO. Cordola, formerly chief of Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital, replaces Juanita Romans, who is retiring, the hospital group said. "Craig is an accomplished and extraordinary leader with a passion for advancement in clinical excellence and a...
Doctors sue to keep nurse anesthetists supervised
(Dotmed © 09/30/2010)
In an effort to bar nurse anesthetists from administering anesthesia without physician supervision in rural hospitals, two organizations representing Colorado doctors and anesthesiologists filed a lawsuit with the Denver District Court on Tuesday. The Colorado Medical Society and the Colorado Society of Anesthesiologists moved to sue the state just a day after Gov. Bill Ritter announced his decisi...
New health insurance exchanges should be independent, aim for level playing field
(EurekAlert! © 09/30/2010)
New report addresses difficult issues for design of exchanges that will be key to effectiveness of the Affordable Care Act New York, NY, September 30, 2010a??A new report from The Commonwealth Fund provides recommendations for state and federal policymakers as they design and implement the new health insurance exchanges which are a key element of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA...
Institute of Medicine Will Study Best Policies and Practices for Improving Health Care Safety with Health Information Tech
(Fierce HealthIT © 09/30/2010)
WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Institute of Medicine (IOM) will conduct a 1-year study aimed at ensuring that health information technology (HIT) will achieve its full potential for improving patient safety in health care. The study will be carried out under a $989,000 contract announced today by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), which is charged wi...
Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Advocacy Alliance Asks Candidates: “What Will You Promise?”
(Fierce HealthIT © 09/30/2010)
Breast Cancer Activists Unveil New Breast Cancer Bill of Rights WASHINGTON, D.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- With about 30 days to go until election day, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Advocacy Alliance today challenged candidates all across the country to promise to fight for the breast cancer rights of their constituents if elected. In issuing the challenge, the nation’s leading network of breast can...
California Legislature Passes PacificComp-Sponsored Resolution Calling on Congress to Reform Medicare Secondary Payer Law
(Fierce HealthIT © 09/30/2010)
AGOURA HILLS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Pacific Compensation Insurance Company (PacificComp), California Workers’ Comp Specialist®, applauds the passage by the California Legislature of Assembly Joint Resolution 42, authored by Assembly Member Jose Solorio (D-Santa Ana). The Resolution calls upon the U.S. Congress and President Barack Obama to enact H.R. 4796, the Medicare Secondary Payer Enhancem...
To Win In November, Republicans Just Need to Hammer Home the Truth About Obamacare
(Fox News © 09/30/2010)
The New York Times goes after the Republicans’ Pledge to America today, blasting the lack of specifics on how the GOP plans to cut the budget deficit. The manifesto from John Boehner and his cohorts is a red herring; though perhaps a useful counterpoint to the “Party of No” accusations, it detracts from a simple and winning strategy: pound away on Obamacare. Americans do not like Obamacare. They ...
Anthem Blue Cross faces charge of violating "Any Willing Provider" law
(Healthcare Finance News © 09/30/2010)
LOS ANGELES – A California doctor has filed a lawsuit against Anthem Blue Cross for allegedly denying his application to become a part of the company’s provider network, an action the lawsuit contends violates California’s “Any Willing Provider” law. The lawsuit seeks to enjoin Blue Cross from preventing any physician who is willing to accept the terms of Blue Cross...
Profit over principle: Insurers renege on promises to offer child-only policies mandated by health care law
(Houston Chronicle © 09/30/2010)
Sept. 23 was a good day for average Americans: It marked the implementation of the first substantial rulings under the new health care provisions designed to help people find adequate, affordable health insurance. Among the first provisions, some of which take effect immediately, some over the next six months: Insurers cannot drop people when they get sick, cannot place lifetime caps on coverage ...
Feds Threaten Hawaii Over Workplace Health-Safety
(Insurance Journal © 09/30/2010)
Federal labor officials want to suspend Hawaii's authority over its workplace safety program, saying the state's enforcement fails to meet even minimum expectations. If Hawaii will not give up its authority, federal officials will seek legal action to revoke the state's power to oversee workers' safety, according to David Michaels, the federal agency's assistant secretary for occupational safety...
More September News
