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First Edition: April 15, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about the Medicare provisions in the budget plan released last week by President Barack Obama as well as previews of the Supreme Court's consideration of arguments regarding whether human genes can be patented.

15 Apr 2013

State Medicaid news: California, N.C. officials explore cost-saving measures

Media outlets report proposals to reduce Medicaid costs in California and North Carolina. In Maryland, the leader of a company with a $200 million Medicaid contract says he has not been told why that contract is being probed by state and federal investigators.

15 Apr 2013

Health exchange cost estimates go up

Meanwhile, uncertainty continues about the premium price tags consumers will pay if they purchase health insurance from these online marketplaces. Also, debate heats up about how the Obama administration hopes to offset the set-up costs.

15 Apr 2013

First Edition: April 12, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about a new study measuring how the health law has expanded young adults access to care.

12 Apr 2013

Investments needed to implement interventions to save newborn lives

"Each year, three million newborns die, making up 43 percent of the world's under-five child deaths," Joy Lawn, director of global evidence and policy for Save the Children's Saving Newborn Lives, writes in an Inter Press Service opinion piece.

10 Apr 2013

State roundup: Ga. smoker surcharge could be working; States clamp down on early deliveries; Calif. groups want Medi-Cal transition pause over coverage concerns

State officials say the number of Georgians in the state employee health plan paying $80 more a month in insurance premiums due to smoking has dropped by 44 percent over the past six years.

10 Apr 2013

CvergenX to develop radiosensitivity test to better radiation therapy decisions for patients with cancer

A molecular signature index technology that can lead to better radiation therapy decisions for patients with cancer is being developed into a reliable radiosensitivity test by CvergenX, Inc., an advanced cancer diagnostics company.

10 Apr 2013

Some GOP governors see block grant opportunity in Medicaid expansion

Politico reports that some conservatives who have long sought to convert Medicaid into a block grant program see an opening with the health law to move in this direction. Also in the news, states continue to mull how to proceed with this provision of the law.

9 Apr 2013

Hospital-based quality improvement programs reduce early elective deliveries of babies

A study published today in Obstetrics & Gynecology shows that multistate, hospital-based quality improvement programs can be remarkably effective at reducing early elective deliveries of babies.

9 Apr 2013

Researchers discover that fruit fly mutation holds clues for treating motor neuron diseases

A team of researchers, led by Marc Freeman, PhD, an early career scientist with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and associate professor of neurobiology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have discovered a gene in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster that, when mutant, blocks the self-destruction of damaged axons, which could hold clues to treating motor neuron diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

9 Apr 2013

DPRx signs first license for Online, Real-Time Insurer Authorization system

DPRx's CEO, John Discola , announced the signing of the first license for PRO/3G its recently released Online, Real-Time Insurer Authorization system.

8 Apr 2013

Budget battles brewing over Medicare, other entitlements

News outlets covered the reaction from Democrats and Republicans to the president's budget plan, to be officially released Wednesday.

8 Apr 2013

Peace Corps volunteer plans to change others' lives

The two years Andrea Torre spent in Dimbwe Village in southern Zambia changed her life. Now she has come to the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing to learn the skills she needs to spend the rest of her career helping to change others' lives.

3 Apr 2013

Texas surgeon performs groundbreaking robotic laparoscopic procedure on pregnant patient

Performing surgery on a pregnant patient is a delicate matter. Risks to both mother and baby must be carefully weighed in every decision a surgeon makes. Recently, at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, a surgeon performed a groundbreaking robotic laparoscopic procedure on a 35-year-old pregnant patient whose cervix was too short to sustain a pregnancy.

30 Mar 2013

State roundup: NYC firms will be required to offer sick leave; Fla. government part-timers to get health coverage

New York is poised to mandate that companies with 15 or more employees provide paid time off for them when they are sick. A compromise agreement reached Thursday night resulted from a raw display of political muscle by a coalition of labor unions and liberal activists who overcame fierce objections from New York's business-minded mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, and his allies in the corporate world (Barbaro and Grynbaum, 3/28).

30 Mar 2013

First Edition: March 29, 2013

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including coverage of renewed interest between President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans to find ways to cut Medicare costs:

29 Mar 2013

IRIN examines TB in southern African mines

Noting "South Africa's gold mines are estimated to have the highest number of new tuberculosis cases in the world, making the disease a leading export to neighboring countries," IRIN examines "the declaration meant to change this situation."

26 Mar 2013

Japan's MHLW approves XELJANZ for treatment of adults with rheumatoid arthritis

Pfizer Inc. announced today that the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has approved XELJANZ (tofacitinib citrate) for the treatment of adults with rheumatoid arthritis who have had an inadequate response to existing therapies.

25 Mar 2013

The Lancet examines changes to China's family planning policy

The Lancet reports on changes in the governance of China's family planning policy. "On March 10, nearly 32 years to the day since China's National Population and Family Planning Commission was established to oversee the world's largest, longest-standing population control program, the country's leaders announced plans to dissolve it into the Ministry of Health," the journal writes, noting, "Four days later, the National People's Congress rubber-stamped the proposal and the commission ceased to exist, leaving the future of the country's fertility policy in doubt."

25 Mar 2013