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PAREXEL International expands capabilities by opening new early phase unit in Port Elizabeth, South Africa

PAREXEL International Corporation, a leading global biopharmaceutical services provider, today announced that it has expanded its capabilities through the opening of a new early phase unit in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

From Parexel 24 Feb 2010

Hudson Health Plan deploys Health Integrated Synergy Targeted Population Management program

Hudson Health Plan, a not-for-profit managed care organization that services New York's Hudson Valley, has selected Health Integrated, Inc., a leading provider of Health Management Solutions, as its partner to provide enhanced care management services for Medicaid members with co-morbid chronic illness.

24 Feb 2010

Avizent Benefit Re health benefits captive program available for self-funded employers

National claims and risk management service provider Avizent announced today the creation of an innovative health benefits captive program for self-funded employers.

24 Feb 2010

FDA recommends H1N1 for inclusion in next year's flu vaccine

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday recommended that the H1N1 (swine flu) strain be added to next year's seasonal flu vaccine, "putting an end to separate shots deployed against the pandemic," Bloomberg reports. The FDA committee voted unanimously to make the H1N1 strain one of the three strains included in the shot, according to the news service. "The panel's recommendations are routinely adopted and used to guide vaccine manufacturers," Bloomberg writes (Randall, 2/22).

24 Feb 2010

Poll: Americans split on health care bills, but majority frustrated by delays

A new tracking poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds Americans with mixed views on health care reform.

24 Feb 2010

Medical innovation: A real boon for American patients

An article in the Journal Miner recently highlighted the fact that many people are living longer, healthier and more productive lives thanks to medical innovation and research.

24 Feb 2010

State Round up: Utah struggling with state online health exchange; California cracks down on discount health plans

The Salt Lake Tribune: "Utah lawmakers this year have spared no energy trumpeting their dislike for federal health reform, passing bills asserting states' right to govern themselves. But Utah's own health care fix, an online insurance market called the Utah Health Exchange, has gotten off to a wobbly start. And legislation to repair it, sponsored by Republican House Speaker Dave Clark, came under siege last week. ...The debate left some reform advocates privately wondering if the topic has become too toxic to handle" (Stewart, 2/23).

24 Feb 2010

Study says lower-cost hospitals don't have lower quality care for certain illnesses

A study Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine found little difference in outcomes between hospitals with longer patient stays and shorter ones, which could make it "possible to lower costs in the U.S. system without hurting patients," Reuters reports.

24 Feb 2010

AARP tracks upcoming Senate vote on Idaho Health Freedom Act

With the Idaho State Senate expected to vote today on the ill-conceived Idaho Health Freedom Act (HB 391), a bill that could wreak havoc on the state's health care system, AARP has announced it will make the vote a part of it's "accountability vote" efforts.

24 Feb 2010

Emergency department closures will be disastrous, says ACEP

As members of Congress and President Obama meet this week about health care reform, the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) today raised alarm over the recent closure of an emergency department in Cincinnati and reports of more ERs on the brink of closure in New York and Washington, D.C.

24 Feb 2010

XIFIN joins PMC to help evolve reimbursement policies and practices that support personalized medicine

XIFIN Inc., the leading provider of revenue cycle management for diagnostic service providers, has joined the Personalized Medicine Coalition, an educational and advocacy group dedicated to advancing the understanding and adoption of personalized medicine, defined as the application of genomic and molecular data to better target the delivery of healthcare by determining a person's predisposition to a particular disease or condition.

24 Feb 2010

Obama backs repeal of health insurers' antitrust exemption

"President Barack Obama urged Congress on Tuesday to strip health insurers of their decades-old exemption from federal antitrust laws — hardening his stand against the industry as he tries to revive his stalled health care overhaul," the Associated Press/Los Angeles Times reports. "Removing this exemption will allow appropriate enforcement and examination of potential policies that might prove uncompetitve (sic), or might stifle competition," a White House spokesman said. The House could vote on the measure this week (Alonso-Zaldivar, 2/23).

24 Feb 2010

House antitrust bill will keep exemption for med-mal insurers

A House bill would revoke the antitrust exemption from health insurers but keep the exemption for medical malpractice insurers.

24 Feb 2010

Insurers reject Obama's proposal for a rate-hike review panel

The health overhaul plan unveiled Monday by President Barack Obama puts the heat on insurers by requiring federal oversight of increases in health insurance premium rates, something the industry has strenuously objected to.

24 Feb 2010

Officials crack down on Medicare fraud in Miami and Los Angeles

When it comes to health care fraud, schemes that target Medicare are among the most common and lucrative. That's because the $400 billion federal program is a fat and easy target. The Obama administration ... has requested an increase for an effort to crack down on Medicare fraud.

24 Feb 2010

Rising Medicare costs linked to the growth in common costly chronic conditions: Study

Today, two of the nation's leading health and fiscal policy experts discussed how to reign in rising health care costs in Medicare in light of a new Health Affairs study that shows rising Medicare costs in the nation's health care system are linked to the growth in several common costly chronic conditions, such as diabetes, arthritis, hypertension, and kidney disease.

24 Feb 2010

MAXIMUS receives contract to review reconsiderations of Medicare Part D program

MAXIMUS, a leading provider of government services worldwide, announced today that its Federal Services subsidiary has been awarded a one-year contract by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to continue to serve as an independent review entity for reconsiderations of beneficiary appeals for the Medicare Part D program.

24 Feb 2010

Clout of drug industry seen in MD residency programs and in health reform

News outlets report on the pharmaceutical industry's involvement in doctor training and its role in shaping the health care overhauls pending in Congress.

24 Feb 2010

Obama builds on Senate health bill in hopes of broader support

President Barack Obama's health care proposal, an effort to resuscitate the debate, merges the separate legislation passed in the Senate and House "into a final version that could pass muster in both chambers," The Washington Post reports.

24 Feb 2010

The White House weighed political risks in health plan calculation

The Washington Post: "The president's proposal is striking for the extent to which it hews to the basic scale and framework of the bills on which Congress has toiled for months. That decision -- to go big one last time, rather than small -- emerged quickly inside the White House after senior advisers to President Obama concluded privately that his goals for comprehensive changes to the health-care system could not be done piecemeal" (Kornblut and Shear, 2/23).

24 Feb 2010

Healthcare News

PAREXEL International expands capabilities by opening new early phase unit in Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Hudson Health Plan deploys Health Integrated Synergy Targeted Population Management program

Avizent Benefit Re health benefits captive program available for self-funded employers

FDA recommends H1N1 for inclusion in next year's flu vaccine

Poll: Americans split on health care bills, but majority frustrated by delays

Medical innovation: A real boon for American patients

State Round up: Utah struggling with state online health exchange; California cracks down on discount health plans

Study says lower-cost hospitals don't have lower quality care for certain illnesses

AARP tracks upcoming Senate vote on Idaho Health Freedom Act

Emergency department closures will be disastrous, says ACEP

XIFIN joins PMC to help evolve reimbursement policies and practices that support personalized medicine

Obama backs repeal of health insurers' antitrust exemption

House antitrust bill will keep exemption for med-mal insurers

Insurers reject Obama's proposal for a rate-hike review panel

Officials crack down on Medicare fraud in Miami and Los Angeles

Rising Medicare costs linked to the growth in common costly chronic conditions: Study

MAXIMUS receives contract to review reconsiderations of Medicare Part D program

Clout of drug industry seen in MD residency programs and in health reform

Obama builds on Senate health bill in hopes of broader support

The White House weighed political risks in health plan calculation

Advancing brain microphysiological systems (bMPS)

PhD researcher at LifeArc

Unveiling Hidden Potential: Organoids for Disease Modeling in Neuroscience Research

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