Healthcare News

RSS

IASIS Healthcare's Sentillion SSO impementation drastically reduces help desk calls

Sentillion today announced that IASIS Healthcare, a leading owner and operator of acute care hospitals, has implemented its enterprise single sign-on (SSO) solution to provide caregivers with improved access to the health system’s electronic health record (EHR) system. Seven of IASIS’ 15 acute care facilities are currently live with SSO.

16 Sep 2009

University presidents examine schools' roles in global health

Five university presidents came together on Monday at the Consortium of Universities for Global Health's inaugural annual meeting to examine universities' role "in the rapidly-emerging arena of global health and how global health fits into the well-established set of departments, centers and schools" at each university, Inside Higher Ed reports.

16 Sep 2009

Obama to meet with sub-Saharan African leaders next week

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice announced Monday that President Obama will host a luncheon for leaders of sub-Saharan African countries next week during the ministerial meeting of the U.N. General Assembly "to promote economic and social development," the Associated Press/Washington Post reports.

16 Sep 2009

Costs, partisan battles move center-stage in health care debate

As health reform progresses in Congress, President Obama may have to wade into a partisan debate of the most divisive issues, including Medicaid expansion, illegal immigration and abortion.

16 Sep 2009

Effective health care reform needed to curtail escalating employee health care costs: Business Roundtable

A new report released today by Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies, finds that annual per employee health care costs will triple to nearly $29,000 over the next decade without significant marketplace reforms that reduce costs, expand coverage and improve delivery.

16 Sep 2009

Opinion piece calls for enhanced U.S.-Russia health collaboration

While legislators in Moscow attempt to reform the Russian health system in a way that is "strikingly similar" to the reform process in the U.S. and "[g]iven the importance of the U.S.-Russia relationship ... our two countries have a historic opportunity to expand our health collaboration and, in so doing, improve our diplomatic ties," former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.

16 Sep 2009

CIDRAP summit to address employee protection measures during H1N1 pandemic

Business and healthcare leaders looking to fast-track preparedness for the H1N1 pandemic are gathering with infectious disease experts and Fortune 500 planners this month to determine how best to protect their employees and preserve their operations.

16 Sep 2009

Workers face higher costs for employer-sponsored insurance

Kaiser Health News reports that "employers struggling with the steady rise of health insurance costs -- which in 2009 increased 5 percent to an average of $13,375 for family coverage -- are passing on more of the expense to their workers through higher deductibles and co-payments, according to survey released today." The survey was by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust (Galewitz and Villegas, 9/15).

16 Sep 2009

Breaking it down: A comparison of major health care plans in Congress

The Associated Press offers a look at the major health care plans pending in Congress, including the House Democratic bill, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee bill, the Baucus plan and the House Republican outline, plus President Obama's proposal.

16 Sep 2009

EHNAC HNAP accreditation for Capario

Capario, a provider of revenue cycle management solutions that connect healthcare payers and providers nationwide, announced today that it has again achieved full accreditation with the Healthcare Network Accreditation Program (HNAP) from the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC).

16 Sep 2009

Insurers fail to keep up with speech technology, deny funding for devices that multi-task

Insurance companies push speech-impaired patients, like one New York woman with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, to buy expensive computers featuring text-to-speech software by refusing to pay for alternative devices, the New York Times reports. Furthermore, they insist on blocking all other capabilities of the proprietary machines they do cover.

16 Sep 2009

Today's Op-Ed selections: Medicare, Medicaid and the Constitution

My patient had just been the recipient of a rare and highly valued medical commodity, a treatment that is as quantifiable in its effects as the milligrams of a medication or the number of stitches in a wound: Time (Daphne Miller, 9/15).

16 Sep 2009

Generic drugs create significant cost savings

Generic drugs and mail-order systems can save health plans money since brand name drugs generally cost 50 percent to 70 percent more than generics.

16 Sep 2009

Also in Global Health News: PNG, Nepal outbreaks; Taliban Oks polio vaccination; Technology helps in developing countries; Satellite images for malaria control

VOA News examines the ongoing struggle for Papua New Guinea's health system to treat thousands of people infected by the "simultaneous outbreaks of influenza, dysentery and cholera that have killed about 120 people." The article includes information about the difficulties heath officials are having in assessing the various outbreaks and concerns of medical workers that conditions may soon worsen (Mercer, 9/14).

16 Sep 2009

Baucus works to iron out Medicaid, abortion and costs in health reform bill

Sen. Max Baucus is addressing the final questions in his Senate Finance Committee health care reform bill and plans to offer it Wednesday, opening the way for a committee vote next week and a floor vote the week after.

16 Sep 2009

Aviva Select series of Disease Management and Wellness programs launched

Avivia Health announces Avivia Select, a new series of affordable Disease Management and Wellness programs specifically designed to help companies provide important new benefits to their employees. Avivia Health is the only national provider of Disease Management and Wellness Solutions based on 60 years of evidence-based care by parent organization Kaiser Permanente.

16 Sep 2009

Activists organize around the overlap between health reform and illegal immigration issues

"As Congress's debate over health-care legislation lumbers toward a defining test for the Obama presidency, partisans on both sides of another issue -- immigration -- escalated their own proxy war this week, concluding that the fates of the two issues have become politically linked" (Hsu, 9/15).

16 Sep 2009

WHO says 3b people worldwide could receive H1N1 vaccine

Recent findings that a single dose of an H1N1 (swine) flu vaccine offers protection against the virus and anticipation of vaccination programs starting earlier than predicted will increase the number of people worldwide with access to the vaccine and the likelihood health officials may be able to control the spread of the virus, Bloomberg reports.

16 Sep 2009

Congressional aides for health care have industry ties

"Some of the most influential aides in the closed-door Senate Finance Committee negotiations over health care reform have ties to interests that would be directly affected by the legislation," Politico reports.

16 Sep 2009

eHealthInsurance's key questions to help women purchase health insurance plans

eHealthInsurance, the leading online source of health insurance for individuals, families and small businesses, today released a list of answers to questions frequently asked by women who call its customer care center. The customer care center includes a call center staffed with licensed insurance agents.

15 Sep 2009