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U.S. Food and Drug Administration launches new Center for Tobacco Products

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today launched its new Center for Tobacco Products in an historic effort to curb the hundreds of thousands of deaths caused by those products each year.

19 Aug 2009

Canada's doctors send strong message to New Brunswick Government

At their General Council Meeting in Saskatoon today, Canada's doctors strongly supported the New Brunswick Medical Society's struggle against their government's violation of a duly ratified contract agreement.

19 Aug 2009

Cutting Medicare Advantage costs may be politically difficult

The Los Angeles Times reports: "President Obama, struggling to discredit bogus charges that his healthcare overhaul would create 'death panels,' soon could face another emotionally charged obstacle -- a plan to trim the federal subsidy for a program used by nearly a quarter of Medicare beneficiaries.

19 Aug 2009

Health care - what a mess!

With the pundits scaring the living crap out of Americans on both sides of the issue, it is understandable that we are confused, frustrated, concerned and scared of this new health care program being proposed by the Obama Administration.

19 Aug 2009

Obama misleads on abortion funding in health reform

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins released the following statement after President Obama said that it's a "fabrication" and "distraction" to say abortion funding is included in the health care reform plans.

19 Aug 2009

Newly appointed NIH director includes global health on priority list

Francis Collins, the newly appointed director of the NIH on Monday outlined his top five priorities for the U.S. research agency during a town hall meeting with NIH staff, Science's blog "Science Insider" reports. Collins emphasized the agency's commitment to "high-throughput technologies," "translational research," "health care reform," "global health" and "empower[ing] the biomedical research community," the blog writes (Kaiser, 8/17).

19 Aug 2009

Survey aims to better understand daily needs of unpaid caregivers of people with diabetes

Chevy Chase, MD-The Hormone Foundation, the public education affiliate of The Endocrine Society, in collaboration with the National Alliance for Caregiving, today released key findings from a first-of-its-kind survey (http://www.hormone.org/Public/diabetes_caregiver.cfm) aimed at better understanding the daily needs and struggles of unpaid caregivers of people with diabetes.

19 Aug 2009

Pennsylvania Governor signs new emergency medical services law

Governor Edward G. Rendell has signed into law Senate Bill 240, a measure to update and enhance Pennsylvania's existing Emergency Medical Services Act. The law was first enacted in 1985.

19 Aug 2009

Message from The White House: The President is not backing away from the public plan

"White House spokesman Robert Gibbs insists the Obama administration has not shifted its goals on health care reform or distanced itself from a government-run public insurance option." He told reporters today that stories indicating the Obama administration was backing away from including the public option in its push to overhaul the health system were "overblown."

19 Aug 2009

Seniors in U.S. overwhelmingly satisfied with their current Medicare coverage

Seniors in the U.S. are overwhelmingly satisfied with their current Medicare coverage, according to a survey released today by Silverlink Communications and Suffolk University in Boston. Of the more than 2,600 Medicare beneficiaries surveyed, more than 94% indicate that they are satisfied with their coverage, with just 6% expressing dissatisfaction.

19 Aug 2009

Retirees at risk: The precarious promise of post-employment health benefits

A nearly two-decade trend that is stripping away employer-provided health-care benefits for retirees in private business will likely continue and could soon hit an even deeper pool of government retirees, new research by a University of Illinois elder law expert warns.

19 Aug 2009

Medicare picks twelve New Jersey hospitals to test incentive system

Twelve New Jersey hospitals and their participating physicians have received approval from the federal government to test an innovative new incentive method that aims to reduce healthcare costs while improving quality of care.

19 Aug 2009

Kyl says GOP won't support co-op proposal

"The number two Senate Republican said Tuesday replacing a public health care option with a nonprofit private cooperative wouldn't win any more Republican support, saying they are essentially the same thing," The Wall Street Journal reports. "Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.), said Republican objections were more fundamental than simply changing the name of a new national entity to compete with private medical insurers."

19 Aug 2009

Proposed health care reform legislation removes incentives for immigrants to learn English says McAlpin

"Proposed health care reform legislation now under consideration in Congress will add billions of dollars of un-reimbursed cost to the Medicare program to provide free interpreters for non-English speaking patients," says K.C. McAlpin, executive director of ProEnglish, a national organization that advocates for making English the official language of government in the United States.

19 Aug 2009

Compete rates Healthgrades.com number one doctor-ratings web site

HealthGrades.com is the #1 doctor-ratings Web site – by an enormous margin – according to an analysis of Web traffic by Compete, a TNS Media company. HealthGrades.com, long known for its hospital-quality ratings, is the public Web site of the leading healthcare ratings company, featuring quality reports and ratings of every practicing doctor, hospital and nursing home in the country.

19 Aug 2009

Medicare Part D premiums to rise slightly

Medicare Part D drug premiums are expected to increase slightly while the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services details which states have the highest rates of prescription drug use.

19 Aug 2009

White House offers reassurance that public option is very much alive

The Wall Street Journal: "The White House sent an email to members of Congress and other supporters saying that President Barack Obama wants a public insurance option as part of health-care overhaul. Ms. Sebelius seemed to suggest otherwise on Sunday, saying a public option isn't an 'essential element.'"

19 Aug 2009

Women air concerns on government takeover of health care

300,000 American women with breast cancer might have died over the last decade, if the US had adopted a British-style, government-run health care system. This shocking figure, from recent studies by the Lewin Group and Lancet Oncology, appears in a TV ad launched today by The Independent Women's Forum, a non-profit organization focused on issues of concern for women. The 60-second spot highlights the deadly risks to women under the "public option" - or co-op - plan currently under consideration in Congress.

19 Aug 2009

Efforts to create treatment guidelines are often complicated

The development of treatment guidelines for illnesses such as diabetes is a complicated process.

19 Aug 2009

Massachusetts could prove model to cut costs

CNNMoney reports that Massachusetts could prove to be a model for how to grapple with high health care costs as its own soaring costs threaten national efforts at reform.

19 Aug 2009