Healthcare News and Research

Latest Healthcare News and Research

Medicare proposes capping home health care agency payments

The Miami Herald reports: "Fueled by massive fraud, home healthcare providers in Miami-Dade County are raking in more Medicare money than their colleagues in the rest of the country combined -- thanks to bogus billings for patients with diabetes, authorities say.

5 Aug 2009

States confront budget pressure, anticipate reform

States are grappling with budget cuts, trying to anticipate the effects of Washington's health system overhaul and rejiggering Medicaid programs.

5 Aug 2009

Discovery of new gene mutations linked to leukemia

Decoding the complete DNA of cancer patients is giving scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis a clearer picture of the complexity of the disease and allowing them to see intriguing and unexpected genetic relationships among patients.

5 Aug 2009

AHF launches HIV prevention campaigns in Uganda

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is proud to announce the launch of its popular ‘STAY NEGATIVE’ and ‘Love Condoms’ Campaign in Uganda, on Thursday, August 6th.

5 Aug 2009

Wolters Kluwer Health announces release of new health care software

Wolters Kluwer Health today unveiled ProVation® Care Plans, an innovative software solution that arms nurses, pharmacists, therapists and other caregivers with the actionable evidence they need to effectively enhance practice, improve patient safety and demonstrate compliance with credentialing and regulatory standards.

5 Aug 2009

Discovery of novel function of hormone found in gut that may lower glucose levels in diabetes

A research team led by Dr. Tony Lam at the Toronto General Research Institute and the University of Toronto discovered a novel function of a hormone found in the gut that might potentially lower glucose levels in diabetes.

5 Aug 2009

Obama: Healthcare reform bill to be passed by year end

During an Indiana speech on Wednesday, President Barack Obama said "there will be an overhaul of the health care system before the end of the year and said it doesn't have to be a bipartisan effort," according to The Associated Press. He also pledged that "successful conclusion of an ambitious health care overhaul that he has argued would stabilize the nation's fiscal health."

5 Aug 2009

Insurance agents look into the future and see uncertainty and "opportunity"

For the tens of thousands of individual insurance agents nationwide, the idea of a health system overhaul hits close to home – and work. The changes currently under consideration could radically alter how they do business. For example, there could be requirements that all individuals have coverage, that employers provide insurance for their workers and that insurers cover anyone - regardless of preexisting conditions. In addition, there could be a government-run public plan that might compete with insurance companies.

5 Aug 2009

Cooling unconscious cardiac arrest survivors increases survival, cost effective

Cooling unconscious cardiac arrest survivors can increase survival and has a cost effectiveness comparable to other widely accepted treatments in modern health care, researchers report in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

4 Aug 2009

Senate Dems prepare contingency plans as finance negotiators grapple for a deal

"Senate Democrats may decide to pass a U.S. health-care overhaul without Republican support if some opposition lawmakers don't agree to a plan by mid-September," Senator Charles Schumer[ D-N.Y.] said" according to Bloomberg. Schumer said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., set a self-imposed deadline of Sept. 15 to lead a negotiating team, composed of three Republicans and three Democrats within his Finance Committee, to a bipartisan compromise.

4 Aug 2009

Lobbyists play ball, flex muscles on health care reform

The Associated Press reports on lobbying around biotechnology legislation. A letter urging the protection of biotech drug makers from generics from "the private National Health Council, sent to House leaders drafting health overhaul legislation, said the plea was on behalf of 'the more than 133 million Americans living with chronic diseases and disabilities and their family caregivers.'

4 Aug 2009

Battles over insurance reform afflict House Democrats

"House liberals are offended that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) mocked their threats to oppose a Democratic healthcare bill, saying leaders are underestimating their frustration over a deal cut with centrist Blue Dogs," The Hill reports.

4 Aug 2009

Jefferson names endowed Professorship in transplant surgery

Cataldo Doria, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.S., director, Division of Transplant Surgery, in the Department of Surgery at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, has been named the Nicoletti Family Professor of Transplant Surgery. This endowed professorship is a generous gift of Robert and Beatrice Nicoletti and their family. The family cited the care they received at Jefferson when Robert received a new kidney donated by his own daughter, as the reason for their donation.

4 Aug 2009

Health care CEOs see decline in compensation

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4 Aug 2009

Guardian examines U.K. offer to help provide free healthcare in 'world's poorest countries'

The Guardian examines British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's offer "to help some of the world's poorest countries to make healthcare free – starting with pregnant women and children – in a push to widen access to doctors across Africa and Asia."

4 Aug 2009

Plague in China; U.S. contribution to clean water initiatives; TB vaccine trial; HIV in Mozambique; New HIV strain

A third person died of pneumonic plague in China on Monday, local health authorities said, Xinhua reports. The outbreak began on July 30 and an additional nine people in the town of Ziketan are reportedly ill (8/3). "Pneumonic plague, which attacks the lungs, is closely related to bubonic plague," writes the New York Times.

4 Aug 2009

Antidepressant use becoming more common in the United States

A marked and broad expansion in antidepressant treatment occurred among Americans older than 6 years between 1996 and 2005, although treatment rates remain low among racial and ethnic minorities, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

4 Aug 2009

Carbon nanosensor sniffs out kidney disease

A carbon nanosensor “electronic nose” - first developed by Technion-Israel Institute of Technology researchers to detect cancer from breath samples - has been modified to identify chronic renal failure (CRF).

4 Aug 2009

Accidental childhood poisonings mostly due to medicines

More than two-thirds of all emergency department visits for childhood poisoning involve prescription and over-the-counter medications, more than twice the rate of poisonings from consumer products, reports a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

4 Aug 2009

Parents fear medical errors when children in hospital

Nearly two-thirds of parents reported they felt the need to watch over their child's care to ensure that medical errors are not made during their hospital stay, according to a study led by Beth A. Tarini, M.D., M.S., assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School.

3 Aug 2009