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CBO Director Orszag says health IT holds promise, but no panacea for health care costs

Health information technology could improve health care quality, but it is not the cure-all solution to reducing U.S. health care costs, Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag said at a forum on Friday, CQ HealthBeat reports. The forum was hosted by the Alliance for Health Reform and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

24 Jun 2008

Future of Medicare at stake in Presidential election, opinion piece states

"At stake in the presidential election is whether we will all need to consult lobbyists to have our medical issues heard by a remote, bureaucratic Medicare program," Scott Gottlieb, a former CMS official and an American Enterprise Institute fellow, writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

24 Jun 2008

Reps. Barton, Dingell to introduce legislation that aims to spur nationwide adoption of electronic health records

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair John Dingell (D-Mich.) and ranking member Joe Barton (R-Texas) on Tuesday plan to introduce a bill that would promote the adoption of a nationwide electronic health record system, CongressDaily reports.

24 Jun 2008

USA Today examines online second-opinion services

USA Today on Monday examined the use of online second-opinion services, which allow patients to receive consultations from specialists based on medical records that they fax, mail or send through the Internet

24 Jun 2008

Social Security officials call for social security numbers to be removed from Medicare ID cards

Social Security Administration officials have requested that CMS take immediate action to issue beneficiaries new membership cards that do not include their Social Security numbers to address concerns regarding identity theft, the New York Times reports.

24 Jun 2008

New Orleans teaching hospital that would replace charity will require state funds

Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine on Thursday said that a 424-bed $1.2 billion teaching hospital planned to replace Charity Hospital in New Orleans will not turn a profit, as the original plan had stated, and that it would require state money to become sustainable, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports (Moller, New Orleans Times-Picayune, 6/20).

24 Jun 2008

Nursing home alternative challenges traditional system

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Bill Thomas, a former nursing home physician, have been working to overhaul the nation's nursing home system by promoting "smaller, home-like facilities," the Wall Street Journal reports.

24 Jun 2008

Lack of health insurance for many U.S. residents 'merely a symptom' of larger problem with costs, according to opinion piece

The major presidential candidates have "talked frequently" about proposals to expand health insurance to more U.S. residents but have failed to "recognize that lack of coverage is merely a symptom of a larger problem: the high cost of medical care," Dwight Bartlett, a former Social Security Administration chief actuary and a former Maryland insurance commissioner, writes in a Baltimore Sun opinion piece.

24 Jun 2008

Montana measure to expand SCHIP, Medicaid eligibility to be included on November ballot

Montana State Auditor John Morrison on Tuesday said an initiative to expand SCHIP and Medicaid coverage to as many as 30,000 additional uninsured children will be placed on the state's November ballot, the Missoulian reports.

24 Jun 2008

San Francisco Chronicle examines health insurance claim denials

The San Francisco Chronicle on Monday examined how "[e]ach year, thousands of Californians find themselves at odds with their health insurers over whether they, as patients, should get the treatment their doctors prescribed."

24 Jun 2008

House to vote on modified version of Senate Democrats' Medicare physician pay patch bill

The House on Tuesday is scheduled to vote on a modified version of Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus' (D-Mont.) legislation (S 3101) that would eliminate a 10.6% reduction to Medicare physician fees scheduled for July 1, CQ Today reports. According to CQ Today, "If the House moves a bill, it will put pressure on Senate Democrats and Republicans to reach an accord."

24 Jun 2008

Children, adolescents living with HIV have higher rates of risk factors for cardiovascular issues

Children and adolescents living with HIV have higher rates of risk factors for cardiovascular issues than HIV-negative children and adolescents, according to a study published in the June issue of the Journal of Pediatrics, the Miami Herald reports. In addition, many antiretroviral drugs can increase cardiovascular risk factors, the Herald reports.

24 Jun 2008

Florida HIV/AIDS advocacy groups, health departments to increase HIV awareness among minorities

HIV/AIDS advocacy groups and health departments in Florida are planning several events aimed at increasing awareness about HIV among minorities ahead of National HIV Testing Day, which is scheduled for Friday, the Naples Daily News reports.

24 Jun 2008

Treating genital herpes does not reduce eisk of HIV

Treating genital herpes does not reduce the risk of HIV, according to a study published on Friday in the journal Lancet, the AP/Newsweek reports (Cheng, AP/Newsweek, 6/19). Herpes simplex virus-2 has been shown to increase the risk of HIV by as much as threefold, so the researchers examined whether treating HSV-2 might reduce the risk of HIV, Bloomberg reports.

24 Jun 2008

Delaware House approves bill that would mandate HIV testing for accused sex offenders

The Delaware House recently approved a bill (HB 424) that would require HIV testing for sexual assault defendants under certain circumstances, the AP/Bethany Beach Wave reports.

24 Jun 2008

Mozambique Business Association launches program that aims to address HIV/AIDS in workplaces

The Confederation of Business Associations in Mozambique recently launched a program called ECOSIDA to address issues related to HIV/AIDS in the workplace, SAPA/iAfrica.com reports.

24 Jun 2008

India's patent office rejects Boehringer's application for pediatric antiretroviral

India's Patent Office in New Delhi earlier this month rejected German drug maker Boehringer Ingelheim's application for a pediatric version of the antiretroviral drug nevirapine, consequently allowing local generic pharmaceutical companies such as Aurobindo and Cipla to continue marketing low-cost versions of the medicine in the domestic market, the Business Standard reports.

24 Jun 2008

New HIV/AIDS threat in India found among youth working at call centers

Unprotected sex with multiple partners among young staff in India's call centers has emerged as a new HIV/AIDS threat in the country, Suniti Solomon, the researcher who detected the first HIV case in India in 1986, told the International Congress on Infectious Diseases on Saturday, the AP/International Herald Tribune reports.

24 Jun 2008

Neglected infectious diseases go untreated, undiagnosed in hundreds of thousands of low-income residents in the U.S.

Hundreds of thousands of low-income U.S. residents in inner cities, the Mississippi Delta, Appalachia, areas near the Mexico border and tribal reservations remain undiagnosed and untreated for diseases that are prevalent in Africa, Asia and Latin America, according to an analysis published on Monday in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, USA Today reports.

24 Jun 2008

RFID applications in health care may affect medical equipment

The use of radio frequency identification devices appears to have the potential to cause critical care medical equipment to malfunction, according to a study in the June 25 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.

24 Jun 2008

Medical News

CBO Director Orszag says health IT holds promise, but no panacea for health care costs

Future of Medicare at stake in Presidential election, opinion piece states

Reps. Barton, Dingell to introduce legislation that aims to spur nationwide adoption of electronic health records

USA Today examines online second-opinion services

Social Security officials call for social security numbers to be removed from Medicare ID cards

New Orleans teaching hospital that would replace charity will require state funds

Nursing home alternative challenges traditional system

Lack of health insurance for many U.S. residents 'merely a symptom' of larger problem with costs, according to opinion piece

Montana measure to expand SCHIP, Medicaid eligibility to be included on November ballot

San Francisco Chronicle examines health insurance claim denials

House to vote on modified version of Senate Democrats' Medicare physician pay patch bill

Children, adolescents living with HIV have higher rates of risk factors for cardiovascular issues

Florida HIV/AIDS advocacy groups, health departments to increase HIV awareness among minorities

Treating genital herpes does not reduce eisk of HIV

Delaware House approves bill that would mandate HIV testing for accused sex offenders

Mozambique Business Association launches program that aims to address HIV/AIDS in workplaces

India's patent office rejects Boehringer's application for pediatric antiretroviral

New HIV/AIDS threat in India found among youth working at call centers

Neglected infectious diseases go untreated, undiagnosed in hundreds of thousands of low-income residents in the U.S.

RFID applications in health care may affect medical equipment

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