First Edition: October 20, 2010

Oct 20 2010

In today's headlines, insurers test a new way to pay for cancer treatment.

A New Way To Pay For Chemotherapy
Kaiser Health News staff writer Julie Appleby reports: "One of the nation's largest health insurers said today it is testing a new way to pay for some cancer treatments, aiming to identify the best medicines - and limit profits doctors make by dispensing in-office chemotherapy drugs" (Kaiser Health News).

Insurers Test New Cancer Pay Systems
Several large health insurers, including UnitedHealthcare and Aetna, are focusing on one of the country's most costly diseases: cancer (The New York Times).

In Treating Cancer, Insurer Tries New Way To Pay Docs
In the latest experiment aimed at curbing health-care costs, UnitedHealth Group Inc. is altering the way cancer specialists are paid (The Wall Street Journal).

The Graying Of America: An Economic Time Bomb?
We're living longer and healthier lives, but an increasingly older population means an increasing pull on government entitlement programs: Social Security, Medicare, long-term care, public pensions and other financial-support programs are heavily burdened systems that can bring down the economy (The Fiscal Times).

Economic Scene: Proving Innovation In Medicare
The huge budget deficits that the country faces in coming decades are, above all, because of Medicare. The program will have to cover growing numbers of baby boomers while health costs are likely to keep going up (The New York Times).

As GOP Seeks Spending Cuts, Details Are Scarce
If there is a single message unifying Republican candidates this year, it is a call to grab hold of the federal checkbook, slam it closed and begin to slash spending. To bolster their case that action is needed, Republicans are citing major legislation over the four years that Democrats have controlled Congress, notably the financial system bailout, the economic stimulus and the new health care law (The New York Times).

Anti-Abortion Rights Group Targets 42 Democrats
An anti-abortion rights group spending heavily to influence the midterm elections is targeting 42 House Democrats in a $1 million mail campaign aimed at turning them out of Congress (The Associated Press/Washington Post).

Pew: Search For Health Info Largely Offline
When people search for information related to their personal health, they usually rely on sources other than the Internet, according to a survey conducted by the Pew Internet Project in association with the California HealthCare Foundation (The Hill's Hillicon Valley).

Breast Cancer Seen As Riskier With Hormone
Hormone treatment after menopause, already known to increase the risk of breast cancer, also makes it more likely that the cancer will be advanced and deadly, a study finds (The New York Times).

Post-Menopausal Hormones Boost Breast Cancer Risk, Study Finds
Women who take a popular hormone replacement drug after menopause not only increase their chances of getting breast cancer but also seem to face an increased risk of dying from the disease, according to new results of a landmark federal study (The Washington Post).

Breast Cancer Risk In Therapy Affirmed
Older women who took combined hormone therapy pills for five years or longer had a slightly higher risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer at a more advanced stage and of dying from the disease, according to a new analysis of a landmark trial reported yesterday (The Boston Globe).

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