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Future cancer care, can we afford it?

When a cancer patient and his or her doctor discuss the value of a treatment option, the conversation usually centers on a consideration of the treatment's medical benefits versus its possible side effects for the patient. Increasingly, however, as the already high costs of cancer care continue to rise, a full view of the patient's welfare must also take into account the economic impact of the treatment on the patient and his or her family.

26 May 2009

Hospice care under-used by many terminally ill patients

Hospice, a well-established approach to palliative care, has enabled countless people worldwide to die with dignity. Through focusing on the patient rather than the disease, individuals can spend the last weeks of their lives in an environment where hospice caregivers minimize their pain, maximize their comfort, and provide bereavement services for loved ones and family members.

25 May 2009

Penn study shows ‘in-store’ clinics more apt to be based in higher-income neighborhoods

Since 2000, nearly 1,000 "retail clinics" -- offering routine care like sports physicals and immunizations and treatment for minor illnesses like strep throat -- have opened their doors inside pharmacies and grocery stores across the United States. Retail chain operators proposed that the new clinics would improve access to medical care among uninsured or underserved populations.

25 May 2009

Australian Government shies away from election promise to takeover control of hospitals

Kevin Rudd's Government appears to be backing out of another of its election promises - the financial takeover of public hospitals if they fail to come up to scratch.

24 May 2009

Indian Health Service releases $500 million in stimulus funding to improve health care for American Indian, Alaska native communities

The Indian Health Service on Wednesday announced it will release $500 million in federal economic stimulus funding to improve health care for American Indian and Alaska Native communities, Health Data Management reports.

22 May 2009

New Maryland law requires insurers to provide incentives for EHR adoption

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) on Tuesday signed a bill making the state the first to require private insurance companies to offer physicians financial incentives for adopting electronic health records, the Baltimore Sun reports.

22 May 2009

Connecticut House approves two health insurance pooling bills

The Connecticut House on Wednesday approved two separate measures to expand health insurance pooling in the state, the Hartford Courant reports. The first measure would create a public health insurance pool open to all residents.

22 May 2009

Reducing medical residents' hours would cost $2.5 billion annually, study says

Implementing proposed reductions in the number of hours medical residents work could cost as much as $2.5 billion annually, according to a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Baltimore Sun reports.

22 May 2009

GM bankruptcy plan would use stock worth 39% of firm to fund half of VEBA obligation

General Motors and United Auto Workers on Thursday agreed to a tentative deal that would allow the automaker to use company stock to fund half of its obligation to a retiree health care fund, the Washington Post reports (Cho et al., Washington Post, 5/22).

22 May 2009

Sen. Baucus says health care overhaul will cover about 95% of citizens, will not cover undocumented immigrants

Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on Thursday said that Congress' health care overhaul plan would cover 94% to 96% of the population but not undocumented immigrants, the AP/Las Vegas Sun reports (Alonso-Zaldivar, AP/Las Vegas Sun, 5/21).

22 May 2009

WA Health workers stood down because of scam

According to reports a number of people working for the West Australian Health Department have been suspended because of suspect behaviour.

22 May 2009

Yolo County, Calif., approves proposal to cut funding for health care services to undocumented immigrants

Yolo County, Calif., Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a proposal to cut county funding for health care services for undocumented immigrants in an effort to save the county more than $1 million, the Sacramento Bee reports (Sangree, Sacramento Bee, 5/20).

22 May 2009

Health information technology lobby group rallies support for certification group; critics question group's ties

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society has asked HHS to give the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology authorization to determine which electronic health records systems can receive funding from the economic stimulus package, the Washington Post reports. In a letter dated April 27 to HHS officials, HIMSS officials wrote, "To ensure continuity, recognize CCHIT as the certifying body" of EHRs.

22 May 2009

Wall Street Journal examines patients' confusion over coverage of preventive exams

As employers increasingly offer no-cost preventive care as a means of controlling health costs, some people under such plans are being charged for services not deemed preventive by the insurer, the Wall Street Journal reports.

22 May 2009

Department of Justice, HHS boosts number of investigators, prosecutors looking at Medicare, Medicaid fraud

HHS and the Department of Justice on Wednesday launched the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team to detect and prevent fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, the Washington Post reports (Johnson, Washington Post, 5/21).

22 May 2009

Senate Finance Committee discusses funding for health reform in final 'walk through' meeting

The Senate Finance Committee met Wednesday to discuss potential funding mechanisms for health reform legislation but indicated that no concrete decisions had been reached, The Hill reports.

22 May 2009

Republicans introduce health reform plan that would provide tax credits to purchase health coverage, establish state insurance exchanges

Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Reps. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Wednesday introduced the Patients' Choice Act (S 1099, HR 2520), a counter proposal to Democratic health care reform plans that would create state-based health insurance exchanges and provide U.S. residents tax credits to subsidize coverage premiums, Roll Call reports (Drucker [1], Roll Call, 5/20).

22 May 2009

California primary care physician shortage affecting clinics that serve minority populations

A shortage of primary care physicians in California "is driving community clinics to find innovate ways" to provide care to an increasingly linguistically and culturally diverse patient population, New America Media reports.

20 May 2009

Investigation urgently needed into treatment of mentally ill immigration detainees at California facility, editorial states

"Although the number of mentally ill immigration detainees" at the La Mesa, Calif.-based private psychiatric hospital Alvarado Parkway Institute "at any one time seems to range from as few as two to only five or so, their situation needs to be addressed quickly," a San Diego Tribune editorial states (San Diego Tribune, 5/19).

20 May 2009

U.S. residents to pay greater share of employer-sponsored health insurance coverage in 2009

U.S. residents enrolled in employer-sponsored health plans will contribute an average of 41% of their health care costs in 2009, the largest share to date, according to a study released on Monday by the Seattle-based actuarial consulting firm Milliman, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

20 May 2009

Healthcare News

Future cancer care, can we afford it?

Hospice care under-used by many terminally ill patients

Penn study shows ‘in-store’ clinics more apt to be based in higher-income neighborhoods

Australian Government shies away from election promise to takeover control of hospitals

Indian Health Service releases $500 million in stimulus funding to improve health care for American Indian, Alaska native communities

New Maryland law requires insurers to provide incentives for EHR adoption

Connecticut House approves two health insurance pooling bills

Reducing medical residents' hours would cost $2.5 billion annually, study says

GM bankruptcy plan would use stock worth 39% of firm to fund half of VEBA obligation

Sen. Baucus says health care overhaul will cover about 95% of citizens, will not cover undocumented immigrants

WA Health workers stood down because of scam

Yolo County, Calif., approves proposal to cut funding for health care services to undocumented immigrants

Health information technology lobby group rallies support for certification group; critics question group's ties

Wall Street Journal examines patients' confusion over coverage of preventive exams

Department of Justice, HHS boosts number of investigators, prosecutors looking at Medicare, Medicaid fraud

Senate Finance Committee discusses funding for health reform in final 'walk through' meeting

Republicans introduce health reform plan that would provide tax credits to purchase health coverage, establish state insurance exchanges

California primary care physician shortage affecting clinics that serve minority populations

Investigation urgently needed into treatment of mentally ill immigration detainees at California facility, editorial states

U.S. residents to pay greater share of employer-sponsored health insurance coverage in 2009

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