Medicine & Health articles from June 2009

Medicine & Health archives from June 2009

Feds turn up the Enforcement HEAT on Home Care Providers: will legitimate providers get caught in the crossfire?(Fraud & Abuse)
June 5, 2009... Health care providers have their eyes on the RACs, the ZPICs, the OIG, and Medicare auditors, but now CMS is taking its oversight up a notch with a new interagency strike force. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the...

Next battle will be over health insurance for small business: commercial insurers aren't exactly chomping at the bit to meddle with a lucrative sector.(Healthcare Reform)
June 5, 2009... One of the major reasons Congress and the White House are working to pass a healthcare-reform bill this summer is that nearly 50 million Americans have no health insurance. The majority of them--16.8 million uninsured, according to the Employee...

Can preventive medicine earn $36 for every dollar spent? Harvard researchers develop tool to measure return on investment.(Public Health)
June 5, 2009... Everyone seems to agree that it's cheaper to prevent health problems than to treat them. Still, most of the money spent on healthcare goes to treatment. One of the problems preventive medicine faces: It's hard to show how much money is actually...

$81.7 million will expand Health Center Services: HHS secretary: funds will help poor, uninsured families get healthcare.(Grants)
June 5, 2009... Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on May 28 marked the first 100 days of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act by releasing $81.7 million to expand services offered at the nation's health centers. The grants are...

'Turnaround plan' could mean big changes for FDA: new funds, now focus have potential to improve food safety.(Food Safety)
June 5, 2009... FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, MD, and Deputy Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein, MD, could be moving toward big changes in FDA regulation, according to a perspective published in the online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine May...

SAMHSA draws link between emotional health and financial woes: new guide positioned to help people dealing with tough economic times.(Mental Health)
June 5, 2009... A first-of-its-kind online guide now provides crucial information and resource referrals for people dealing with emotional or other health problems associated with economic hard times. The "Getting Through Tough Economic Times" guide at...

HHS teams up with Elmo to educate children on H1N1: new PSA campaign unveiled at the HHS/ Department of Education Childcare Center.(Infectious Disease)
June 5, 2009... Muppet influence is the latest route the Department of Health and Human Services is using to educate kids about avoiding the swine flu. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced on May 22 that the department is joining the Ad Council and...

SAMHSA and FDA join to inform the public on the safe use of methadone: agencies try to bring poisoning deaths under control.
June 5, 2009... The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Food and Drug Administration are responding to concerns about an escalating number of deaths linked improper methadone use. The percentage of all methadone poisoning...

Healthcare providers may be getting too X-ray-happy.(In other news...)
June 5, 2009... Healthcare providers may be getting too X-ray-happy. A study performed by the Center for Studying Health System Change published in the May 25 Archives of Internal Medicine revealed that almost one in three elderly Medicare patients received...

The Texas Senate recently passed a CHIP expansion bill, according to the Houston Chronicle.(In other news...)
June 5, 2009... * The Texas Senate recently passed a CHIP expansion bill, according to the Houston Chronicle. The legislation, which was attached as an amendment to a bill on screening newborns for diseases, would move 80,000 uninsured children to a...

Early use of home care services following a hospital stay by patients with at least one chronic disease saved Medicare $1.71 billion in the two-year 2005 to 2006 period, according to a study by Avalere Health.(In other news...)
June 5, 2009... * Early use of home care services following a hospital stay by patients with at least one chronic disease saved Medicare $1.71 billion in the two-year 2005 to 2006 period, according to a study by Avalere Health. The study, sponsored by the...

Medicare is now giving physicians the chance to designate hospice and palliative care as their specialty.(In other news...)
June 5, 2009... * Medicare is now giving physicians the chance to designate hospice and palliative care as their specialty. Code 17 will be the new hospice code docs can choose when they self-designate their specialty on Medicare enrollment forms, CMS explains...

State health plans: a starting point for national system overhaul? Pros and cons of Massachusetts, Tennessee plans could get a closer look.(Healthcare Reform)
June 12, 2009... Lawmakers looking to revamp the U.S. healthcare system might be wise to see what's working--and what's not--on the state level. But attempting to implement universal healthcare can take many forms, so finding the best answer is no easy task....

New false claims rules could sneak up on healthcare providers; government crackdown could snag providers for keeping overpayments.(Fraud & Abuse)
June 12, 2009... Healthcare providers shouldn't overlook a new law that makes identifying overpayments from the government a priority. President Barack Obama recently signed the Federal Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009 to focus on mortgage and banking...

Competitive bidding steamrolls over supplier protests; suppliers must have accreditation, surety bonds to bid.(DME)
June 12, 2009... Medical suppliers are in for the fight of their lives as the second coming of competitive bidding gets underway. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has announced a general timeline for durable medical equipment competitive bidding's...

Meditate on this: mindfulness finds its way into the hospital; the mantra for 21st century healthcare may be 'eat right, exercise, and say "om.'".(Trends)
June 12, 2009... When you go to a doctor, you expect good old, American medicine: examination, surgery, pills, advice, that sort of thing. But, nowadays, doctors may prescribe a dose of meditation along with the medication. Studies suggest meditation can...

Study: soaring medical costs at the root of most bankruptcies: 62.1 percent of 2007 bankruptcies were provoked by healthcare costs, researchers say.(Economics)
June 12, 2009... If it was bad eight years ago, it's even worse now: Illness and medical bills contribute to a growing share of U.S. bankruptcies, a study says. Sixty-two percent of all bankruptcies filed in 2007 were linked to medical expenses, according...

NORD: one-stop shopping for patient drug assistance: people who have rare medical conditions can get help with drugs.(Funding)
June 12, 2009... Know patients who need help paying for medication? Then you should know the National Organization for Rare Disorders. Since 1987, NORD has administered programs to assist uninsured or under-insured individuals in securing life-saving or...

Kentucky physicians get a green light to bill for PT; turf wars apparent between PTs and physicians.(Rehab)
June 12, 2009... One orthopedic physician has been fighting for the right to bill for physical therapy services in Kentucky--and the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled in his favor on April 23. In Dubin Orthopaedic Centre PSC v. Kentucky Board of Physical...

NEJM letter: health, life insurers hold billions in tobacco stocks; single-payer advocates say insurers put profits over health.
June 12, 2009... Three Harvard doctors found billions in tobacco industry stocks in the investment portfolios of several leading U.S. and British health and life insurance companies. "In case there is any doubt that insurers place profit above health,...

President Obama is trying to get two senators to work out their differences regarding healthcare policy.(In other news ...)
June 12, 2009... President Obama is trying to get two senators to work out their differences regarding healthcare policy. The two main architects of healthcare reform legislation in Congress, Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.), don't see...

June 7 was National Cancer Survivors Day.(In other news ...)
June 12, 2009... June 7 was National Cancer Survivors Day. In honor of the Americans who are living with a history of cancer, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reminded the Medicare provider community of the many cancer screenings that Medicare...

People in need of hearing aids have advocates in Congress.(In other news ...)
June 12, 2009... People in need of hearing aids have advocates in Congress. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) introduced the Hearing Aid Assistance Tax Credit Act (S. 1019) last May, according to an email announcement to providers from the American Speech-Language...

Nevada's looking to protect it's foreign physicians from exploitation, reported the Las Vegas Sun.(In other news ...)
June 12, 2009... Nevada's looking to protect it's foreign physicians from exploitation, reported the Las Vegas Sun. The state's General Assembly approved Senate Bill 229, which would protect foreign doctors who work in the state's underserved areas. The...