UPI Health Business articles from May 2006

UPI Health Business archives from May 2006

Caregiving: Home access -- Part 8.
May 3, 2006... Byline: ALEX CUKAN ALBANY, N.Y., May 2 (UPI) -- Americans might not agree on much, but most agree they don't want to end up in a nursing home -- not the greatest generation, not the silent generation -- and certainly not the baby boomers....

Analysis: Too many insurance choices?
May 3, 2006... Byline: OLGA PIERCE WASHINGTON, May 3 (UPI) -- The difficulty and confusion of finding a health plan in the individual insurance market is more of a factor in keeping people out than cost, according to a recent study. The findings cast...

HealthWrap: U.S. flu toll 2 million?
May 3, 2006... Byline: DAN OLMSTED WASHINGTON, May 3 (UPI) -- A plan to combat an avian-flu pandemic envisions as many as 2 million Americans dead despite the government's best efforts to save them, reports said Wednesday. The horrifying scenario,...

Eat To Live: Kids under-and-overfed.
May 3, 2006... Byline: JULIA WATSON WASHINGTON, May 3 (UPI) -- Don't read any further if you don't want to experience the discomfort of shame. This week two reports about our children's health were published. One, in the Archives of Pediatric and...

Ped Med: A real downer.
May 3, 2006... Byline: LIDIA WASOWICZ SAN FRANCISCO, May 3 (UPI) -- Zooming from nil to millions in 20 years, the burgeoning number of children diagnosed with depression is on a collision course with a healthcare system unable to keep pace. Any...

Analysis:Bill revives tort reform debate.
May 3, 2006... Byline: LAURA GILCREST WASHINGTON, May 3 (UPI) -- A new bill unveiled Wednesday in the U.S. senate would limit medical malpractice awards for non-economic damages -- or intangible losses to a plaintiff known as "pain and suffering" -- to a...

Solvay fed flu-vaccine deal nears $300M.
May 4, 2006... MARIETTA, Ga., May 4 (UPI) -- Solvay said Thursday it has secured a $298 million contract with the U.S. government to develop cell-based flu vaccines. On the same day MedImmune announced its own $170 million deal for cell-based flu...

HealthWrap: Autism gene found?
May 4, 2006... Byline: KATE WALKER OXFORD, England, May 4 (UPI) -- By deleting a gene from the brain of mice, researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have created mice whose behavior is reminiscent of autistic humans. In...

Caregiving: Home access -- Part 9.
May 4, 2006... Byline: ALEX CUKAN ALBANY, N.Y., May 4 (UPI) -- Universal design evolved out of the efforts to make buildings, furniture and equipment more accessible for people with disabilities, but one designer says she prefer just calling it, "damn...

Analysis: Bill offers new, improved HSA.
May 4, 2006... Byline: OLGA PIERCE WASHINGTON, May 4 (UPI) -- A House bill introduced this week would expand health savings accounts by increasing contribution limits and allowing a wider variety of uses. It has the support of Republican leadership...

For contact wearers, a word to the wise.
May 4, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, May 4 (UPI) -- Sallyann Davis was sitting on her couch last September watching Monday Night Football when a phenomenal pain gripped her left eye. After a sleepless night the Baltimore account...

Analysis: Lawmakers mull fair share laws.
May 5, 2006... WASHINGTON, May 4 (UPI) -- What started out as a House hearing Thursday on state laws requiring employers to provide employee health insurance turned into a debate on the role of government in providing healthcare. At the House...

Outside View: Time is now for tort reform.
May 5, 2006... Byline: STUART WEINSTEIN WASHINGTON, May 5 (UPI) -- Very soon, the Senate is scheduled to vote on vital legislation designed to stem the growing crisis in patient access to quality medical care in the United States. The bill, S. 22, is...

Analysis: Shingles pain costs up to $9,000.
May 5, 2006... Byline: ED SUSMAN SAN ANTONIO, May 5 (UPI) -- The pain caused by bouts of shingles -- the skin eruptions that frequently strike older people -- cause discomfort not only in trying to perform daily activities but in the wallet as well. ...

Ped Med: The young and depressed.
May 5, 2006... Byline: LIDIA WASOWICZ SAN FRANCISCO, May 5 (UPI) -- Recent research suggests depression, whose symptoms vary widely across and within the pre-adult age groups, seems to be making its first appearance -- at least on physicians' charts --...

Analysis: Black infant mortality puzzle.
May 5, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, May 5 (UPI) -- Black infants are still twice as likely to die in their first year of life as white infants, despite an improvement in the overall U.S. infant mortality rate, according to the Centers...

Analysis: ''Tailored' Medicaid launched.
May 6, 2006... Byline: OLGA PIERCE WASHINGTON, May 5 (UPI) -- Health and Human Services (HHS) released final versions of plans to dramatically restructure Medicaid in Kentucky and West Virginia this week. Kentucky will restructure its Medicaid...

Analysis: Botox for headaches?
May 6, 2006... Byline: ED SUSMAN SAN ANTONIO, May 5 (UPI) -- Doctors said Friday that one of the world's deadliest poisons may relieve one of the world's most common and painful experiences: various forms of headaches. Researchers at the annual...

Analysis: Emergency rooms flunk pain tests.
May 8, 2006... Byline: ED SUSMAN SAN ANTONIO, May 8 (UPI) -- Patients who visit hospital emergency rooms for treatment of out-of-control pain frequently find that you can't spell relief "E-R", according to recent studies. "The results of these...

Eat To Live: Who should care what we eat?
May 8, 2006... Byline: JULIA WATSON WASHINGTON, May 8 (UPI) -- How far do you trust the food industry to look after your health and safety? Nationally and internationally, food multinationals are pressing for self-regulation instead of laws to manage...

Eat To Live: Health labels that make sense.
May 8, 2006... Byline: JULIA WATSON WASHINGTON, May 8 (UPI) -- It's official: Given half a chance -- and easily understood labeling -- consumers do choose to eat healthily. Last April Britain's largest supermarket chain, Tesco, introduced a...

Analysis: Women's docs push Plan B.
May 8, 2006... Byline: ED SUSMAN WASHINGTON, May 8 (UPI) -- In the face of "despicable" inaction on the part of the Food and Drug Administration to approve the emergency contraception pill Plan B for over-the-counter sales, leaders of the American...

Analysis: No malpractice crisis.
May 8, 2006... WASHINGTON, May 8 (UPI) -- Medical liability insurance premiums, which have grown slowly and comprise a small part of overall physician expenses, are not at crisis levels, a new study has found. "It's clear that the best available evidence...

Community model best for mentally ill kids.
May 8, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, May 8 (UPI) -- Community-based U.S. mental health services reduced suicide rates among children and improved school attendance in 2005, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration...

Analysis: Senate nixes liabilty caps again.
May 8, 2006... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, May 8 (UPI) -- The Senate voted against federally-imposed caps for medical malpractice jury awards Monday, again rejecting one of President Bush's top priorities for health legislation. Lawmakers...

HealthWrap: Attack of the mutant TV virus.
May 9, 2006... Byline: KATE WALKER LE BUGUE, France, May 9 (UPI) -- U.S. television audiences Tuesday evening will be subjected to "Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America," a made-for-TV movie dramatizing the possible avian-influenza pandemic and its effect...

Caregiving: Home access -- Part 10.
May 9, 2006... Byline: ALEX CUKAN ALBANY, N.Y., May 9 (UPI) -- Having been born at the peak of the baby boom, I'm accustomed to being told, "There are too many of you!" This started in kindergarten, where I spent the year on the floor because there...

Analysis: Deal elusive on health plan bill.
May 9, 2006... WASHINGTON, May 9 (UPI) -- A controversial Republican-backed small-business health-insurance bill cleared an early procedural hurdle Tuesday, though its fate remained uncertain as the U.S. Senate began debate on the measure. Lawmakers...

Analysis: Clot-busters underused.
May 9, 2006... Byline: ED SUSMAN WASHINGTON, May 9 (UPI) -- The vast majority of patients in hospitals don't receive therapy designed to prevent clots in the veins that can cause devastating strokes or lung embolisms that can prove fatal. Even...

Analysis: Soda guidelines could go flat.
May 10, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, May 9 (UPI) -- A plan announced recently to rid U.S. public schools of soda -- intended to curtail the childhood-obesity epidemic -- may fizzle out if parents and schools don't back it up with more...

Analysis: Healthcare 'Quicken' coming.
May 10, 2006... Byline: OLGA PIERCE WASHINGTON, May 10 (UPI) -- Intuit, the company that created popular software like Quicken for personal finance, QuickBooks for small-business accounting, and tax-filing aid TurboTax, has announced the impending release...

Ped Med: Why so sad?
May 10, 2006... Byline: LIDIA WASOWICZ SAN FRANCISCO, May 10 (UPI) -- Recent years have seen a distressing increase in the number of young people committing suicide and visiting doctors for complaints of depression. The suspected reasons for the surge...

Eat To Live: Snacking small.
May 10, 2006... Byline: JULIA WATSON WASHINGTON, May 10 (UPI) -- Ever on the lookout for products that rise to the current eating fad, the industrial food companies have come up with a winner. It may sound facetious to call striving to eat healthily a...

Inhaled steroids no buffer against asthma.
May 10, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, May 10 (UPI) -- Inhaled steroids do not hinder further development of asthma in preschool children, crushing the belief that the first-line treatment might stop the disease in its tracks. "We...

Analysis: GOP goes for health plan deal.
May 10, 2006... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, May 10 (UPI) -- Republicans reached for compromises Wednesday in an effort to save a GOP-backed small business health insurance bill from failing in the Senate. The bill is designed to cut costs for...

Analysis: Collaborations to lift Alnylam.
May 10, 2006... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, May 10 (UPI) -- Alnylam wildly exceeded Wall Street's expectations in first-quarter earnings and analysts expect the firm's pipeline candidate RSV01 and other products from its direct RNAi clinical...

CostRx: Investing in 'human assets'.
May 11, 2006... WASHINGTON, May 11 (UPI) -- A few years ago postal-products giant Pitney Bowes revamped its health-benefits structure with a primary principle in mind: Pay more up front to keep chronic conditions like diabetes in check among the company's...

Analysis: Ads target NYSE, animal groups.
May 11, 2006... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, May 11 (UPI) -- A mysterious group calling itself NYSEhostage.com has launched a major ad campaign aimed at both the New York Stock Exchange and animal-rights extremists, an indication of the...

Caregiving: Home access -- Part 11.
May 11, 2006... Byline: ALEX CUKAN ALBANY, N.Y., May 11 (UPI) -- Television's Dr. Frasier Crane, one of the medium's rare male caregivers, didn't really help baby boomers prepare for the realities they may face in coming years. Outside of the obvious...

HealthWrap: Infant deaths high in U.S.
May 11, 2006... Byline: KATE WALKER LE BUGUE, France, May 11 (UPI) -- The United States has the second-highest newborn death rate in the industrialized world, a report published this week by the non-profit organization Save the Children has found. Of...

Analysis: Small-biz health bill fails.
May 11, 2006... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, May 11 (UPI) -- The Senate rejected a bill on Thursday evening that would have let small businesses join together to purchase cheaper medical insurance for workers. Nearly have of the nation's 46...

Interview: Ensnared in the Net.
May 12, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, May 11 (UPI) -- Today's perpetually wired generation is becoming increasingly trapped in an addiction to the World Wide Web, an obsession that can degrade relationships and destroys lives. In...

CostRx: Healthy workers, healthy revenue.
May 12, 2006... WASHINGTON, May 12 (UPI) -- Postal-products maker Pitney Bowes recently overhauled its employee healthcare program using two key strategies: encouraging workers to manage the chronic health conditions that will prove the costliest to the...

Ped Med: Depression tough to spot in youth.
May 12, 2006... Byline: LIDIA WASOWICZ SAN FRANCISCO, May 11 (UPI) -- When it comes to depression in the young, it pays to know when to get help. However, with a disorder whose true colors run the gamut of an average adolescent's emotional and...

Eat To Live: Who really buys organic?
May 12, 2006... Byline: JULIA WATSON WASHINGTON, May 12 (UPI) -- You may be surprised to learn that the prime buyers of organic produce are not softies who make their own yogurt and hum Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" ("They paved Paradise and put up a...

Infants at risk from secondhand smoke.
May 12, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, May 12 (UPI) -- Babies exposed to their parents' cigarette smoke carry tobacco-related carcinogens in their bodies, chemicals that may lead to cancer later in life, new research shows. In a...

Analysis: Hollis-Eden future rests on feds.
May 12, 2006... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, May 12 (UPI) -- Hollis-Eden reported a net loss of $6.9 million in first quarter earnings and analysts think the company will have to win a federal contract for its acute radiation syndrome treatment...

The Age of Autism: Pox -- Part 4.
May 13, 2006... Byline: DAN OLMSTED WASHINGTON, May 13 (UPI) -- When Timothy Baltzley of Olympia, Wash., went for his 1-year-old well-baby checkup in December 2000, his mother was invited to enroll him in a clinical trial of experimental chickenpox...

Analysis: Race to Part D finish line.
May 14, 2006... Byline: OLGA PIERCE WASHINGTON, May 12 (UPI) -- Monday's midnight enrollment deadline for the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit is looming, and Bush administration officials are touting their success in enrolling more than 37...

Analysis: Wall Street sours on Teva.
May 15, 2006... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, May 15 (UPI) -- Teva failed to beat expectations in its first-quarter earnings report, and analysts are expressing concern about the company's ability to sustain growth and the future of its...

Eat To Live: Top of the milk -- organic.
May 15, 2006... Byline: JULIA WATSON WASHINGTON, May 15 (UPI) -- When I was young, it was the milkman who woke me up. An innocent event, the clanking of the glass bottles he set down upon the neighborhood doorsteps seeped gently into my spreading...

Advocates call for more cancer screening.
May 15, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, May 15 (UPI) -- Cancer detection advocates Monday called for support to reauthorize a successful nationwide breast and cervical cancer screening program geared toward low-income and uninsured women....

The Age of Autism: Pox -- Part 5.
May 15, 2006... Byline: DAN OLMSTED WASHINGTON, May 15 (UPI) -- In a clinical trial of an investigational drug, two questions are front-and-center: "Does it work?" and "Is it safe?" In two clinical trials of Merck vaccines in Olympia, Wash., the...

Analysis: HSAs a bargain for retailers?
May 16, 2006... Byline: OLGA PIERCE WASHINGTON, May 15 (UPI) -- With their relatively young and mobile workforce, retailers are among the employers who stand to gain the most from adopting Health Savings Accounts. They say the accounts are also a good...

FluWrap: Suspected cluster in Indonesia.
May 16, 2006... Byline: KATE WALKER LE BUGUE, France, May 16 (UPI) -- World Health Organization officials are monitoring avian-influenza deaths in Indonesia, as a number of recent fatalities indicate that a new infection cluster may be emerging in the...

Analysis: Senators nix Part D late fees.
May 16, 2006... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, May 16 (UPI) -- Lawmakers said Thursday that they would move quickly to repeal financial penalties for seniors who enroll late for Medicare prescription-drug benefits. The move comes just hours after...

Caregiving: Who steals a wheelchair?
May 16, 2006... Byline: ALEX CUKAN ALBANY, N.Y., May 16 (UPI) -- (Part 1 of 2) Stealing a wheelchair would seem to be one of the more loathsome crimes -- and one of the dumbest -- so it's surprising that it happens so often in the United States. It's...

Analysis: Stem cell vote by summer?
May 16, 2006... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, May 16 (UPI) -- Lawmakers on Tuesday pressured Republican leaders to allow a Senate vote on a bill lifting federal limits on embryonic stem cell research. Supporters of the measure from both political...

Analysis: Bausch recall may cost $200M.
May 17, 2006... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, May 16 (UPI) -- Analysts estimate Bausch & Lomb could lose as much as $200 million in sales after it announced Monday it would pull ReNu with MoistureLoc off the market worldwide due to its association...

Analysis: New codes rushed, insurers say.
May 17, 2006... Byline: OLGA PIERCE WASHINGTON, May 17 (UPI) -- Insurance companies are warning about a bill currently in the U.S House that they say could lead to mass confusion in patient billing and cost Medicare billions of dollars in mistaken and...

Blood pressure, cognition tied in elderly.
May 17, 2006... NEW YORK, May 17 (UPI) -- A new study suggests a wide variance in "systolic" and "diastolic" blood pressure affects mental ability in the very elderly. The new findings mainly affect patients 80 years of age and older, said researchers who...

The Age of Autism: Pox -- Part 6.
May 17, 2006... Byline: DAN OLMSTED WASHINGTON, May 17 (UPI) -- In 1942 a 12-month-old child named Richard M. got a live-virus smallpox vaccination that triggered a fever and diarrhea from which he recovered "in somewhat less than a week." We know...

Analysis: New paradigm for blood pressure?
May 17, 2006... Byline: ED SUSMAN NEW YORK, May 17 (UPI) -- Researchers said Wednesday that a drug being reviewed for approval by the Food and Drug Administration not only dramatically reduces blood pressure but smoothes out daily pressure to avoid...

Analysis: Novartis drugs' uptake a tossup.
May 17, 2006... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, May 17 (UPI) -- Analysts expressed mixed reactions to new data on Novartis' Exforge and Rasilez that was released Wednesday, with some predicting the blood-pressure medications would be very successful,...

Ped Med: Red flag for suicide.
May 17, 2006... Byline: LIDIA WASOWICZ SAN FRANCISCO, May 17 (UPI) -- While signs of depression vary widely in children and adolescents, there is one red flag virtually everyone agrees should always be taken as a signal to stop and pay close attention....

McGovern rallies for hunger initiative.
May 18, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, May 17 (UPI) -- Former Sen. George McGovern, D-S.D., can never forget the televised 1960s image of a young Southern boy who stood empty-handed and penniless on the edge of his school cafeteria as...

Science now can predict cholera outbreaks.
May 18, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, May 17 (UPI) -- Tracking environmental changes in the climate and the ocean has brought about a sea change in understanding cholera, enabling scientists to develop early-warning systems to alert...

Eat To Live: Careful with the grapefruit.
May 18, 2006... Byline: JULIA WATSON WASHINGTON, May 18 (UPI) -- Furanocoumarins is not a paradise holiday boat key on some South American beach. But it is a name to remember. Apparently high amounts of the stuff have been found in grapefruit juice....

Analysis: Hope for Neurocrine's indiplon.
May 18, 2006... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, May 18 (UPI) -- Analysts downgraded Neurocrine after its potential insomnia treatment indiplon was rejected by the Food and Drug Administration this week, but some still expect the drug to be approved...

How to build healthier communities.
May 18, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, May 18 (UPI) -- The United States has engineered a non-walkable, automobile-dependent society that may contribute to health problems such as obesity and depression, according to an environmental...

Ped Med: Screening for teen depression.
May 18, 2006... Byline: LIDIA WASOWICZ SAN FRANCISCO, May 18 (UPI) -- As part of a plan for preventing teen suicides, a presidential task force has recommended school screening of youngsters for tell-tale signs of emotional and behavioral trouble. ...

Analysis: Anti-cancer tour de Congress.
May 19, 2006... Byline: OLGA PIERCE WASHINGTON, May 17 (UPI) -- Flanked by cancer survivors from all 50 states, champion cyclist and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong called on Congress to increase funding for cancer programs Wednesday. "In the past 30...

Analysis: Panel backs cancer vaccine.
May 19, 2006... Byline: TODD ZWILLICH WASHINGTON, May 18 (UPI) -- Food and Drug Administration advisors strongly backed U.S. approval of the first cervical cancer vaccine Thursday. The vaccine, called Gardasil, was nearly 100 percent successful in...

Analysis: Cures for disease neglect.
May 19, 2006... Byline: OLGA PIERCE WASHINGTON, May 19 (UPI) -- Neglected diseases -- diseases that are widespread and destructive but affect primarily the world's poor and thus attract little research investment in cures -- kill and sicken millions every...

Caregiving: Who steals a wheelchair? -- 2.
May 19, 2006... Byline: ALEX CUKAN ALBANY, N.Y., May 19 (UPI) -- Most thefts of wheelchairs are crimes of opportunity -- a wheelchair is left on a porch and someone takes it -- but some people carefully plan the heist of the more expensive motorized...

Analysis: FDA to deny Celgene's Thalomid?
May 19, 2006... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, May 19 (UPI) -- Some analysts think Celgene's Thalomid may not win an expanded indication from the Food and Drug Administration when the agency's review data expires later this month, but that still may...

Analysis:Medicare HMO cost varies, study.
May 20, 2006... Byline: OLGA PIERCE WASHINGTON, May 19 (UPI) -- For many seniors, Medicare managed care plans, collectively known as Medicare Advantage, offer lower premiums, greater choice and more coordinated care. The catch is that for some --...

Analysis: Combo first for blood pressure.
May 20, 2006... Byline: ED SUSMAN NEW YORK, May 19 (UPI) -- The take home message for doctors who treat the 65 million Americans with high blood pressure: Start with combination therapy because that gets blood pressure to normal levels, fast and safely....

Analysis: Botox, stem cells help bladder.
May 22, 2006... Byline: ED SUSMAN ATLANTA, May 21 (UPI) -- Researchers suggested Thi week that incontinence caused by so-called "overactive bladder" or age-related failure of muscles that control urination may be successfully treated with new innovative...

Eat To Live: A spoonful of chewing gum?
May 22, 2006... Byline: JULIA WATSON WASHINGTON, May 22 (UPI) -- Stomach ache? Not too far in the future, the remedy could be, "Chew gum." Already if you want white teeth, chewing gum promises a set of glistening gnashers. The ancient confectionery,...

Eat To Live: New rules for schools.
May 22, 2006... Byline: JULIA WATSON LONDON, May 22 (UPI) -- With the increase in obesity levels among children rising to alarming levels, the British government has introduced some extraordinary measures. They've gone back to the past. Before it was...

Analysis: Will Gardasil nod boost rival?
May 22, 2006... Byline: STEVE MITCHELL WASHINGTON, May 22 (UPI) -- Last week's recommendation from a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel that Merck's cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil should be approved may also be a win for GlaxoSmithKline's...

Bipolar disorder risks revealed.
May 22, 2006... Byline: CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE WASHINGTON, May 22 (UPI) -- People with untreatable depression who feel others are unfriendly toward them may be exhibiting signs of bipolar disorder, researchers reported Monday. Other possible warning...

Analysis:Bladder cancer screens needed?
May 23, 2006... Byline: ED SUSMAN ATLANTA, May 23 (UPI) -- Researchers this week urged the federal government to undertake a large, national test to determine if screening for bladder cancer among people with no symptoms can save lives. A 14-year-long...