Current medical news and unique business news for anyone who cares about healthcare.
“Flexibility” given to states in choosing benefits for HIEs. The Department of Health and Human Services took its first steps toward defining minimum health benefits required to be sold in state-based health insurance exchanges by 2014 on Friday, but the results weren’t too helpful.
Ten essential benefit categories were spelled out in the healthcare reform bill in 2010, but details were left to the HHS, who in turned passed on the decision-making duties to individual states in a guidance issued Friday.
This is the Obama administration’s attempt to deflect right-wing criticism that it’s imposing a rigid, one-size-fits-all health system on the U.S. and usurping states’ rights.
A last-minute “doc fix.” The House is expected this week to pass a two-month “doc fix” OK’ed by the Senate on Saturday. Passed as part of a larger bill, the measure would hold Medicare reimbursements at their current rates through the end of February. If passed, it would be a short-term fix to cuts in reimbursement (mandated by the sustainable growth model) that are scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1.
Scaled-down heart pump for kids cleared in U.S. The first heart pump for children has been given the OK by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Germany-based Berlin Heart’s ventricular assist device, Excor, does the work of a heart, giving children who are too small to receive an implant another treatment option.
Gingrich fins GOP, EHRs don’t mix. Now that he’s a front-runner in the race for the GOP presidential nod, Newt Gingrich is appealing to Republican voters who are wary of federal government’s spending and involvement in healthcare by downplaying health IT in his new proposal for a brain science initiative. In 2009, he was a vocal supporter of a portion of the health reform bill that promoted the use of EHRs.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Who do you trust more — your phone or your computer? My, my. It seems consumers are more apt to search for information on more private health and medical concerns on their mobile devices than on their computers. The top-searched terms on mobile devices this year? Chlamydia, bipolar disorder and depression.
Sharer’s legacy? Mediocrity? The name Kevin Sharer won’t be written in history books anywhere, says Luke Timmerman, giving the Amgen CEO who’s retiring next year an overall grade of “C.” At least he won’t be written with Mitch Gold as one of the worst CEOs in bitoech…
