Uninsured RX

The number of companies offering nationwide Medicare drug benefit to US seniors and disabled people will increase from 9 to 17, say officials. Several new regional companies will also offer coverage. Those who are satisfied with their current coverage will not have to do anything when the new period for open enrollment starts on November 15th.However, even if you are happy with your present coverage, it may not be a bad idea to compare what you have with what will be available. [click link for full article]

UQ's School of Medicine is delving into nearly a decade of statistics to reveal how well its medical students are selected, educated and how they perform as they train to become doctors.Researchers with the three-year [click link for full article]

Nastech Pharmaceutical Company Inc. (Nasdaq: NSTK) announced today it has submitted a complete response to the FDA's Office of Generic Drugs regarding the potential for immunogenicity that might result from a possible interaction between calcitonin-salmon and chlorobutanol, the preservative in Nastech's salmon calcitonin nasal spray formulation. [click link for full article]

Arbios Systems, Inc. (OTC: ABOS) announced today that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has allowed expansion of the eligibility criteria for the ongoing clinical trial of its SEPET(TM) Liver Assist Device to include patients with hepatic encephalopathy due to combined liver and kidney (renal) failure. [click link for full article]

Researchers will report tomorrow results of a follow-on study of the first non-invasive, diabetes-screening device that was able to significantly outperform the fasting plasma glucose (FPG) test and the A1C test for identifying diabetes and pre-diabetes in individuals with one or more known risk factors for the disease. [click link for full article]

Workers at the USA's largest private-sector firms pay health insurance deductibles that are about half as expensive as those paid by workers at the smallest companies, according to a report by HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Employees of companies with 1,000 or more workers paid $859, on average, to meet their deductible for family-plan coverage in 2004, compared with $1,779 paid by workers in firms with fewer than 10 employees, the report found. [click link for full article]

Researchers at Rush University Medical Center are testing a new treatment for migraine headaches: occipital nerve stimulation, a surgical procedure in which an implanted neurostimulator delivers electrical impulses to nerves under the skin at the base of the head at the back of the neck.This therapy may help migraine sufferers who do not respond to other available therapies, or who cannot tolerate the side effects of existing medications. [click link for full article]

Bills that would promote the adoption of health care information technology and address a scheduled cut in Medicare reimbursement to physicians "appeared to be just hobbling along Tuesday afternoon," CQ HealthBeat reports (Reichard [1], CQ HealthBeat, 9/26). The health care IT bill ( [click link for full article]

A USA Today editorial on Wednesday addresses FDA, Wal-Mart and the doughnut hole in the Medicare prescription drug benefit. Summaries of comments appear below.FDA: According to USA Today, a "troubling" recent [click link for full article]

Why canÂ’t Congress do same for Medicare beneficiaries?