Uninsured RX

It is "too soon to celebrate" reports that Medicaid spending declined by 1.4% in the first nine months of 2006 -- the first-ever decrease in spending for the program since it began in 1965 -- but "it's encouraging that there are new ideas for controlling medical costs without reverting to pre-1965 privations," a [click link for full article]

"Changing the Medicare prescription drug benefit based on inaccurate and misleading information will only hurt beneficiaries," Ken Johnson, senior vice president of PhRMA writes in a Chicago Sun-Times letter to the editor. Johnson's letter is in response to a Nov. [click link for full article]

Biolex Therapeutics have announced results published in Nature Biotechnology demonstrating the ability of its proprietary LEX SystemSM to produce monoclonal antibodies that have enhanced in vitro potency and efficacy. The research was conducted by scientists from Biolex and Medarex as part of an ongoing collaboration between the two companies. [click link for full article]

Detroit Medical Center and Wayne State University on Wednesday agreed to a three-and-a-half-year contract that will provide $76 million annually for the medical school and implement pay-for-performance systems at DMC's eight hospitals, the Detroit News reports. [click link for full article]

The retrial for human rights advocate Chen Guangcheng -- who was arrested in China after attempting to bring a class-action lawsuit against the government for alleged human rights abuses associated with the enforcement of the country's one-child-per-family policy -- ended on Monday with no verdict, the AP/ABC News reports (Ang, AP/ABC News, 11/27). [click link for full article]

The Washington Post on Tuesday profiled Sidney Zion, a lawyer and journalist whose daughter's death in a New York emergency department in 1984 prompted him to seek a series of reforms in teaching hospitals "that have revolutionized modern medical education. [click link for full article]

In a letter sent to congressional leaders on Nov. 17, the Government Accountability Office made several recommendations for the 110th Congress, including that lawmakers should overhaul entitlement programs, CQ HealthBeat reports. [click link for full article]

Should terminally ill patients be allowed access to drugs not approved by the Food and Drug Administration? That is the question a panel of experts will discuss and debate at a landmark Colloquium, Whose Life Is It, Anyway?, sponsored by the Food and Drug Law Institute (FDLI), Feb. 27, 2007, in Washington, D.C. This meeting is the first in a series of colloquia to be sponsored by FDLI in upcoming months. [click link for full article]

When it's your job to make medical equipment purchases, you want to be sure you're making well-informed decisions. ECRI, an independent health services research agency, is here to help. ECRI's Health Devices International Sourcebase and 2007 Health Devices Sourcebook are now available with critical information needed by healthcare materials managers, purchasers, and biomedical engineers. [click link for full article]

Title: Heavy Findings in Fitness, Weight Poll
Category: Health News
Created: 11/30/2006
Last Editorial Review: 11/30/2006