http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. An additional 1,000 patients could undergo kidney transplants in the United States annually if hospitals performed more transplants using paired kidney exchanges, new Johns Hopkins research suggests. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-years-growth-transplants-kidney-chains.html Surgery Tue, 12 Mar 2013 11:23:00 EST news282306174 The traditional Medicare program allocates only 1 percent of total spending to overhead compared with 6 percent when the privatized portion of Medicare, known as Medicare Advantage, is included, according to a study in the June 2013 issue of the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-straight-medicare-overhead.html Health Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:11:27 EST news280584679 Consumers saw nearly $1.5 billion in insurer rebates and overhead cost savings in 2011, due to the Affordable Care Act's medical loss ratio provision requiring health insurers to spend at least 80 percent of premium dollars on health care or quality improvement activities or pay a rebate to their customers, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report. Consumers with individual policies saw substantially reduced premiums when insurers reduced both administrative costs and profits to meet the new standards. While insurers in the small- and large-group markets achieved lower administrative costs, not all of these savings were passed on to employers and consumers, as many insurers increased profits in these markets. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-consumers-benefitted-billion-aca-medical.html Health Wed, 05 Dec 2012 04:39:15 EST news273904723 Denmark said Saturday it would scrap a fat tax it introduced a little over a year ago in a world first, saying the measure was costly and failed to change Danes' eating habits. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-denmark-scrap-world-fat-tax.html Health Sat, 10 Nov 2012 13:37:22 EST news271776994 Offering the option of government coverage to workers and their families has become one of the most contentious issues in the debate about overhauling health care to cover the uninsured and curb costs. Obama has proposed a public plan, and liberals insist it be part of any final deal. Conservatives and businesses fear that could open the door for a government takeover of the system. http://medicalxpress.com/news159019833.html Health Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:11:06 EST news159019833