http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (HealthDay)—Members of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and other medical associations are urging further consideration of Section 9003 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) that requires holders of tax-preferred health care accounts to obtain a physician's prescription to use funds from those accounts to pay for over-the-counter (OTC) medications. The concerns have been laid out in a letter to the chair and the ranking member of the House Committee on Ways and Means. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-renewed-efforts-aafp-repeal-otc.html Health Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:50:01 EST news286548086 A major challenge facing today's health care community is to find ways to lower costs without compromising clinical quality. Taking that challenge to task, researchers at Medstar Health and Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington DC, report success in using a concept called "value-based analysis," which simultaneously measures quality and cost and addresses inefficiencies in care. The researchers applied a value-based analysis approach to implementing a single best practice for preventing deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in surgical patients and were able to reduce hospital costs in excess of $1.5 million per year. The study appears in the April issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-dvt-hospital-million-annually.html Surgery Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:00:07 EST news284823842 Spectator sports and food—often high-calorie or low-nutrition—have long gone hand-in-hand, yet FDA regulations geared toward calorie transparency at restaurant chains ignore this relationship. Popular fast-food restaurants soon will be required to post calorie counts, but concession stands at major sports facilities and many sports bars will not. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-expert-sport-food-strong.html Health Tue, 05 Feb 2013 07:10:01 EST news279267731 (HealthDay)—Family physicians who see Medicaid patients and are entitled to enhanced payment will get their pay, although it is likely to be delayed. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-family-docs-due-jan-retroactive.html Health Wed, 16 Jan 2013 13:50:01 EST news277565359 (HealthDay)—The Obama administration is giving states additional time to set up so-called health insurance exchanges, a key element of the 2010 health reform law designed to bring coverage to an estimated 30 million Americans who don't have insurance. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-states-health-exchanges.html Health Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:40:01 EST news277477898 (HealthDay)—The top five issues that will impact physicians and patients in 2013 have been identified, according to a report published Dec. 10 by The Physicians Foundation. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-issues-docs-patients.html Health Mon, 14 Jan 2013 12:55:16 EST news277390498 (HealthDay)—Half of the states in the nation have rebuffed a key provision of the Obama administration's health reform law: the creation of state-based health insurance exchanges, according to data compiled by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-states-health-exchanges_1.html Health Tue, 18 Dec 2012 18:40:02 EST news275076519 The federal government has asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta and other religious institutions seeking to overturn a provision in the federal health care law that requires group health plans to provide free birth control. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-feds-religious-birth-lawsuit.html Health Tue, 11 Dec 2012 11:20:04 EST news274447194 (HealthDay)—There has been a recent increase in the percentage of workers in the private sector who are enrolled in self-insured health plans, in which the employer assumes the financial risk related to health insurance (unlike a fully-insured plan, where the insurance company assumes the risk), according to research published in the November issue of the Employee Benefit Research Institute's Notes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-workers-self-insured-health.html Health Tue, 04 Dec 2012 12:30:01 EST news273845636 A study of postdischarge (PD) complications after general surgery procedures found that overall, 16.7 percent of patients experienced a complication and 41.5 percent of complications occurred PD, according to a report published in the November issue of Archives of Surgery. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-postdischarge-complications-surgery.html Surgery Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:00:05 EST news272562292 Many health care systems across the US have declined to participate in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) Accountable Care Organization (ACO) program, developed under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), to improve efficiency and quality of health care delivery. In a groundbreaking collection of commentaries in the current issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, representatives of six leading health care organizations write about the challenges of reducing health care costs while improving health care quality. They further explain why they did or did not choose to participate in one of the two models now operational at CMS. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-hcos-opportunities-quest-quality.html Health Thu, 02 Aug 2012 00:00:02 EST news263057500 The recent Supreme Court decision on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has cleared the way for national requirements about posting nutritional information at chain restaurants. Listing calories, fat content, and sodium levels of menu items at the point of purchase has been promoted as a way to address the obesity epidemic. Increased awareness may lead to healthier consumer choices, and may encourage restaurants to adapt their menus to meet demand. A new study has evaluated the real-life impact of menu labeling in King County, Washington, after new regulations were implemented, and has found some improvement, although most entrées continue to exceed recommended nutritional guidelines. The study is available online in advance of publication in the August issue of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-menu-requirements-healthier-options-chain.html Health Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:50:01 EST news261916221 The federal government has committed $11 billion to expand the operating capacity of Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC), which receive federal funding and enhanced Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement, and "look-alike" clinics that receive enhanced reimbursement but no federal grants. These clinics, which serve primarily the poor and uninsured, are expected to be part of the solution to anticipated primary care shortages, as up to 32 million currently uninsured people begin to seek health care as a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Despite concerns that these clinics may provide less effective care because they serve more medically and socially complex patients, a new study has found that they are as effective as private primary care practices, and better on some quality measures. The study is published in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-federally-funded-clinics-low-income-patients.html Health Tue, 10 Jul 2012 00:00:03 EST news261073587 (Medical Xpress) -- With the U.S. Supreme Court decision looming on the fate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) – informally known as Obamacare – two Texas Tech University researchers and a former colleague have published research that shows a similar plan implemented by Mitt Romney in Massachusetts did not work well for hospital productivity in the short term. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-country-outcome-obama-health-reform.html Health Wed, 27 Jun 2012 05:27:00 EST news259993534 The ethical principles that have for centuries shaped the relationship between patient and physician should also guide legislators, regulators -- and justices of the highest court -- charged with crafting U.S. health care policies that demarcate the boundaries of a physician's business practice, an Indiana University professor argues. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-ethics-health-policy-reform-physician-owned.html Health Wed, 20 Jun 2012 13:09:21 EST news259416554 Nine out of 10 Californians under the age of 65 will be enrolled in health insurance programs as a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to a joint study by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-non-elderly-californians.html Health Thu, 14 Jun 2012 13:37:17 EST news258899801 More involvement by patients, clinicians and others in the health care community in developing comparative clinical effectiveness research studies will make such studies far more useful in clinical decision-making, according to the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, in an article published in the April 18 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on comparative effectiveness research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-greater-patient-clinician-involvement-clinical.html Health Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:10:01 EST news253878701 The Texas Medical Board on Friday approved new rules on experimental stem cell therapies such as the one Gov. Rick Perry underwent during back surgery last year, despite objections they don't do enough to protect patients and could led to an explosion of doctors promoting unproven, expensive treatments. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-texas-oks-experimental-stem-cell.html Health Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:10:02 EST news253552163 Recent changes in health insurance status were linked to greater emergency department use by newly insured and newly uninsured adults, according to a study published Online First by Archives of Internal Medicine. The article is part of the journal's Health Care Reform series. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-health-status-linked-greater-emergency.html Health Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:00:03 EST news251986115 US President Barack Obama's landmark health reform faces a make-or-break test in the Supreme Court next week in a historic case likely to shape the nation's future political landscape. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-obama-health-reform-supreme-court.html Health Fri, 23 Mar 2012 04:30:01 EST news251695007 (Medical Xpress) -- Even a $10 increase in premiums can drive people to a different health care plan. That's good news for health care reform, which relies heavily on competition and consumer response to pricing. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-health-slightly-people.html Health Thu, 22 Mar 2012 07:50:31 EST news251621420 Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that laws permitting children to stay on their parents' health insurance through age 26 result in improved access to health care compared to states without those laws. This analysis indicates the potential positive impact of a key provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA). The study appears in the March issue of the journal Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-young-adults-parents-health-access.html Health Mon, 13 Feb 2012 03:30:01 EST news248325629 A simple program involving color-coded food labeling and adjusting the way food items are positioned in display cases was successful in encouraging more healthful food choices in a large hospital cafeteria. The report from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers will appear in the March American Journal of Public Health and has received early online release. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-color-coding-rearranging-food-products-healthy.html Health Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:00:06 EST news246208925 A substantial proportion of emergency department eye care in Florida is reimbursed through Medicaid or paid for out of pocket by patients, and those findings may help in strategic planning as the debate over how best to implement the nation's new health care reform law progresses, according to a study published in the Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-payment-emergency-department-eye-florida.html Other Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:29:12 EST news245348939 The Hastings Center is exploring the ethical challenges that clinicians and organizations face when providing medical care to undocumented immigrants in the United States. The project is supported by a grant from the Overbrook Foundation Domestic Human Rights Program. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-medical-safety-net-undocumented-patients.html Health Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:56:17 EST news237567165 Strong leadership, communication and teamwork are essential to successful organizations, especially health care facilities. However, how those organizations achieve improvement is not clearly understood, says a University of Missouri researcher. Amy Vogelsmeier, assistant professor in the Sinclair School of Nursing, found that leadership is critical to supporting open communication and relationship building to generate improvement, such as enhanced safety practices and new technology adoption, in health care organizations. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-strong-leadership-sophisticated-aging-population.html Health Tue, 13 Sep 2011 12:51:31 EST news235134473 Undocumented children who have access to health insurance are healthier and more engaged in school than those without insurance, according to researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-medical-homes-linked-health-school.html Health Tue, 06 Sep 2011 16:41:40 EST news234546021 A shortage in the number and availability of primary care physicians may continue to mean rising numbers of emergency department visits, despite the expanded health insurance coverage required by the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-barriers-primary-americans-emergency-department.html Health Tue, 09 Aug 2011 09:39:36 EST news232101533 While some members of Congress and others are trying to repeal the healthcare reform law that was passed in 2010, known as the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," medical providers have begun to implement requirements as the law slowly phases in over the next several years. For reform to be successful, one University of Missouri public health expert has determined that professional associations for psychologists and other medical providers need to be at the forefront of the planning stages, and that everyone, including providers and patients, will need to be educated on rights and responsibilities. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-health-care-reform-involve-psychologists-medical.html Health Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:54:26 EST news230482417 Restrictions on eligibility for health care reform programs will result in the potential exclusion of up to 220,000 children from affordable health care coverage in California, according to a new policy brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-california-children-excluded-health-reform.html Health Thu, 30 Jun 2011 13:44:48 EST news228660275