June 21, 2010 at 2:58 p.m.
Filed under:
Health care,
Insurance
By Associated Press
People who buy their own health insurance have been hit lately with premium hikes that far exceed increases in premiums for employer-sponsored coverage, according to a new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The nonprofit foundation, which is separate from health insurer Kaiser Permanente, said recent premium hikes requested by insurers for individual coverage averaged 20 percent. Some customers were able to switch plans and pay less, so people paying on their own wound up paying 13 percent more on average. Get the full story »
June 21, 2010 at 8:23 a.m.
Filed under:
Health care,
Pharmaceuticals
By Tribune staff report
Abbott Labs said the FDA today approved its new diagnostic test that allows for earlier detection of HIV. Get the full story »
June 16, 2010 at 8:16 a.m.
Filed under:
Associations/Clubs,
Health care
By Bruce Japsen |
The new president-elect of the American Medical Association promises to
lead the nation’s largest doctor group in a more demanding and
confrontational relationship with members of Congress.
“The AMA is going to be more insistent and a little edgier with its
relationships with Congress and the administration in demanding some of
the things we doctors need,” Dr. Peter Carmel, who won a hotly
contested election earlier this week to become the AMA’s
president-elect, said in an interview with the
Tribune.
Get the full story »
June 16, 2010 at 7:50 a.m.
Filed under:
Health care,
Pharmaceuticals
Associated Press | Federal health experts meet this week to
review the first pill designed to boost the female sex drive, more than
a decade after Pfizer’s drug Viagra sparked the search for a female
counterpart.
Get the full story »
June 16, 2010 at 6:00 a.m.
Filed under:
Health care,
Pharmaceuticals
Dow Jones Newswires | Abbott Laboratories has agreed to pay as
much as $575 million as part of a deal to help develop and
commercialize Neurocrine Biosciences Inc.’s endometriosis treatment.
Get the full story »
June 15, 2010 at 12:12 p.m.
Filed under:
Associations/Clubs,
Conventions,
Health care
By Bruce Japsen | The
American Medical Association’s policy-making House of Delegates elected
pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Peter Carmel as president-elect after a rare
three-way battle for the group’s top post.
Carmel, who practices in New York and New Jersey, was elected in a
run-off needed after a vote among three candidates did not produce a
clear-cut winnter. In the run-off, Carmel beat back a challenge from Dr.
Joseph Heyman, an obstetrician from Amesbury, Mass.
Get the full story »
June 15, 2010 at 5:59 a.m.
Filed under:
Health care,
Insurance,
Pharmaceuticals
Dow Jones Newswires/Wall Street Journal | Walgreen Co. is “willing to honor” existing pricing terms for patients
currently under contract with CVS Caremark Corp.’s pharmacy-benefit
manager unit, leaving open the possibility that some of those patients
may still be able to fill their prescriptions at Walgreen stores after
July 9, according to an email from Hal F. Rosenbluth, Walgreen’s health
and wellness president.
Get the full story »
June 14, 2010 at 2:59 p.m.
Filed under:
Associations/Clubs,
Health care
By Bruce Japsen | One in five medical claims are processed inaccurately by the nation’s
largest health insurers, slowing payments to doctors and causing
confusion for consumers, the American Medical Association said Monday.
In a report released during the AMA’s annual meeting in Chicago, the
national doctors group said making claims processing 100 percent
accurate would save the health care system $15 billion largely by making
health care more efficient and by reducing administrative costs.
Get the full story »
June 14, 2010 at 8:58 a.m.
Filed under:
Associations/Clubs,
Health care,
Insurance
By Bruce Japsen | One in five medical claims is processed inaccurately by some of the nation’s health insurers, the American Medical Association said in a report this morning.
The report, released during the AMA’s annual meeting in Chicago, said such claims processing errors cost the health care system billions of dollars. They also slow payments to physicians and often confuse consumers.
Get the full story »
June 14, 2010 at 5:47 a.m.
Filed under:
Health care,
Work culture
Associated Press | Companies that offer employee health
insurance expect another steep jump in medical costs next year, and
more will ask workers to share a bigger chunk of the expense, according
to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers report.
For the first time, most of the American workforce is expected to have
health insurance deductibles of $400 or more, the consulting firm said
in a report released to The Associated Press. Two years ago, only 25
percent of companies participating in the annual
survey said they asked employees to pay deductibles of $400 or more.
That grew to 43 percent in 2010 and is expected to pass 50 percent next
year.
Get the full story »
June 11, 2010 at 2:26 p.m.
Filed under:
Health care,
Pharmaceuticals
Dow Jones Newswires | Three years after pulling a contact-lens
solution from the $1.7 billion global market because it was linked to
damaging eye infections, and then relying on an older version, Abbott
Laboratories’ (ABT) eye-care unit is launching something new.
Called RevitaLens, the multipurpose lens solution for cleaning and
storing lenses gained approval from European regulators in late May.
Abbott is launching the product in select overseas markets this month,
and more fully by year end. Meantime, it hopes for approval from the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the second half of this year.
Get the full story »
June 10, 2010 at 2:14 p.m.
Filed under:
Government,
Health care,
Pharmaceuticals
Associated Press | Federal health experts say a first-of-a-kind
multiple sclerosis drug from Novartis is effective at controlling
tremors, concentration problems and other symptoms of the debilitating
disease.
Swiss drugmaker Novartis has asked the Food and Drug Administration to
approve its drug Gilenia as the first pill for multiple sclerosis. All
existing drugs require frequent injections or infusions.
Get the full story »
June 9, 2010 at 5:35 a.m.
Filed under:
Health care,
M&A
Reuters | Chicago-based healthcare software company Allscripts
said it was to buy rival Eclipsys in a $1.3 billion all-share deal, to
create a leader in electronic healthcare records.
The enlarged group’s client base will include over 180,000 doctors,
1,500 hospitals and nearly 10,000 nursing homes, and be better
positioned to access $30 billion in federal funds for the adoption of
electronic healthcare records, the companies said.
A doctor uses eRx NOW Web-based software from Allscripts to write prescriptions. (Allscripts photo) >>
“We are at the beginning of what we believe will be the fastest
transformation of any industry in U.S. history,” said Allscripts chief
executive Glen Tullman, who will head the merged company. Eclipsys
chief executive Phil Pead will become chairman of the combined group.
Get the full story »
June 8, 2010 at 2:59 p.m.
Filed under:
Health care,
M&A
From Crain’s Chicago Business | The Tennessee-based, for-profit Vanguard Health Systems has received approval from the Illinois Health and Facilities Review Board to buy West Suburban and Westlake Hospitals from Resurrection Health Care. The $40 million deal is expected to close soon.
Read the full story: chicagobusiness.com
