By Bruce Japsen | U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will push health and insurance reforms in Chicago this afternoon before speaking to more than 3,000 attendees at the National Council on Aging’s Aging in America conference.
The Obama administration and Democratic leaders in Congress are making final pushes this week across the country to build public support for health care legislation that could see a historic vote in the U.S. House of Representatives by the end of the week.
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Sebelius in Chicago to talk health care reform
Study: Abbott mini clip safer than valve surgery
Associated Press | Many Americans with leaky heart valves soon might be able to get them fixed without open-heart surgery. A study showed that a tiny clip implanted through an artery was safer and nearly as effective as surgery, doctors reported Sunday.
The device is already on sale in Europe, and its maker, Abbott Laboratories, hopes to win approval to sell it in the United States next year. Elizabeth Taylor reportedly got one last fall – the 77-year-old actress told fans about it on Twitter.
Obama to focus on health care reform, delay trip
President Barack Obama’s long-promised trip to Indonesia, where he spent some time as a boy, will be delayed by the ongoing fight over health care reform at home.
Get the full story at the Tribune’s Swamp blog.
Abbott to take center stage at heart conference
Dow Jones Newswires | A veteran Abbott Laboratories cholesterol drug and a new Abbott
heart-repair tool will take center stage at a major heart conference
this weekend, with data that could disturb the company’s perch in one
market but smooth its path to another.
The American College of Cardiology’s roster of top trials includes
Accord, a large government-funded study that tests adding Abbott’s drug
TriCor to a generic cholesterol drug, which some analysts think will
yield mixed results. Another trial, called Everest II, examines an
Abbott-made tool designed to repair faulty heart valves without major
surgery, which could open up a big market.
Health insurance premium hikes alarm Congress
By Bruce Japsen | A bill that would require health plans to submit their rate increases to government regulators before they take effect is gaining momentum in Congress.
The Health Insurance Rate Authority Act of 2010 was introduced this week by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) to give Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius “the authority to deny or modify premium and rate increases found to be unreasonable.”
Health care fraud: Rush to pay $1.5 million
By Bruce Japsen
| Rush University Medical Center agreed this afternoon to pay a $1.5
million settlement to resolve allegations of defrauding the federal
Medicare health insurance program for the elderly.
The U.S. Justice Department said Rush submitted false claims to Medicare
from 2000 to 2007 by entering into improper lease agreements with two
individual doctors and three group practices in violation of the
so-called “Stark Law,” which prohibits a hospital from making money off
of patient referrals made by a doctor “with whom the hospital has an
improper financial arrangement.”
Sebelius continues to criticize Illinois Blue Cross
President Barack Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Mar. 8. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
By Bruce Japsen
| The Obama administration’s top health official this afternoon stepped up
scrutiny of rate increases by the parent of Blue Cross and Blue Shield
of Illinois and four other large health plans, urging them to “publicly
justify premium hikes.”
“If insurance companies are going to raise rates, the least they can do
is tell us why,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
said on a conference call this afternoon with reporters. “I asked CEOs
to post online the actuarial justification for premium hikes so
consumers can see why their premiums are skyrocketing.”
Female health: Moderate drinkers gain less weight
(Warren Skalski/Chicago Tribune)
The New York Times | An article in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that women who regularly consume moderate amounts of alcohol are less likely to gain weight than nondrinkers and are at lower risk for obesity. The article cited a study by Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, which tracked female drinking habits over 13 years. The study found that 41 percent of the women became overweight or obese. The risk of becoming overweight was almost 30 percent lower for women who consumed one or two alcohol beverages a day, compared with nondrinkers.
Get the full story: nytimes.com.
Obama appeals for public support on health care
(Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
Associated Press | President Barack Obama accused insurance companies of placing profits over people and said Republicans ignored long-festering problems when they held power as he sought to build support Monday for swift passage of legislation stalled in Congress.
“Let’s seize reform, the need is great,” Obama said at an appearance that had the feel of a campaign rally. The president said dismissively that Republican critics in Congress say they want to do something about rising health care costs, but said they did not when they held power. “You had 10 years. What happened. What were you doing?” he said to applause from an audience at Arcadia University.
Sebelius wants health plans to justify rate increases
Sebelius: People are worried “they’re next” in line for rate increases by private insurance companies. (Brendan Hoffman/Bloomberg)
Dow Jones Newswires | U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sat down with top executives from the parent of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois and four other health-insurance companies at the White House Thursday, the latest step in the Obama administration’s effort to confront rising premium rates.
“The meeting was really focused on what is happening with the kind of jaw-dropping rate increases that people are seeing particularly in the individual and small-group market,” Sebelius told Dow Jones reporters following the session.
Individual health plan costs soar in Illinois
By Bruce Japsen | Consumers in Illinois who lose their jobs and have no other option but to buy their own health insurance will get socked this year with premium increases of up to 60 percent, according to state records.
That group of consumers has been growing, as the recession has created more uninsured Americans looking for ways to protect themselves and their families. Now, Illinois consumers will get a glimpse into just how wide-ranging rate increases among individual health plans can be. The data, obtained by the Tribune, also provide a window into the overall trend of premium increases at large and small employers.
For the state’s more than half-million consumers in individual health plans, base rates will go up from 8.5 percent to more than 60 percent, according to state data. Base rates do not take into consideration health status, gender, age, place of residence and length of a policy — all factors that could raise premiums further.
Get the full story: chicagotribune.com/business
University of Chicago hospital sees higher profits
From Crain’s Chicago Business | The University of Chicago Medical Center’s controversial program to redirect routine cases in favor of more-complex ones has produced a sharp drop in emergency room visits — and a big boost to its bottom line. U of C Medical Center posted an operating profit of $24.3 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, more than double the amount in the same period a year earlier, according to a financial statement recently posted on its Web site. The profit growth comes even as the Hyde Park hospital treated fewer patients.
Get the full story: chicagobusiness.com.
Pfizer Alzheimer’s disease drug fails in study
Associated Press | A promising experimental Alzheimer’s disease drug worked no better than a placebo in a late-stage study, an unexpected disappointment after the potential blockbuster stopped symptoms from worsening for a year in a prior test. Pfizer Inc. and partner Medivation Inc. are developing the drug, called Dimebon.
Dimebon failed to meet its primary and secondary goals — improving thinking ability and overall daily function over six months in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease, Pfizer and Medivation said on Wednesday.
The news sent shares of Medivation and Pfizer down.
FDA announces “urgent recall” of Baxter product
By Bruce Japsen | Baxter International Inc. said it is recalling an in-home dialysis
device that has been linked to serious injury reports and at least one
death in the last two years, the company said.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has classified the recall as a
Class I recall, the agency’s most serious, for Baxter’s HomeChoice and
HomeChoice Pro peritoneal dialysis cyclers because the device is causing
an “overfill” of fluid in the patient’s abdomen.
Walgreens told to pay for error that led to stroke
ABC News | A Florida appeals court has upheld a $28.5 million judgment against Walgreens over an error by a teenage pharmacy technician that resulted in a mother of three receiving blood thinner pills with a dosage ten times greater than prescribed.
Beth Hippely of Lakeland, Florida, suffered a massive, crippling stroke after taking the pills and was forced to stop treatment for early stage breast cancer. She died in 2007, before the case went to trial.
The judgment against Walgreens was one of the largest ever because of a prescription error and the appeals court upheld it without comment last Friday.
