By Shawn Rhea March 14, 2010 The Institute for Safe Medication Practices has developed a set of guidelines aimed at helping providers create drug-prescribing standards for their computerized physician order entry systems. ... FULL STORY
By the Associated Press March 12, 2010 President Barack Obama is postponing his long-scheduled Asian trip for a few days to make a final push for passage of historic legislation reinventing the healthcare system. ... FULL STORY
By Matthew DoBias March 12, 2010 A measure that allows the federal government to make direct loans to students will be paired with the legislation to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system in an effort to both garner additional votes and satisfy the requirements of budgetary reconciliation, House Democrats said after a caucus meeting. ... FULL STORY
By Joseph Conn March 11, 2010 Edge EHR Corp., a Seattle-based developer of an electronic health-record system and practice management system for office-based physicians on the Apple Mac platform, has announced the signing of a “definitive letter of intent” to acquire Goal Software, Green Bay, Wis., according to a news release. ... FULL STORY
By Gregg Blesch March 11, 2010 The U.S. attorney's office in Boston has asked Medtronic to turn over documents in a False Claims Act investigation into the relationship between the company's CoreValve division and cardiologists with the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Mass. ... FULL STORY
By Gregg Blesch March 11, 2010 A jury in Harris County, Texas, rejected antitrust claims leveled against Memorial Hermann Healthcare System by a group of physicians whose competing hospital in Houston failed in 2007. ... FULL STORY
By Shawn Rhea March 11, 2010 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Canadian regulatory agency Health Canada have each approved the importation of molybdenum-99 from the Warsaw, Poland-based Maria Research Reactor for use in producing the imaging isotope technetium-99, according to a news release. ... FULL STORY
By Jennifer Lubell March 11, 2010 The Senate's sweeping health reform bill would cost $875 billion and reduce the deficit by $118 billion over 10 years, according to revised estimates released by the Congressional Budget Office.The newest figures of this bill reflect a slightly higher gross cost than a previous estimate issued by the CBO last December, which tallied the bill at $871 billion—reducing the deficit by $132 billion. ... FULL STORY
By Andis Robeznieks March 10, 2010 Medical schools are not doing an adequate job of teaching “basic knowledge and the development of skills required for the provision of safe patient care,” according to “Unmet Needs: Teaching Physicians to Provide Safe Patient Care,” a report issued by the National Patient Safety Foundation's Lucian Leape Institute. ... FULL STORY
By Jennifer Lubell March 10, 2010 The Senate voted 62-36 to approve a $138 billion bill that would temporarily prevent Medicare payment cuts to doctors as well as extend federal Medicaid assistance and COBRA premium subsidies. ... FULL STORY
By Gregg Blesch March 10, 2010 President Barack Obama plans to announce an expansion of payment recapture audits to fight waste and abuse in Medicare, Medicaid and other government programs. ... FULL STORY
By Jennifer Lubell March 10, 2010 Not-for-profit Inova Health System, Fairfax, Va., has named Ryan Bosch, M.D., as its chief medical information officer. ... FULL STORY
By Shawn Rhea March 09, 2010 Less than a third of medication studies published in top journals provide comparative-effectiveness findings that help doctors choose the best treatments for their patients, and studies that do focus on comparing available treatments are limited in their scope, according to a study published in the March 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. ... FULL STORY
By Gregg Blesch March 09, 2010 Rush University Medical Center agreed to pay $1.5 million to resolve allegations that the 681-bed teaching hospital entered into prohibited lease arrangements for office space provided to two physicians and three practices, the U.S. Justice Department announced. ... FULL STORY
By Jennifer Lubell March 09, 2010 Creating jobs takes precedence over healthcare reform, Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) said during a presentation at the National Association of Health Underwriters' annual Capitol conference. ... FULL STORY
By Matthew DoBias March 09, 2010 A top Democrat distanced the House from a March 18 deadline to pass healthcare overhaul legislation, saying the plan is to move swiftly but not to commit to a specific date. ... FULL STORY
By Matthew DoBias March 08, 2010 The nation's top healthcare official said that hospitals, physicians and other providers would be exempt from having to publicly justify cost increases despite calling on the insurance industry to do so. ... FULL STORY
By Joe Carlson March 08, 2010 Navvis & Co., a St. Louis-based health consultancy, has acquired Tampa, Fla.-based recruitment firm Physician Executive Management Center for an undisclosed sum. ... FULL STORY
By the Associated Press March 08, 2010 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 for swift passage of healthcare legislation. ... FULL STORY
By Vince Galloro March 08, 2010 Wellmont Health Systems, Kingsport, Tenn., said it has hired Troy Sybert, M.D., as its chief medical information officer just a week after it hired a new chief information officer. Sybert will work with that new hire, Kent Petty, and others to implement computerized physician-order entry and an electronic health record at Wellmont's hospitals over the next 18 months, according to the system. ... FULL STORY