Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives managed to squeak out a healthcare reform victory (220-215) late Saturday evening, after ratifying the Stupak-Pitts Amendment that will prohibit abortion funding for both the public option and affordability credits.
Ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, has sent a letter to 10 health IT companies requesting consumer complaint information about their health IT products.
The medical devices industry is lobbying heavily to reduce a projected $4 billion annual tax on medical device makers included in the Senate Finance Committee healthcare reform bill, according to media reports.
The Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., issued its long-awaited America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009 on Wednesday, which would cost $856 billion over 10 years, and is scheduled to begin committee action on Sept. 22.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, led by Chairman Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., introduced legislation this week advocating for more government involvement in healthcare coverage. The bill is certain to launch a drawn-out debate over the current delivery direction of healthcare in the United States when it is introduced on the Senate floor in July.
Imaging provisions contained in the Senate Finance Committee's proposals for healthcare delivery reform are "forward-thinking" policies that will ensure proper diagnostic imaging utilization over the long term, according to the Access to Medical Imaging Coalition (AMIC).
The House of Representatives this week voted 289-139 to approve a bill renewing and expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to about four million additional children in the United States.
In a letter to Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt, congressional committee representatives from the House and Senate called on the agency to immediately rescind the December 2007 income eligibility caps on Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) that denied Ohio's request to extend health coverage to more children.
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Democrats from the U.S. House of Representatives on Oct. 30 unveiled a revised healthcare reform proposal—H.R. 3692, the Affordable Health Care for America Act—which the Congressional Budget Office estimated carries an $894 billion price tag for the federal government.
The Senate Finance Committee voted today in favor of its version of proposed healthcare reform legislation in a 14-9 vote, including the approval of Olympia Snowe, R.-Me.
The recession has put more people on Medicaid and sharply increased state spending on the program, forcing state officials to cut costs even with help coming from the federal government through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., introduced legislation to establish a private, nonprofit corporation that will research and compare clinical outcomes of alternative therapies and health strategies.
An average of 14,000 Americans lose health coverage each day, healthcare insurance premiums grow more than three times faster than wages and physician reimbursement has declined by more than 20 percent in the past eight years. Couple these sad statistics with a demographic shift that will see an ever increasing number of U.S. citizens eligible for, and needing services from, Medicare and it becomes clear that present healthcare delivery policies are quickly becoming fiscally unsustainable.
In the first of three roundtables on healthcare delivery system reform held by the Senate Finance Committee, participants this week discussed increasing primary care physician payments by reducing payments to imaging services providers.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., released a “Call to Action” plan on Wednesday, detailing his vision for health reform in the 111th Congress, which highlights access to care, unsustainable costs and a lack of quality assurances that currently plague the U.S. healthcare system.
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Using an advanced massive-training artificial neural network, computer-aided detection (CAD) scheme, radiologists were able to improve their polyp detection rate and reduce the number of false positives in CT colonography, based on a study presented at the 2009 Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual conference in Chicago.
Organizations should act prior to the implementation of the new (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) HIPAA compliance guideline changes for 2010 and consistently monitor their facilities in order to make an easier transition and avoid the extended penalties that are now being proposed, said HIPAA privacy and security consult Grant Peterson during a Jan. 13 Webinar on the guidelines.