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(SENATE) Reid Makes It Official: Senate Dems Will Use Reconciliation to Pass Healthcare
    In a formal letter sent this afternoon (March 11) to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) made it official: He will use a controversial parliamentary procedure -- the reconciliation process -- to pass part of the healthcare reform bill, a process that prevents Republicans from filibustering.
03/11/2010 4:43 PM

(MEN'S HEALTH) Cancer Expert Wants Prostate Test Curtailed
    Doing away with unnecessary lab work is a good way to curb healthcare costs, says Richard Ablin, and one such laboratory procedure is the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, regularly used to screen men for prostate cancer. About two thirds of all prostrate cancers are diagnosed in men age 65 and older.
03/11/2010 4:18 PM

(AHRQ) High Cholesterol, Diabetes Lead Drug Spending for Elderly
    Purchases of cholesterol and diabetes prescription drugs by elderly Medicare beneficiaries reached nearly $19 billion in 2007 (the most recent year for which data are available) -- about one-fourth of the approximately $82 billion spent for medications for the elderly, according to the latest data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
03/11/2010 12:22 PM

(PHILANTHROPY) Communities Benefit from Advocacy, Civic Engagement, Report Shows
    Nonprofits, as well as the communities they serve, benefit enormously through advocacy and civic engagement, says the latest in a series of reports from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). A just-released five-year study finds that vast improvements were made in many areas, including affordable housing, education, environment, human rights and health.
03/11/2010 11:53 AM

(FORUM) Medicare, Private Sector Can Collaborate to Improve Healthcare Quality, Cut Costs, Experts Say
    Medicare has the potential of playing a powerful role in partnership with the private sector in shaping healthcare reform, two experts tell participants at the at a March 10 session of the National Policy Forum of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).
03/10/2010 4:26 PM

(FORUM) Despite Protest, AHIP Panelists Optimistic About Reform
    Although an anti-health-insurance-industry demonstration led by the AFL-CIO filled an entire block March 9 outside the hotel where the National Policy Forum of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) is being held in Washington, DC, the speakers on the first day of the two-day meeting were quite upbeat about the outlook for making progress on genuine healthcare reform.
03/10/2010 4:21 PM

(SLEEP) New Guidelines Emerge for Treatment of Sleep Disorders in the Elderly
    A groundbreaking report from the American Geriatric Society (AGS) finds that clinical intervention for sleep disorders in older adults can successfully treat or improve the quality of sleep in most cases. The guidelines, a first-of-its-kind addressing specifically sleep disorders in the elderly, show a distinct relationship between sleep and other factors such as illness and medications.
03/10/2010 3:47 PM

(SURVEY) Americans Want Congress to Protect Social Security At All Costs
    With the approach of the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Social Security Act this summer, a National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) survey finds that 88% of Americans believe Social Security is more important than ever, especially for older people who need it the most, even if it means paying higher taxes. Of the nearly 1,500 people polled, 90% want Congress to act within the next two years to ensure Social Security benefits continue.
03/09/2010 2:32 PM

(SOCIAL SECURITY) Benefit Checks Now Subject to Debt Collection by Feds
    Social Security checks could soon start getting smaller for tens of thousands of older Americans thanks to a provision in the 2008 Farm Bill. The provision in question lifts the 10-year statute of limitations on the government's ability to withhold Social Security benefits in collecting debts other than student loans -- for which the statute of limitations was lifted in 1997 -- and income taxes, where the limit remains 10 years.
03/09/2010 1:19 PM

(GRANTS) CDC To Divvy Up $3.8M for SIPS Competitive Supplements
    The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) is seeking applicants for its Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research Centers (PRC): Special Interest Project Competitive Supplements (SIPS) program. CDC intends to divvy up some $3.8 among 50 applicants -- all of which have previously applied for and have been selected as Prevention Research Centers under CDC Program Announcement DP-09-001. Letters of intent are due by March 20. The deadline for applications is April 20. Funding awards are expected to be released Sept. 30.
03/08/2010 3:56 PM