lawmakers news from FierceHealthcare
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Healthcare co-ops losing traction in Senate
The Senate Finance Committee's bill recently gained momentum from the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) favorable cost analysis, but the health insurance co-ops proposed in the bill may be the... Read more...
VT may toughen pharma regulations; Study says tight privacy laws slow EMR adoption;
> Vermont already requires drugmakers to list payments made to physicians, by dollar amounts. Now, lawmakers are looking to close a loophole that allows pharmas to keep some payments private by... Read more...
FDA under fire for $1.5 million morale-boosting contract
There's no doubt that the FDA has been having problems lately. The agency has been accused of not testing drugs thoroughly enough, and of ignoring warnings about drugs until many people had been... Read more...
Senators want info on who paid doctors
While they still haven't passed a law forcing drug companies and medical device firms to disclose payments to doctors--as some influential legislators still hope to do--that doesn't mean lawmakers... Read more...
NJ, PA hospital mistakes not being reported
While hospitals in Pennsylvania and New Jersey are supposed to be reporting serious mistakes, it appears that too often, they aren't doing so. That, at least, is the conclusion drawn by observers in... Read more...
SPOTLIGHT: Broader health coverage could reduce disparities, lawmakers say
SPOTLIGHT... Broader health coverage could reduce disparities, lawmakers sayWhile it wouldn't eliminate health disparities entirely, proposals to expand health insurance to all U.S. residents could... Read more...
CA lawmakers push for tougher plastic surgery rules
Driven in part by the death of the mother of hip-hop star Kanye West, who was getting liposuction and breast implant surgery, California physicians and lawmakers are pushing to tighten up regulation... Read more...
LA bill offers legal protections for MD care during emergencies
The Louisiana state legislature is close to passing a package of bills that would protect medical professionals from lawsuits arising from care delivered during declared emergencies. Two of the bills... Read more...
Serious nursing home quality problems still exist
According to new Congressional testimony by officials from the HHS inspector general's office, care at many nursing homes is actually dangerous to patients, despite ongoing efforts by CMS to identify... Read more...
Study: Nursing homes benefit from culture changes
Nursing homes that change their culture to make care more resident-directed, foster staff autonomy and make the facility function more like a home than hospital do better on several measures of... Read more...
