senate news from FierceHealthcare

The state of Illinois is considering a bill that would set limits on what hospitals would be allowed to charge and collect from eligible uninsured patients. Under the terms of the bill, which was Read more...

While its peers appear to be firmly opposed to such rules, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly has decided to support federal legislation that would require drugmakers to disclose payments to doctors. Read more...

> Critics are urging Alabama's governor to work changes in the state's process for approving new healthcare beds. Read more...

As FierceHealthcare readers know, researchers soon hope to tailor treatments to patients based on their genetic profile. The thing is, it will be hard to do that if patients are reluctant to take Read more...

It's never fun to be reminded that big quality gaps still exist in our healthcare system. It's even more troubling to learn, Read more...

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a bill designed to give the FDA more money and more authority to monitor and enforce drug safety rules. The bill, which is expected to pass the Senate Read more...

> Michigan hospital regulators have re-affirmed rules which require hospitals to perform at least 300 open-heart surgeries a year to maintain their programs. Read more...

> Despite facing the threat of a veto from President Bush, the U.S. Senate agreed to add 3 million children from lower-income families to SCHIP. Read more...

> HHS has awarded $430 million to states to improve hospitals' ability to respond to mass casualties. Article

> Louisiana State University's New Orleans-based nursing school has received a grant designed to help it train nurse anesthetists. Article

> North …

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A bill making the rounds in the U.S. Senate would open up Medicare data to private organizations that want to use it for research and analysis. The bill, sponsored by Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Judd Gregg (R-NJ), would make claims, enrollment, survey, assessment and other available to private groups hoping to measure care quality, efficiency and effectiveness. Other stakeholders would then have the right to request reports from the research organizations. The research organizations …

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