Thirty million women will benefit from the new health reform law over the next decade, either through new or strengthened insurance coverage, according to a new report from The Commonwealth Fund...

The New York Times: "In an unusual move, a state government is developing regulations meant to stop doctors from prescribing higher doses of powerful - and often dangerous - pain killers for patients who are not benefiting from them...

On July 30, 2010, we celebrate 45 years of the Medicare program. In 1964, a year before Medicare was established, almost half of older Americans did not have health insurance, and only a quarter were estimated to have adequate hospital insurance coverage. Now, in 2010, Medicare provides health coverage to over 47 million older Americans and people with disabilities...

The Washington Post: "Opposition to the landmark health care overhaul declined over the past month, to 35 percent from 41 percent, according to the latest results of a tracking poll, reported Thursday...

Several Senate Republican leaders are now pushing a new, partial health-overhaul repeal bill that targets a Medicare cost-cutting panel, The Hill reports. The panel, the Independent Payment Advisory Board, would make cost-cutting recommendations whenever spending exceeds set benchmarks. Congress would have to adopt them, or come up with its own plan. "The Republican critics - Sens...

Aetna President Mark Bertolini said Wednesday that his company has seen much slower sales of national insurance accounts where large employers pay Aetna to administer plans for employees, The Associated Press reports. Under the new health overhaul, Bertolini said he expected less movement in that market because of the uncertainty in the law...

Recognizing that earlier in July, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT released rules outlining which health care providers will get government funding to support their implementation of electronic health record systems (EHR), leaders at the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization say it's time for pro...

The AMA welcomes the Government's introduction of new regulations that require midwives and nurse practitioners to collaborate with medical practitioners in order to provide Medicare-funded services to patients or prescribe them medications under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)...

Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) President and CEO Mark Merritt issued the following statement today on a provision in the U.S...

News outlets report on state budget gaps and lobbying for extra Medicaid funds from the federal government. Bloomberg: "U.S. state governments project revenue will climb in the current fiscal year after they raised taxes and cut spending to close budget gaps of $84 billion, a report from the National Conference of State Legislatures found...

CongressDaily: The Senate Labor-Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee approved a draft funding bill Tuesday for HHS, "moving a bill that would provide $170 billion in discretionary spending to related federal agencies, nearly $1 billion under the president's request...

AARP on Tuesday "threw its influence" behind a number of plans to reduce Medicare fraud, including the bipartisan Medicare Fraud Enforcement and Prevention Act, which would increase penalties on nabbed fraudsters and supply more claims data to enforcers, The Hill reports...

A Fair Exchange The New York Times The battle over health care reform won't end just because Republicans and Democrats find they can cooperate on exchanges...

On Tuesday, the Senate Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee approved by voice vote its draft fiscal year 2011 funding bill, CongressDaily reports. The $732 billion bill would give HHS $306 million more than requested by the White House, which is similar to the funding boost included in the House Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee's bill...

NeurogesX, Inc. (Nasdaq: NGSX), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing novel pain management therapies, announced important progress in the implementation of its reimbursement strategy for Qutenza® (capsaicin) 8% patch. Qutenza is currently available in the United States for the management of neuropathic pain associated with postherpetic neuralgia (PHN)...

Genzyme Corp. (NASDAQ: GENZ) said it welcomed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) decision not to include oral medications without IV equivalents in Medicare's End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) patient benefit. According to the final rule, these medications, including Genzyme's Renvela® (sevelamer carbonate), will not be included in the bundle until January 1, 2014...

Maryland could spend $829 million less than expected on health care between next year and 2020 because of the federal health overhaul law, according to an analysis by a state-convened committee, The Associated Press/Washington Post reports...

The Wall Street Journal: "State governments expect tax collections to grow for the first time in two years as tax increases and a recovering economy lead to higher collections...

Medical Liability Bill Key To Health Reform Roll Call Repealing ObamaCare and reforming our health care system in a responsible manner continues to be our primary goal - a goal that our constituents sent us here to achieve. Thus, we remain committed to passing comprehensive medical liability reform as part of the solution...

The Hill: "The majority of the nation's seniors have little understanding of what the Democrats' newly enacted healthcare law actually does, according to poll results released Monday...