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Posted inHealth

Quinnipiac picks St. Vincent’s as primary partner for new medical school

Quinnipiac University has selected St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport to be the principal clinical partner of its new medical school, which is scheduled to begin classes in 2013. Under a five-year agreement between the two institutions, St. Vincent’s medical staff will take part in designing the medical school’s clinical curriculum and academic policies and […]

Posted inHealth

Advisory panel says essential health benefits package must be affordable

The government moved a step closer Friday toward defining what “essential benefits” would be offered by companies selling coverage to millions of Americans in new insurance exchanges. In a 297-page report, the Institute of Medicine, a federal advisory panel, laid out criteria and methods the Department of Health and Human Services should use in developing […]

Posted inHealth

Analysis: Forty percent of Medicare spending on common cancer screenings unnecessary

Forty percent of the money Medicare paid for breast, colon, prostate and cervical cancer screenings during a recent six-year period involved patients considered too old to receive them by an independent government task force, report Rochelle Sharpe and Elizabeth Lucas of the Center for Public Integrity’s iWatch News. That amounted to about $1.9 billion between […]

Posted inHealth

Things may get worse for ‘worst’ hospitals, study warns

Rating the best hospitals has become commonplace, with U.S. News, research firms and various Internet sites routinely issuing detailed rankings. Now some health researchers have come up with a way to evaluate which hospitals are the worst. In a new paper for Health Affairs, Ashish Jha, John Orav and Arnold Epstein classified 3,229 hospitals by quality, using […]

Posted inHealth

Yale researchers analyze 300,000 free throws, say “hot hand” effect is real

The existence of “hot” streaks among athletes–periods of consistent high performance–has been a matter of contention among scientists, some of whom have found that the idea is likely a myth. But after analyzing thousands of free throws taken by National Basketball Association players, Yale School of Medicine researchers say there’s evidence that the “hot hand” […]

Posted inHealth

Healthy People: Nation’s health improved, but disparities persist

Smoking rates decreased, cancer deaths fell and fatal cases of coronary heart disease dropped in the U.S. during the first decade of the 21st century. But racial and ethnic disparities in health persisted, and across the board, obesity grew dramatically, federal and state officials said Thursday during a webinar to review Healthy People 2010, a […]

Posted inHealth, Money

Cafero willing to back Asian panel staffing if personnel questions get answered

The House of Representatives’ top Republican said Wednesday’s he’s willing to drop his opposition to filling two posts in the fledgling advocacy agency for Connecticut’s growing Asian community — if he can get answers to questions that have been brewing for 12 months. House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero of Norwalk said he still doesn’t […]

Posted inHealth

Grant will fund training for unemployed nurses, medical coders, health IT workers

A Hartford-based workforce board is getting $4.98 million in federal funds to train unemployed registered nurses, medical coders and information technology professionals to work in fields with available jobs. The New England Knowledge Corridor Health Careers Project will develop a curriculum for people to work in medical coding–a field that is becoming more complex–and will […]

Posted inHealth, Money

Doctors’ groups ask super committee to consider medical liability reform

In case the super committee doesn’t already have enough on its plate, the Connecticut State Medical Society and other physician groups are asking the congressional deficit-reduction panel to tackle medical liability reform. The so-called super committee is charged with finding at least $1.2 trillion in budgetary savings before Thanksgiving. The 12-member panel is looking at […]

Posted inHealth

Emergency department directors: VIPs get care faster

Many emergency department directors at Connecticut hospitals say their departments expedite care for very important persons and see doing so as “vaguely unethical but necessary,” according to a letter written by Hartford Hospital emergency medicine director Dr. A.J. Smally and published this month in the journal Annals of Emergency Medicine. Smally and four colleagues wrote […]

Posted inHealth

Komen report lists “target towns,” reasons for late breast cancer diagnosis

Connecticut has the second-highest incidence of breast cancer in the country, but is among the lower third of states when it comes to breast cancer deaths, according to a report released Monday by the Connecticut affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a breast cancer advocacy organization. To give a picture of breast cancer […]

Posted inHealth

Markley calls for investigation into DSS post-Irene benefits

Sen. Joe Markley, the ranking Republican on the Human Services Committee, has asked state auditors to investigate claims of fraud involving benefits distributed by the state Department of Social Services this month to make up for losses incurred in Tropical Storm Irene. In a letter to the auditors, Markley questioned how eligibility for the benefits […]

Posted inHealth

Community Health Network selected for Medicaid ASO

The Department of Social Services has selected Community Health Network of Connecticut Inc. to negotiate a contract to administer Medicaid and the state’s other public health care programs, which serve nearly 600,000 people. The Wallingford-based nonprofit currently serves as one of three managed care companies that administer the HUSKY program for mostly low-income children and […]

Posted inHealth, Money

Malloy to announce major collaboration with genetics firm Friday

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and officials from the genetics research firm Jackson Laboratory will announce a “major collaboration” in bioscience Friday morning, according to Malloy’s office. On Wednesday, former UConn President Philip E. Austin, who serves as the university’s interim vice president for health affairs, said that a “major scientific group” will be relocating to […]

Posted inHealth, Money, Politics

Planned Parenthood a target of House GOP inquiry

House Republicans have ramped up their campaign against Planned Parenthood, launching an official congressional investigation into the organization, which provides sexual and reproductive health care to women across the country. Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., chairman of a House oversight and investigations subcommittee, has asked Planned Parenthood for reams of documents about everything from its accounting […]