Medicare chief next at bat for healthcare overhaul. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid administrator Donald Berwick will make his first appearance before Congress next week. Though the GOP majority hasn’t yet desended on the hill after the party’s midterm victories, he’s likely to have lots of questions to answer about President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform legislation, Bloomberg reports.
Health industry wants to keep healthcare reform. Though they say the new healthcare law is far from perfect, executives from drug, device and insurance companies who atteneded the Reuters Health Summit this week they need to move on. Health industry companies, Reuters reports, are planning ways to tackle stagnating health IT and rising costs.
Health industry wants to keep healthcare reform. Covidien Plc (NYSE:COV), which has been building up its device offering through acquisitions and selling off unrelated products, is hoping to make another deal in the vascular treatment area. At the Reuters Health Summit Covidien CEO Richard Meelia said his company was "looking a lot" for a "tuck-in deal," Reuters reports.
Republicans explore healthcare reform tactics. The Burrill Report talked to Tevi Troy (podcast), former deputy secretary of Health and Human Services in the Bush Administration and a visiting senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, about the newly elected Congress, what it means for healthcare reform and why Republicans may face challenges moving from symbolic to substantive battles over the legislation.
Call to arms for private equity. “It is incumbent on the people in this room to ensure private-equity IPOs stop getting a bad rap. It has become far too emotional a subject,” David Blitzer told the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association summit on Thursday, according to The UK Telegraph.
The doctor will see you now. A noticeable number of U.S. consumers who had skipped medical check-ups and procedures during the recession are beginning to come back, healthcare executives told the Reuters Health Summit this week.
Let’s raise drug rebates. With all the talk of slashing federal budget deficits, guess what the Obama Fiscal Commission wants to put on the table? Raising the Medicare Part D rebates paid by drugmakers, according to the draft proposal, which which also suggests lowering payments to doctors and lawyers, among other things, according to the Pharmalot blog.
I feel better already. As U.S. hospitals adopt a patient-centered care model, one of the first things they do is install green roofs or roof gardens to create tranquil oases of otherwise barren rooftop space, according to Becker’s Hospital Review.
Potential Parkinson’s therapy gets boost. San Diego biopharmaceutical company Ceregene Inc. has raised $11.5 million in Series D funding to support clinical studies of its CERE-120 genetic treatment for Parkinson’s disease.
New embryonic stem cell group. The Genetics Policy Institute has launched an advocacy coalition of 30 organizations to foster public awareness and advance the cause of embryonic stem cell research in the United States.
Reporting from MedCity News contributed to this compilation of news.
