Author: Peter

Joe Jimenez said the consolidation spree among U.S. health insurers is making it harder… to increase prices in a market that has for years been a primary driver of growth for the pharmaceutical industry.. "..the pricing environment is more difficult," "With a consolidated payer base as well as consolidated providers, you have to assume going forward that price increases in the U.S. are going to be quite limited."

Amgen Inc. won approval in the European Union for its drug Repatha, the first regulatory clearance for a new class of powerful cholesterol-lowering drugs… for patients with uncontrolled cholesterol who require additional intensive reduction of low density lipoprotein...

Long-term care's digital moment?...Proposed new rules for long-term care released…could spur an uptake of electronic health records by nursing homes across the country…

Cornerstone Hospital Medical Center will host…InTouch RP-Vita, a state-of-the-art robot…known as Bentley…Physicians can connect to the robot via a PC, iPad or smartphone for clinical consults...with…access to supporting clinical documentation, patient data and medical imaging.

Institute for Clinical and Economic Review …launched a program to transform the way new drugs are evaluated and priced…. will produce public reports on new drugs… include a full analysis of a drug's comparative effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and potential budget impact…Calculate... a value-based price benchmark anchored to the real benefits the drug brings to patients.

FDA sent a warning letter to Vista Pharmaceuticals, which is based in India, for not paying Generic Drug User Fee Act fees on time. This is the fourth time this month.. Failure to pay... fees is an international problem. This month alone, companies in India, the U.S. and China were fined for failure to pay in a timely manner.

third stage of meaningful use,..the requirements for greater participation of doctors and hospitals, is now coming under even more fire than the program has seen in the past…requires providers to send electronic summaries for 50 % of patients they refer…,receive summaries for 40% of patients that are referred...reconcile past patient data with current reports for 80% of such patients.

still looks more like...Target...but in a few months will be the new home of the Southern Nevada Health District...new center will include environmental health services, immunizations, nursing clinic services, Food Handler Safety Training services, EMS services, epidemiology, informatics, public health preparedness and disease investigation.

When it comes to electric health records (EHR), many docs are more frustrated than ever. "They have so much potential to improve healthcare, improve quality, improve our efficiency, improve patient engagement, and yet that's not the current state of reality,"… "Our experience as physicians is often falling far short of the promise…"

Abbott Laboratories Inc reported a slightly better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by higher sales of its branded generics...pharmaceutical products business,..rose 31.3 percent to $977 million,..