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Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued guidelines on biosimilar reimbursement,.. plans to create a separate code to distinguish a biosimilar from a reference biological, but that any distinguishing identifiers will “have no bearing on coding and payment.” .. the Biosimilars Forum sent a letter to … CMS,.. saying that the proposed rule would limit biosimilar options as a result of reduced investment in their development…

Greece’s health care system is collapsing, and the tragedy should be a cautionary tale for the United States,…Beds, Drugs in Short Supply… policy of accepting patients only on "emergency days," two or three times a week…"Greek patients are lining the hallways, waiting and hoping for treatment,"… "The Greek health care system is failing to provide needed prescription medicine to its patients,"...

..realities of having children is that it is very likely you will also have pets…with pets come responsibilities…such as...taking your cat to the veterinarian…my vet provides access to a health information web portal for my pets,…it was not until the recent release of proposed revisions to Stage 2 Meaningful Use requirements…that I realized perhaps web portal designers for human electronic health records could learn a thing or two from what I know is already available for pets...

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has suspended enrollment in two Medicare Part D plans sold by Torchmark Corp. because of "widespread and systemic" failures that contributed to the program's highest complaint rate,..."intermediate sanctions" that will result in suspension of enrollment and marketing activities …

Li Tiantian, a Chinese doctor turned tech entrepreneur, is a leading light of the country’s much-trumpeted healthcare reform drive. His medical networking platform DXY.com …has attracted funding from tech giants … reality is rather different… a lack of support by Beijing and obstacles working with China’s huge, fragmented public healthcare sector...

California women who have long had to schedule a doctor’s appointment for a birth control prescription will be able to go straight to the pharmacy for the contraception… state law, passed in 2013 with plans to be implemented in October, gives licensed pharmacists authorization to prescribe self-administered hormonal contraceptives,...SB 493, also allows pharmacists to prescribe nicotine replacement products,…travel medication, and gives pharmacists status as health care providers.

hospitals urged antitrust regulators this week to consider whether health insurer Anthem Inc’s planned acquisition of rival Cigna Corp would boost healthcare costs…. threatens to reduce competition…

Hospitals are worried a new rule from the Federal Communications Commission that will allow unlicensed devices to use the same wireless band as patient monitors could cause dangerous interference with the medical systems… FCC will allow unlicensed devices developed in the future to communicate on the TV and 600 mhz bands, part of which is now used by wireless medical telemetry systems, which allows vital-sign sensors to communicate with patient monitors and nurse station monitors.

While the breach did not result in substantial harm...it highlighted the susceptibility of FDA’s network to attacks and raised questions about the adequacy of FDA’s information security program…The vulnerability of information collected and maintained by the agency is of prime importance to many in the pharma and biotech industries because FDA has the legal obligation to protect companies’ trade secrets and confidential commercial information.

Britain’s competition watchdog has accused Pfizer and Flynn Pharma of breaching UK and European law by ramping up the cost of an epilepsy drug,..by as much as 2,600 percent…Competition and Markets Authority said …each abused a dominant position by charging "excessive and unfair" prices for phenytoin sodium capsules.