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Six Southern Nevada hospitals are among hundreds of U.S. facilities (457 hospitals in 43 states) that will pay a total of more than $250 million stemming from allegations that they implanted cardiac devices in Medicare patients in violation of coverage requirements, the U.S. Justice Department said…Medicare guidelines provide that doctors should not implant ICDs (implantable cardioverter defibrillator) in patients who have recently suffered a heart attack or had other procedures, such as heart bypass surgery. Each of the hospitals…had implanted ICDs during 40 day waiting periods that Medicaid requires for heart attack patients and 90 day waiting periods for bypass patients…Las Vegas-area hospitals involved include Centennial Hills, Desert Springs, Summerlin, Valley, Sunrise, and North Vista...

Questions about a cryotherapy worker who died last week at her south Las Vegas Valley job lingered…but it wasn't clear who was going to find the answers…Multiple agencies told the Review-Journal they were not responsible for any investigations and that cryotherapy businesses are not regulated like medical clinics or salons… Ake-Salvacion died while using a cryotherapy machine, according to her family and the Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration…OSHA is not investigating…The agency responded when the body was found but won't press on…. the business is not regulated by any medical board…and their procedures and equipment are not monitored by the Food and Drug Administration… Nevada regulations do not cover the use of cryotherapy for cosmetic procedures, according to the executive director of the cosmetology board…Neither the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services nor the Southern Nevada Health District regulate such businesses… Rejuvenice's website says it provides “medical therapy” with full-body devices at negative 240 degrees.

Roseman University of Health Sciences College of Medicine has been approved as a candidate for accreditation, a key step in the process of the school's goal of admitting 60 medical students each year starting in 2017…Liaison Committee on Medical Education accepted the self-study submitted by Roseman officials over the summer, and the next step in the process is a site visit by the accreditors. The self-study detailed all aspects of the medical education programs including what curriculum, resources, faculty and facilities will be needed.

..new statewide coalition has been formed to get the country's presidential candidates to focus on chronic disease as the real driver of increasing health care costs…Kenneth Thorpe… chairman of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, said…that unless policymakers…focus on preventing and controlling diabetes, hypertension and other chronic conditions, the country will never get control over its health care costs. Thorpe was in Nevada to announce the formation of a Nevada chapter…The Nevada chapter is spending about $200,000 to publicize the issue ahead of the Democratic presidential debate next week in Las Vegas…

San Francisco supervisors have accepted a $400,000 payment from Nevada to settle allegations that psychiatric patients were wrongly shipped to California upon discharge...Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved the settlement without comment...San Francisco sued Nevada in September 2013 after the Sacramento Bee published accounts of patients who were discharged from Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Las Vegas, and given bus tickets to California cities for further care.

Mahesh Kuthuru, M.D…of Henderson…pleaded guilty today to unlawfully writing prescriptions…was indicted in October 2014, pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of a controlled substance…faces not more than 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million… According to the plea agreement…operated a medical practice known as Desert Pain Management in Las Vegas…wrote prescriptions for Oxycodone, Percocet, MS Contin, Roxicodone and Methadone to undercover officers who posed as patients…

Products marketed to enhance sexual performance, such as the one used by Lamar Odom at a Pahrump brothel, might contain other ingredients that can pose risks to users, especially when used in combination with other drugs…more information is needed before any determination can be made about the cause of Odom's health complications…The former NBA basketball star was hospitalized...after being found unconscious at the brothel…Unapproved remedies for erectile dysfunction may include combinations of undisclosed ingredients or excessively high doses, both potentially dangerous situations…"I could take two herbal supplements off the shelf, and they could claim to be the same thing, and they won't be anything alike," said Jason Penrod, a member of the Nevada State Board of Pharmacy. "The only way you can know for sure is to take your 'herbal Viagra'...and analyze it in a biochemistry lab."…"They may or may not be effective," Dr. Michael Verni of the Urology Center of Las Vegas said. "All the vitamin makers have to prove is that their products are not harmful. They don't have to prove they work."

A promising new method for battling the spread of HIV in Africa was inspired by an unexpected source 8,000 miles away: a baby shower at the home of a Las Vegas professor…Dr. Echezona Ezeanolue — who leads health research efforts at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas — is earning praise from medical experts nationwide for coming up with a more effective way to convince pregnant women in his native Nigeria to be tested for the disease…Ezeanolue had long sought to find a way to boost the country's testing rate when inspiration hit in 2011 after his wife threw a party to celebrate the upcoming birth of their fourth child…"My wife said to me, why don't we use baby showers?"…It was a way to remove some of the barriers…To convince women to get tested, Ezeanolue and his team of 10 fellow researchers organized parties led by religious leaders at worship sites in Nigeria, a country with high church attendance rates. Faith-based organizations are highly influential across Africa, and they play a critical role in the fight against AIDS...

Dr. Katherine Smith, Director of Continuing Education and Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice at Roseman University was recently elected as one of 24 Fellows of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy...Dr. Smith was nominated for consideration as an ACCP Fellow by her colleagues, then underwent a rigorous and comprehensive evaluation by the 35-member Credentials: Fellowship Committee. The evaluation process included a review of both practice and research accomplishments...

When Terry Maurer of Henderson looks at her calendar, Oct. 10…That's the day she and other breast cancer survivors are going boating…They are part of a Pink Paddlers team competing in the seventh annual Rose Regatta Dragon Boat Race on Lake Las Vegas…the purpose of the activities is to raise money for the R.E.D. Rose Program. This program provides services and financial support for uninsured and underinsured women (and men) undergoing breast cancer treatment. Last year, the regatta and festival raised $124,000… All money raised during the Rose Regatta weekend stays in the community and is used to provide medical care and psychological support.