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Lewis-Payton admitted VISN 16 must work on “trust issues” with veterans and providers. Some of these individuals accuse VISN 16 of systematically gaming medical-record filing deadlines and leaving veterans with massive debts. When providers sent required medical records by certified mail, VA employees shredded them without explanation, insisting they were incomplete after the 90 day filing deadline had expired. As a result of this practice, one Louisiana veteran owes more than $22,000 and is being pursued by a collection agency. Lewis-Payton has not replied to questions about this case. In other cases, VISN 16 reportedly cited absurd reasons for leaving...

Please...any suggestions on good online pharmacies? Need long-term meds.

Under the rules that took effect in May, hospice patients or their families could not fill prescriptions through their Part D drug plans until first confirming that the prescriptions were not covered by hospice providers. Drugs related to palliative and comfort care are supposed to be covered under the fixed rate payments to the hospice. Medicare announced Friday that the rules would be revised so that the additional authorization would be required for only four types of medications: pain relievers, anti-nauseants, laxatives, and anti-anxiety drugs that are “nearly always” considered hospice-related.

When mice with the human equivalent of Type 2 diabetes were injected with the protein FGF1, their blood sugar levels returned to normal over two days. Just one injection of the protein both regulated these levels and even helped reverse insulin insensitivity – the underlying cause of diabetes. Published in the journal Nature, the research on FGF1 could revolutionize diabetes treatment. In addition to being effective against diabetes, the protein has several advantages over current diabetes drugs. It does not result in dangerous side effects seen with other diabetes drugs, such as heart problems, weight gain, or hypoglycemia. Additionally, FGF1...

A man who spent nearly 20 years locked in a state psychiatric ward in Lincoln is suing doctors for malpractice, saying he was never mentally ill during his time there. He was sent to the Lincoln Regional Center that year. For the next 20 years, regional center doctors and others involved in Montin's treatment relied on information from initial police reports that said Montin was delusional, rather than court records that showed otherwise. But last year, a regional center psychiatrist found that it was medicine Montin had taken for his injured back that had led to a medication-induced psychosis. When...

The head of the Office of the Medical Inspector for Veterans Affairs has retired, just over a week after a scathing letter and report criticized that office for failing to adequately respond to complaints from whistleblowers and downplaying the severity of problems at some VA facilities. (Snip)Pierce had come to the VA as Deputy Medical Inspector in January 2002 and served as Medical Inspector since November of 2004, according to his VA bio. He served on active duty for thirty years in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. A letter and report sent to the White House last Monday by Carolyn

Lack of timely treatment could have killed the baby, who is now healthyA series of blood transfusions for a baby while still in the mother’s womb has resulted in a successful delivery in the capital’s well-known maternity facility, the Corniche Hospital. The hospital announced on Monday that the in-utero transfusions were required to ensure the baby boy’s health. He was born to Marwa Badee, an Egyptian resident, who has two other children. Speaking about the case to Gulf News, Dr Leanne Brickers, chair of foetal medicine at the public hospital managed by the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (Seha), said...

By now we know that every purchase a consumer makes is added to a list detailing one’s spending and life-style habit, which is used to target people for marketing campaigns and other services. But how would you feel if that information was used by your doctors to keep tabs on your health? A new report from Bloomberg details how hospitals are using our habits such as buying cigarettes or skipping the gym to create patient profiles in order to identify those who are most likely to get sick.

According to Yale University scientists, this new novel treatment option was crafted as a way to treat alopecia universalis - a disease that leaves its victims almost entirely bare of hair. The university reports that the results of experimental testing on a 25-year-old male patient mark the first successful targeted treatment of this disease in medical history. King is the senior author of a study published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology that details this success. According to the study, the male study participant was placed on a daily regimen of 10 mg of tofacitinib citrate - a preexisting FDA-approved...

COLUMBIA - Electronic medical records, or EMRs, have given some physicians joy and others nightmares. The federal government mandated all health care providers in the U.S. switch to EMRs by January 1, 2014. EMRs replaced the previous medical records systems done by hand on paper. The days of the 4-inch thick patient chart are over. "We knew it was coming, we knew we had to do it." said Tom Selva, chief medical officer at University Hospital. But University Hospital was always ahead of the game. It switched to an EMR provider 15 years ago when it started using Cerner, based...

U.S. medical device maker Medtronic Inc said on Sunday it had agreed to buy Covidien Plc for $42.9 billion in cash and stock and move its executive base to Ireland in the latest transaction aiming for lower corporate tax rates abroad. While the deal will allow Medtronic to reduce its overall global tax burden, the Minneapolis-based company said it was driven by a complementary strategy with Covidien on medical technology rather than tax considerations

Flu experts have made a mutant version of the 1918 “Spanish flu” virus that killed tens of millions of people, sparking a new debate over whether such work is too dangerous. Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin says the experiments are important for helping scientists understand how new pandemics start, and for designing better flu vaccines.

Even when he was campaigning for Congress in 2000, President Obama unveiled a sweeping health-care plan that modeled aspects of the Veterans Administration’s medical system. As WND reported, eight years later, during his transition into the White House, he proposed in his “Obama-Biden” plan to “make the VA a leader of national health care reform so that veterans get the best care possible.” In his 2000 congressional campaign, Obama proposed health-care legislation on the federal and state level to lower the costs of prescription drugs for seniors. His plan called for the government to buy the medication in bulk and...

A half-century ago, a governor named Brown persuaded the California Legislature to embark on what those involved thought would be a modest new program of health care for poor Californians. Medi-Cal, as it was dubbed, was California's version of the national Medicaid program that had been attached to the new Medicare system of health care for the elderly. At the time, California's poor obtained medical care, if they did, from either charity or county-owned hospitals, and Medi-Cal was seen as a way of easing the burden on the counties' taxpayers. But as one of the participants in the Medi-Cal legislation,...

Nearly one-third of California’s total population -- roughly 11.5 million people -- will be enrolled in Medi-Cal next year.. Enrollment is expected to exceed previous estimates by 1.4 million, and administration officials said it would cost the state $1.2 billion more than originally thought.

In a group of studies published Sunday in the journals Science and Nature Medicine, researchers say old mice who were infused with the blood of spry younger mice showed clear improvements in memory, sensory function, strength and endurance. Researchers say a specific protein, found in the blood of mice and humans, appears to be at the root of this rejuvenation. They say they hope to test the protein's effect on humans in clinical trials in the next few years.

Type 2 diabetes could cause the brain to age by up to two years every decade a person has the disease, researchers have claimed. It is the first time diabetes has been linked to a change in the size of the brain. The study also found that, contrary to common clinical belief, diabetes may not be directly associated with small vessel ischemic disease, where the brain does not receive enough oxygenated blood. 'We found that patients having more severe diabetes had less brain tissue, suggesting brain atrophy,' said lead author R. Nick Bryan, M.D., Ph.D., professor of radiology at the...

DENVER - Federal agents and local officers are raiding four marijuana businesses tied to an alleged international money-laundering scheme. U.S. marshals arrested a suspect, Gerardo Uribe, a 33-year-old Colombian. Uribe was the last of four suspects arrested under a federal indictment unsealed Monday. The indictment charged Gerardo Uribe and his younger brother, Luis Uribe, along with another Colombian, Hector Diaz, and Denver attorney David Furtado with money-laundering crimes related to the illegal cultivation and distribution of marijuana.

Please continue prayers for my cleaning lady's daughter.

Janis Finer, 57, a popular primary care physician in Tulsa, Okla., gave up her busy practice two years ago to care full time for hospitalized patients. The lure? Regular shifts, every other week off and a 10 percent increase in pay. Just as millions of Americans are obtaining insurance coverage through the federal health law, doctors like Finer are voting with their feet. Tired of working longer and harder because of discounted insurance payments and frustrated by stagnating pay and increasing oversight, many are going to work for large groups or hospitals, curtailing their practices and in some cases, abandoning...