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| Golden Gate Bridge hits milestone in 2013 with 46 suicides Tuesday, Feb 25, 2014 06:15 PM PST  San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge marked a milestone in 2013 as 46 people leaped to their deaths in what appears to be the deadliest year for suicides at the California landmark, a watchdog group said on Tuesday. "I know it won't be built soon, and that's the most frustrating thing about this," said Dayna Whitmer, board member with the organization. "We hate to see any more 17-year-olds jump or 86-year-olds jump, it's just not right." The road surface of the suspension bridge towers more than 220 feet above the entrance to the San Francisco Bay, and the span ranks as one of the world's most frequently chosen sites for public suicides. A spokeswoman for the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District, Mary Currie, confirmed that 46 people had committed suicide at the bridge last year, the highest annual total since at least 2000, when she began keeping an unofficial count. Full Story | Top |
| Obamacare insurers in Louisiana delay HIV policy change Tuesday, Feb 25, 2014 05:24 PM PST By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana and two smaller insurers will delay implementing policies to stop poor HIV patients from paying for Obamacare plans with funds from the federal Ryan White HIV/AIDS assistance program. The decision, which the insurers revealed at a federal court hearing on Tuesday, prompted the judge to lift a temporary restraining order that forced them to delay the change in policy for 14 days. On Monday, Brian Jackson, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, issued the order that would have compelled the companies to accept Ryan White funds to pay insurance premiums on behalf of HIV patients. Full Story | Top |
| Obama: 4 million have signed up for insurance under Obamacare Tuesday, Feb 25, 2014 03:59 PM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that some 4 million people had signed up for health insurance through exchanges provided by his signature healthcare law known as Obamacare. Obama made the comments to cheers from supporters during an appearance at a "national organizing summit" put together by the political organization Organizing for Action that was formed out of his 2012 campaign apparatus. He urged supporters to keep reaching out to people to get them signed up for health insurance coverage. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Peter Cooney) Full Story | Top |
| Popular U.S. health reform plan may not cut costs, boost quality: study Tuesday, Feb 25, 2014 03:45 PM PST By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - Increased attention given to patients in primary care practices organized into so-called medical homes may not improve quality of care or reduce health costs as reformers of the U.S. healthcare system had hoped, researchers said on Tuesday. Thousands of primary care doctors in the United States are revamping their practices based on this new medical home model. In medical home practices, primary care doctors adopt a team-based care approach using patient registries, electronic health records and other tools to help identify high-risk patients and deliver more personalized care. But new evidence from a large, three-year pilot study among 32 physician practices in Pennsylvania found modest improvements in quality of care and no reductions in hospitalizations, emergency department visits or total costs of care. Full Story | Top |
| Seizure a possibility in RFK daughter's car crash: NY expert Tuesday, Feb 25, 2014 03:29 PM PST  By Victoria Cavaliere WHITE PLAINS, New York (Reuters) - Kerry Kennedy, daughter of assassinated U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, was so disoriented after side-swiping a truck in 2012 that it appeared she may have suffered a seizure, a New York state trooper testified on Tuesday at her impaired driving trial. Trooper Bradley Molloy was called to the witness stand by prosecutors on the second day of what local media has called a "drugged driving" trial. She appeared disoriented and confused after the accident, possible signs of a seizure or stroke, Molloy told jurors in Westchester County Court. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. Medicare chief defends proposed Part D drug benefit reforms Tuesday, Feb 25, 2014 03:27 PM PST By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration's top Medicare official on Tuesday defended proposed changes to the popular Part D drug benefits program for the elderly and disabled that are fiercely opposed by a broad network of drugmakers, insurers, healthcare providers and patient advocates. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a new rule in January that would fundamentally alter the program's private insurance coverage for certain drugs, change the pharmacy networks that some plans cover and limit the number of policies available to beneficiaries in any given region. That has stirred concern about the potential for turmoil that critics fear could leave some beneficiaries without coverage for the drugs they need and with fewer choices overall. But Medicare chief Jonathan Blum said in written testimony to a congressional panel that the 2015 policy changes are needed to head off higher costs to the program from expensive new biologic therapies and rising subsidies for insurers and lower-income consumers. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. FDA weighs evidence on producing 'three-parent' embryos Tuesday, Feb 25, 2014 03:02 PM PST During two days of public hearings starting on Tuesday, scientists were scheduled to present their research to outside advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The agency will decide whether safety concerns raised by three-parent IVF are minimal enough to allow clinical trials to begin. Full Story | Top |
| Obesity rates remain high, but stable in the U.S Tuesday, Feb 25, 2014 03:02 PM PST Only preschool-age children show signs of a turnaround, with their obesity rates nearly halved in the same period, according to a new federal study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. "The rapid increase in obesity we saw in the '80s and '90s has definitely slowed," epidemiologist Cynthia Ogden told Reuters Health. "There's some glimmer of hope in the new data in relation to the 2 to 5 year olds." Ogden, a branch chief at the National Center for Health Statistics in Rockville, Maryland, a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is lead author of the new study. Obesity rates among 2 to 5 year old Americans dropped from 13.9 percent to 8.4 percent between 2003 and 2012, her team reports. Full Story | Top |
| Wall St. slips on day after S&P hits record high Tuesday, Feb 25, 2014 02:43 PM PST  By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks edged lower on Tuesday, easing back from record territory a day earlier as weak economic data offset gains in Home Depot and other retail shares. Selling picked up slightly late in the session as traders unwound positions after the S&P 500 failed to break above Monday's intraday record high of 1,858.71, analysts said. "We tried to break out again and retest the highs, and since we failed, people are lightening up their positions they took earlier," said Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Greenwich, Connecticut. Home Depot shares jumped 4 percent to close at $80.98, giving the biggest boost to both the Dow and the S&P 500. Full Story | Top |
| FDA approves Anika Therapeutics arthritis drug; shares soar Tuesday, Feb 25, 2014 02:42 PM PST Anika Therapeutics Inc said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its drug to treat pain and improve joint mobility in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee, more than four years after it first filed for approval. The company's shares rose about 33 percent to $45.98 in extended trading after the approval for Monovisc, which is already sold in Canada, the United Kingdom and countries in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. "Management did a tremendous job in pushing forward through multiple rejections at the FDA," Summer Street Research analyst Mark Landy said. "We believe this product will be competitive in a market that is becoming more focused on single-shot injections." Sanofi SA and Zimmer Holdings Inc also market single-injection treatments for osteoarthritis of the knee. Full Story | Top |
| Veterans healthcare bill advances in U.S. Senate Tuesday, Feb 25, 2014 01:47 PM PST By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An expansion of healthcare and education programs for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cleared its first procedural hurdle on Tuesday, as Democrats in the U.S. Senate attempted to win passage of the legislation this week. By a vote of 99-0, the Senate laid the groundwork for debating a bill that would create 27 new medical facilities in 18 states and Puerto Rico to help meet the growing needs of veterans of the long combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. "This is the most comprehensive piece of veterans' legislation to be offered in decades and addresses many of the challenges facing service members, veterans and their families," said Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont, the chief sponsor of the bill. Republicans also were trying to attach a controversial provision unrelated to veterans programs: possible new sanctions on Iran, which the Obama administration opposes as a potential threat to diplomatic efforts that are aimed at stopping that country's suspected nuclear weapons program. Full Story | Top |
| Prenatal acetaminophen exposure linked to ADHD risk Tuesday, Feb 25, 2014 01:35 PM PST By Anne Harding NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children born to women who take acetaminophen during pregnancy may be at increased risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and similar behavioral problems, new findings suggest. The study does not show that prenatal exposure to the medication causes ADHD, and the increase in risk is small, Dr. Jorn Olsen, one of the study's authors, told Reuters Health. Nevertheless, "it's reasonable to say that there's no reason to use these drugs during pregnancy unless there is a clear medical indication," said Olsen, a professor of epidemiology at UCLA and at Aarhus University in Denmark. Acetaminophen, or paracetamol, has been available over the counter since the 1950s, Olsen and his colleagues note in their report in JAMA Pediatrics. Full Story | Top |
| Receipts may be source of endocrine disruptor: study Tuesday, Feb 25, 2014 01:28 PM PST By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Handling receipts may increase the body's level of a chemical that has been linked to reproductive and neurological problems, suggests a new small study. The researchers write in JAMA that bisphenol A - commonly known as BPA - typically enters the body when people eat food from a can. But it can also be absorbed through the skin from receipts, according to the study's lead author. "It's not the main source of exposure, but it's an additional source that wasn't previously recognized," Dr. Shelley Ehrlich of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio told Reuters Health. Full Story | Top |
| Judge orders Obamacare insurers in Louisiana to accept HIV funds Tuesday, Feb 25, 2014 10:33 AM PST By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - A U.S. district court judge in Louisiana has temporarily barred Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana and two smaller insurers from rejecting payments from a federal program intended to help low-income HIV patients buy health insurance. The insurers named in the case are Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, Vantage Health Plan and Louisiana Health Cooperative. They are among a small handful of insurance companies in Louisiana that sell healthcare policies under President Barack Obama's healthcare law. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, the state's largest insurer, said late last year that it would no longer accept federal Ryan White payments on behalf of individuals with human immunodeficiency virus, which causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. insurers say proposed Medicare cuts less than feared Tuesday, Feb 25, 2014 09:46 AM PST  U.S. health insurers including Humana Inc said on Monday that the government's proposed cuts to privately run Medicare programs appear to represent a funding decline of around 4 percent, less than the possible cuts of 7 percent or deeper that analysts had been expecting. Shares of most insurers rose on Monday, with Humana leading the pack, up 9.2 percent at $112.29 on the New York Stock Exchange in early afternoon. Shares of UnitedHealth Group Inc were up 2.8 percent at $75.91 and Aetna Inc was up 2.6 percent at $72.24. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services late on Friday released its proposal for 2015 Medicare Advantage funding. Full Story | Top |
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