SAN FRANCISCO, CA — 02/24/09 —
Findings from a new study in the current
issue of
confirm for the first time in a large U.S. study that
testicular cancer risk is higher among men with a history of infertility in
the past, compared to the general population. Previous research on this
topic was reported mainly from European countries with a much higher
prevalence of testis cancer in the male population.
In men with testicular cancer, the risk Read the rest of this entry »

Published: December 26, 2008
The rates that Amherst County charges for emergency medical transports have increased for the first time in nearly six years.
Higher fuel costs and the need for more career personnel at the Pedlar Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Squad sparked the additional expenses. The Board of Supervisors approved the rate changes last week.
The rate for basic life support transports jumped from $300 to $350 — those Read the rest of this entry »

Health insurers set rates so late in year, companies find budgeting hard
Every year at this time, Chuck Fried is faced with a dilemma.
The owner of technology firm TxMQ in Amherst must prepare a budget for the next year and get employees to enroll for health coverage. His wife has the same task with her adoption agency, Adoption STAR.
The problem: They usually don’t know how much the health insurance will cost, because the insurers Read the rest of this entry »

The most basic way to prevent infections is to keep patients from being colonized by C.-diff. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Guidelines for Infection Control in Health Care Facilities notes that proper hand hygiene is the single most important factor in protecting patients from C.-diff. and other hospital-acquired infections. To complicate matters, the CDC advises that hands must be washed with soap and water when caring for Read the rest of this entry »

The county hospitals with significantly better than average stroke death rates in 2007 are: Citrus Valley Medical Center; Foothill Presbyterian Hospital-Johnson Memorial; Garfield Medical Center; Glendale Memorial Hospital; Kaiser hospitals in Baldwin Park, Bellflower, Panorama City and on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles; Long Beach Memorial Medical Center; Olympia Medical Center; Pacific Alliance Medical Center; USC University Hospital; and Whittier Read the rest of this entry »

SALEM TOWNSHIP — The county-run Riverview HealthCare Campus is the best nursing home in Ottawa County, according to a federal agency that rates facilities.
The 190-bed home received three out of five stars for overall care last week from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That means Riverview is an “about average” home, according to the ratings scale.
Five stars is the highest rating Read the rest of this entry »

The Banks are obligated to make payments of principal of and interest on
the Bonds when due as well as the purchase price for tendered bonds.
Each of the LOCs for the 2008A, 2008C, and 2008D bonds provide full
coverage of principal plus an amount equal to 35 days’ interest at a
maximum rate of 12% based on a year of 365 days and purchase price for
tendered bonds. The LOC for the 2008B bonds provides full coverage Read the rest of this entry »

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 4 (HealthDay News) — A new analysis shows that the drop in breast cancer cases that began in 2003 is indeed due to women stopping hormone replacement therapy (HRT) after a large, U.S. study showed surprisingly higher rates of heart problems and breast cancer among users of some kinds of HRT.
Some experts have suggested such a theory explains the trend, while others have said it might be related to changes in mammography use.
“If Read the rest of this entry »

(September 12, 2008 – Insidermedicine)
From Italy – According to research in the British Medical Journal, the Mediterranean diet can protect against a wide range of chronic diseases. A meta-analysis has shown that the diet, which recommends low intake of meat, dairy and alcohol and high intake of fruit, vegetables, nuts, grains and fish, can help to reduce the number of deaths from conditions such as heart disease, cancer, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
Read the rest of this entry »

In-network care is completely covered after a predetermined patient co-pay. For out-of-network care, insurers usually reimburse a portion of a procedure’s “usual, customary and reasonable” rate or UCR.
Cuomo said WellPoint – along with its subsidiary, Empire BlueCross Blue Shield,
’s largest health insurer with 5 million customers – and most other insurers, including Oxford, essentially rigged UCRs by using a
company, Ingenix, which set rates Read the rest of this entry »