AUSTIN, Texas
— Texas would close some of its large state homes for the mentally disabled and move residents into community settings under bills filed Monday to fix a system wracked by reports of abuse and neglect.
Although closing any of the 13 facilities known as state schools could be several years away, the bills were sure to ramp up the emotional debate of how best to care for nearly 5,000 residents.
Some activists have called for Read the rest of this entry »

WASHINGTON (AP) — If you’re looking for a little help shedding extra pounds after the holidays, the government is warning you to stay away from nearly 30 weight-loss products that contain unlisted and possibly dangerous ingredients.
The pills are advertised as “natural” fat busters and have intriguing names like Imelda Perfect Slim and Zhen de Shou. Some suggest they are innovative “herbal” remedies from Asia.
But the Food and Drug Administration Read the rest of this entry »

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials are slapping a detention order on dozens of imported foods from China.
The Food and Drug Administration says foods made with milk will be held at ports of entry, as a precaution, until independent tests show they are free of the industrial chemical melamine.
The order, which also applies to pet foods, was posted on the FDA Web site Thursday. It’s unusual for the FDA to detain goods from an entire Read the rest of this entry »

In flush financial times, businesses tend to abide by a strict principle: No money, no service.
But in these times of widespread financial woe, some small-business owners are trying to hang on to patrons who have difficulty with their bills, even if that means carrying them for a while. The hope is that the customers will stick with them and start paying again once the economy revives.
Take Larry Cronin. As the economy sank fast last fall, Cronin Read the rest of this entry »

As Western New Yorkers finish enrolling in their health insurance plans for 2009, many are suffering sticker shock.
Federal workers and small-business people covered through chambers of commerce are especially hit hard.
Federal government employees are angry about a 50 percent hike in Univera Healthcare’s total rates. That translates to a near-doubling of the portion they have to pay — far above the 10.4 percent average rate hike the Read the rest of this entry »

-(Dow Jones)- The Food and Drug Administration said Monday it will
subject the makers of certain extended-release pain drugs to a new risk-
management program designed to cut down on misuse and abuse of the products as
new government figures show a rise in nonmedical use of prescription pain drugs
among adults.
Opioid drugs formulated in extended release versions of OxyContin, morphine
and fentanyl patches are meant for round-the-clock pain management Read the rest of this entry »

Following new research which suggests Plavix may be ineffective in as many as 30% of heart patients with certain genetic factors, the FDA is considering updates to the drug’s warning label.
(clopidogrel bisulfate) is a widely used blood thinner prescribed to prevent blood clots and reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes. It is currently ranked among the top selling drugs in the world, with as many as 25 million prescriptions written Read the rest of this entry »

For the past few years, a handful of Mississippi hospitals have won a lottery – extra money from Medicaid in formulas so complex many administrators can’t explain them.
State Medicaid officials “should be ashamed and embarrassed at such poor and inequitable administration of public funds in such a way as to create these windfalls in a few hospitals while others struggle to survive week to week,” said Daryl Weaver, chief executive officer for King’s Read the rest of this entry »

of breast cancer in Norwegian women suggests that some breast tumors may regress on their own over time, the
reports. The study — published Tuesday in the
— followed two groups of more than 100,000 Norwegian women ages 50 to 64 for two consecutive periods: from 1992 to 1997 and from 1996 to 2001. Norway initiated mammography screening in 1996 (Kolata,
, 11/25). Researchers compared invasive breast cancer rates among the first group — who Read the rest of this entry »

When Dr. J.T. Cooper hobbles around his Marietta medical office, the boot brace on his right foot is a reminder of a danger posed by some of the most popular — and misprescribed — antibiotics on the market.
Like thousands of others who have taken Levaquin, Cipro and other fluoroquinolone antibiotics, Cooper suffered a near-rupture of his Achilles tendon. Tendon side effects have been reported for at least 20 years, but drug makers only Read the rest of this entry »