Month: August 2011

The Medicare Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies (DMEPOS) Competitive Bidding Program Round 2 and the national mail-order competitions are approaching. In the fall, CMS will announce a bidding schedule, begin a bidder education program and open a bidder…

Success rates in treatment with the Ponseti technique can be improved through a reevaluation of the postcasting orthotic protocol, according to researchers in New York. Norman Ramirez, MD, and colleagues treated 73 idiopathic talipes equinovarus feet with the Ponseti technique,…

Providing access to an outpatient clinic is not enough to keep some trauma patients who have been discharged from the hospital from returning to the emergency department (ED) for follow-up care, even for such minor needs as pain medication refills…

Action is needed to tackle the increasing number of deaths in the U.S. and Canada from prescription painkillers known as opioids, according to experts in an article published online in the British Medical Journal. Opioids contain compounds derived from the…

On Monday, Aug. 29, the CMS will release a national provider Comparative Billing Report (CBR) focused on Ordering Durable Medical Equipment: Diabetic Supplies. This will be the first release of 5000 CBRs with two additional releases to follow (the second…

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a new initiative to help improve care for patients while they are in the hospital and after they are discharged. Doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers can now apply…

An article in the American Economic Review finds that small businesses have been over-paying for health insurance. The article “Unhealthy Insurance Markets: Search Frictions and the Cost and Quality of Health Insurance” highlights the difficulties small employers have in searching…

Something in our diets may be contributing to type-2 diabetes and it is not sugar. A new study suggests pesticide residues. This is not the first time “persistent organic pollutants” have been linked to diabetes. In fact, many of these…

A quality improvement program that saves lives by dramatically reducing potentially lethal bloodstream infections in hospital intensive-care units across the state of Michigan also saves those hospitals an average of $1.1 million a year, new Johns Hopkins research suggests. As…

Women with 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels greater than 33 ng/mL are seven times more likely to benefit from bisphosphonate therapy compared with women with lower levels, according to researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery. “Maintaining adequate vitamin D levels above those…