Family Health Insurance

DJO Global, Inc., a global provider of medical device solutions for musculoskeletal health, vascular health and pain management, today announced the introduction of the Turon™ Modular Shoulder System developed by the Company’s surgical division, DJO Surgical. The Turon is the first total shoulder system to incorporate the company’s proprietary IMIN™ technology, a patented clocking feature that provides the ability to dial in the humeral neck shaft angle position. This allows the surgeon to fit the patient’s anatomy without the need for adjunctive screw fixation and complex jigs and back table fixtures.

Richard J. Haw

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The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society today announced it has awarded two new Marshall A. Lichtman Specialized Center of Research grants to Frederick W. Alt, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School, and Anthony Green, M.D., Ph.D., University of Cambridge. Each SCOR is valued at $1.25 million a year for five years for a total of $6.25 million.

The SCOR program is LLS’s largest academic research grant, with total funding of more than $235 million since its inception in 2000. The SCOR program brings together teams of researchers representing different disciplines in collaborative efforts to discover new approaches to treat patients with leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma.

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The Washington Post examines access to maternal and child health services in Sierra Leone after the government dropped fees for such services last year, a move that “appears to have sharply cut into mortality rates for pregnant women and deaths from malaria for small children.”

“Sierra Leone is at the vanguard of a revolution – heavily subsidized for now by international donors – that appears to be substantially lessening health dangers here in one of the riskiest countries in the world for pregnant women and small children,” the newspaper writes .

In a post on the AIDS.gov blog, Ambassador Eric Goosby, U.S. global AIDS coordinator, writes about a recent visit to Haiti and gives an update on U.S. work with Haiti. “Going forward, America will continue to strengthen our partnership with Haiti on health. U.S. health activities in Haiti are an example of President Obama’s Global Health Initiative in action. PEPFAR’s HIV/AIDS investments provide a platform for U.S. health programs implemented by USAID and CDC and other agencies to support the Haitian government in enabling access to health care for its citizens.

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Afterthe Guardian broke the storythat the CIA organized a fake vaccination program in Pakistan in an effort to confirm the location of Osama bin Laden and obtain DNA from his family members, several writers and health experts reacted to the situation, noting the possible implications for health.

• On the “Global Health Policy” blog, Charles Kenny, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, points out that Pakistan”is in the midst of another polio outbreak, battling to stamp out the disease by next year as a vital part of the global eradication program” .
• “I am glad we got bin Laden. But doesn’t the CIA have enough credibility problems?

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Nationwide, private-sector employees with single coverage contributed 21 percent of the cost of their health insurance and employees with family coverage paid 27 percent, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

According to data from the federal agency:

— Health insurance premiums nationwide averaged $4,940 for single coverage and $13,871 for family coverage in 2010.

— Among the 10 largest states, the annual cost of single coverage ranged from $4,669 in Ohio to $5,220 in New York and family coverage ranged from $13,083 in Ohio to $15,032 in Florida.

— Some 18 percent of employees with single coverage and 10 percent of employees with family coverage were not required to pay for any part of their employer-sponsored health insurance.

— Among the 10 largest states in 2010, employees who didn’t have to pay premiums for single coverage ranged from 12 percent in Illinois to 24.5 percent in California, while the range for employees with family coverage was 3 percent in Florida to 17.5 percent in Pennsylvania.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

inVentiv Health, offering best-in-class clinical, commercial and consulting services to the healthcare industry, today announced it has completed the acquisition of PharmaNet Development Group, Inc., a recognized leader of global drug development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, generic drug and medical device industries. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The acquisition makes inVentiv one of the top contract research organizations worldwide, with clinical segment annual revenue of $900 million and more than 6,000 employees dedicated to clinical research in nearly 40 countries, including growth markets in Asia, Latin America, and central and eastern Europe.

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Lawmaker Proposes Medicare and Medicaid Cuts

Lawmakers have been in debates over the past few weeks on how to avoid default after national debt reached its $14.3 trillion ceiling on May 16. Some have proposed raising taxes while others want budget cuts.

This week, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor presented a list of proposed cuts, which include lower federal payments to hospitals with many poor patients, as well as state Medicaid programs, new patient co-payments for clinical lab work and reduced payments to nursing homes and rural hospitals.

These cuts would be in addition to the $500 billion in cuts to the Medicare program that were already approved to allow the passage of the 2009 health care bill.

Proposed Cuts Will Be Shifted to Other Entities

Both Democratic and Republican health care analysts who have reviewed the cuts agree that they would not really save money.

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