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Kohl To Hold Hearing On Conflicts Of Interest In Medical Education & Research
On Wednesday, July 29, U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging Chairman Herb Kohl (D-WI) will hold a hearing on conflicts of interest in the fields of Continuing Medical Education (CME) and other medical research. As with many professions, physicians are required to participate in CME in order to maintain their license. In recent years, the pharmaceutical and medical device industries have increased their funding of CME, as well as other medical education programs, medical schools, and professional medical associations. The industries also pay physicians directly for their service as educational consultants. According to the Institute of Medicine, industry funding for accredited CME quadrupled from $302 million to $1.2 billion between 1998 and 2006.

Technique That Improves Anterior Cruciate Ligament Surgery
Surgeons from Hospital for Special Surgery in New York have identified a drilling technique that improves the outcome of surgery to reconstruct the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). The news is being presented during the annual meeting of the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine, June 9 -12, in Keystone. Colo.
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FDA Takes Enforcement Action Against Three New Jersey Dietary Supplement And Protein Powder Manufacturers
The U.S. Department of Justice, on behalf of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has filed a complaint for permanent injunction against Quality Formulation Laboratories, Inc., American Sports Nutrition Inc., Sports Nutrition International LLC and Mohamed S. Desoky, who oversees operations at all three companies.
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Connecticut: Small Businesses Struggle With Soaring Premiums, Unintended Consequences Of Old Law

"Premiums for small employers have been rising by double-digit increases for a few years, and they don"t have the negotiating power of larger employers," the Hartford (Conn.) Courant reports. This year"s increases are even higher than usual, on top of an economic recession. Connecticut businesses are resorting to drastic measures to preserve employee"s coverage, or are forced to drop it all together. "Some small businesses are switching to new plans that shift more medical costs to employees, often requiring them to pay a larger portion of premiums. Some business owners are leaving the group insurance market and buying cheaper individual policies for themselves and sometimes employees if health problems don"t disqualify them," the Courant reports. The plight of small businesses is made even worse in Connecticut by the unintended consequences of a 90s-era law that prohibits insurers from using the past claims of an employer"s own workforce to determine premiums for members of the group. Meant to protect employers with 50 or fewer workers, insurers instead used age and other factors that combined with across-the-board rate hikes in the insurance market and an aging workforce to create steep hikes (Levick, 7/27). This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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