Monday, August 29, 2016

More U.S. counties to see Obamacare marketplace monopoly: analysis

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nearly a third of U.S. counties will likely be served by only one insurer that participates in an Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace in 2017, according to an analysis published Sunday by the Kaiser Family Foundation.


Saturday, August 27, 2016

Italy's quake survivors fear family villages will become ghost towns

By Steve Scherer SANT'ANGELO, Italy (Reuters) - Tiny villages that dot the valley around the town of Amatrice, which was leveled by Wednesday's earthquake, were home to generations of families who once farmed the land, but later moved to cities for work and now return for the holidays. "The fear is that they will now be abandoned," said Giancarla Celli, 50, standing outside the 300-year-old family villa that withstood the quake, but which has been badly damaged and is now unsafe, cracks zigzagging up its walls. Most of the other homes in the hamlet of Sant'Angelo, where more than 100 people pass the hot summer months but which is sparsely populated in winter, have been reduced to rubble.

Friday, August 26, 2016

FDA recommends Zika testing for all blood donated in U.S.

CHICAGO/TAMPA, Fla. (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended on Friday that all blood donated in the United States and its territories be tested for Zika virus, as it moves to prevent transmission of the virus through the blood supply.


Thursday, August 25, 2016

Florida governor complains U.S. not doing enough to fight Zika

The New York State Department of Health unveiled a Zika Prevention Kit for pregnant women during the rollout of a Zika Information hotline and website, in New YorkCHICAGO/MIAMI (Reuters) - Florida Governor Rick Scott said on Wednesday the federal government had so far not delivered all the Zika antibody tests and laboratory support he had requested as the state battles the spread of the virus. On Wednesday, the Florida Department of Health reported a second non-travel related case of Zika in Palm Beach County, bringing the state's total to 43. Health officials warned pregnant women last week not to travel to Miami Beach after Florida confirmed the mosquito-borne Zika virus was active there, becoming the second area in Miami to be affected after Wynwood.


Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Fists not football: Brain injuries seen in domestic assaults

Susan Contreras stands next to her bed in a Phoenix-area shelter for victims of domestic violence on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016. Contreras is part of a unique program at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix that aims to assist abuse survivors who have suffered head trauma. (AP Photo/Beatriz Costa-Lima)CHICAGO (AP) - There are no bomb blasts or collisions with burly linemen in Susan Contreras' past. Her headaches, memory loss and bouts of confused thinking were a mystery until doctors suggested a probable cause: domestic violence.


Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Most antipsychotic drugs not tied to birth defects

(Reuters Health) - Pregnant women on antipsychotic drugs can continue taking most of those medications without worrying the pills will increase the risk of their newborns having birth defects, a new study suggests.


Ex-Insys employees plead not guilty in U.S. drug-kickback case

Jonathan Roper Fernando Serrano walk with Serrano's lawyer Jude Cardenas after they pleaded not guilty in Manhattan New YorkTwo former Insys Therapeutics Inc employees pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges that they engaged in a scheme to pay doctors kickbacks including speaker fees to prescribe a drug containing the opioid fentanyl. Jonathan Roper, a former Insys district sales manager, and Fernando Serrano, a former sales representative, entered their pleas in Manhattan federal court to charges including that they violated the federal Anti-Kickback Statute. Insys, based in Arizona, is not identified by name in the indictment against Roper, of Commack, New York, and Serrano, of Manalapan, New Jersey.