Acknowledging healthcare reform has been controversial would definitely be an understatement. Almost everywhere I've traveled lately I've heard highly emotional and passionate positions for both sides of the debate. This past weekend, a large group of supporters stood on a corner holding handmade signs with messages like, ''Healthcare for ...

Patients often spend enormous efforts to find the right surgeon, but may give little thought to where the surgery is to be done.  Complications can occur for a variety of reasons, and whenever there is a high-profile disaster, such as the death of rapper Kanye West's mother Donda last year, legislators and regulators clamor to show that they ...

According to CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) Sec. 493.1413(b)(8), the technical consultant is responsible for ''evaluating the competency of testing personnel.'' There are a number of ways to do this: direct observation, review of records, analyzing previously tested samples, and so on. These have to be written procedures ...

ADVANCE received the following press release from ASCLS: ''The Clinical Laboratory Coalition, of which ASCLS is a member, has written the Senate Finance Committee after learning a 20 percent Medicare laboratory co-pay was being proposed by the Senate Finance Committee.  The organization told the Committee Chair that: the ...

A few minutes ago, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee  passed a bill to revamp the health care system Celebrating the passage of the bill, President Barack Obama, surrounded by nursing leaders at the White House , proclaimed ''I love nurses!'' This is the third time I have heard Obama repeat that sentiment. He ...

Today President Obama repealed an order signed by former President Bush back in 2001 restricting federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. The executive order lifts some of the limitations on the types of embryonic stem cell research receiving government funding, according to Josephine Johnston, MS, LLB, a research scholar at The ...

In the past few weeks, media coverage and public opinion has surrounded Nadya Suleman, who recently gave birth to octuplets, bringing her brood to a whopping 14 children. While the celebrity gossip magazines have focused on Suleman's family's disapproval, past 911 calls and resemblance to Angelina Jolie, the fertility industry has honed in on ...

We recently received the following press release from AACC: ''The member organizations of the Coordinating Council on the Clinical Laboratory Workforce (CCCLW) have elected Susan Gross, the representative of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC), to a 2-year term as Chair of the CCCLW.  She replaces Paula Garrott of the ...

''We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise healthcare's quality and lower its cost.'' President Barack Obama made this promise just 3 days ago during his inauguration address and, as with his plans to examine spending and realign military actions in Guantanamo Bay and Iraq, we're already seeing ...

Competitive bidding has been repealed. Congress has voted to override President Bush's veto of H.R.6331, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act. This effectively ends the San Diego competitive bidding demonstration and prevents all future demonstrations. The bill will also replace the scheduled 10.6 percent cut in the Medicare ...