Federal and state agents raided the HQ of WellCare Health Plans this morning in Tampa, Fla. Trading in shares of the company was halted at 10:59 a.m. pending further news, a New York Stock Exchange spokeswoman told the Health Blog. In early trading, the stock had fallen $6.77, or nearly 6%, to $115.50.The raid was [...]
Siemens will give away a fancy new MRI scanner (pictured) to the small MRI-less hospital that posts the most popular Web video to make its case.Yes, we know it’s a craven publicity stunt. But we have to admit it’s hard to stop watching these videos once you start. (Now you know why we haven’t posted [...]
More allegations this morning that the White House is muzzling top docs in the administration.Julie Gerberding, the physician who runs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testified before the Senate yesterday on health and climate change. But her prepared remarks were “severely edited” by the White House, the Associated Press reported, citing two unnamed [...]
The long-debated, once-vetoed plan to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program will return to the House floor this week, The Hill reports. And Democrats, who overwhelmingly supported the first bill, say they’re open to some changes that could reduce the risk of a second veto.In particular, Democrats are responding to complaints that their plan [...]
Beset by safety worries, GlaxoSmithKline’s Avandia got hammered last quarter, with sales down 48% in the U.S. and 38% worldwide compared with the year-earlier period. Overall, Glaxo’s earnings were down 4% for the quarter to $2.7 billion or 48 cents per share, the company said this morning.Glaxo also sketched out a long-awaited restructuring plan, which [...]
If you think clinical guidelines are just some medical cookbook destined for dusty shelves in a doctor’s office, don’t tell shareholders of Genomic Health.Shares of the molecular diagnostics maker jumped $3.28, or 16%, to $23.89 Tuesday, after the American Society of Clinical Oncology included the company’s Oncotype DX test in updated guidelines for using tumor [...]
More than 40 medical malpractice lawsuits have been filed against Florida cruise ship companies over the last decade, but nearly all have floundered in court or been dismissed, the WSJ’s Stephanie Chen reports. In the suits, passengers claim they were hurt as a result of poor medical care or that ship doctors made injuries worse. [...]
The chemical that gives chili peppers their heat may help fight pain. But results from a recent study of hernia patients who had an experimental pepper-based drug dripped into their groin during surgery failed to prove that it did any good.The findings, presented earlier this month at an anesthesiology conference, compared pain relief for 20 [...]
New York’s public hospitals have their work cut out for them when it comes to treating diabetes, but sometimes it’s the small stuff that counts the most.Behind the scenes, the hospital system has an extensive electronic medical-record system that can help track key tests for thousands of patients. By looking at the data for the [...]
A jury in Massachusetts found that Roche’s anemia drug Mircera infringes Amgen’s patents, dealing a blow to the Swiss company’s efforts to launch a competing medicine to boost the production of red blood cells (pictured) in kidney dialysis patients.Roche said it’s “evaluating its legal options” and may appeal the decision rendered in federal district court [...]
