Acting CMS Administrator Leslie Norwalk on Wednesday at a hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging said that the Wisconsin SeniorCare prescription drug program likely will not receive a new Medicaid waiver after June 30, CQ HealthBeat reports (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 3/28). [click link for full article]

Participating in moderate to vigorous physical activity and limiting time in front of the television are some of the keys to successful weight loss in teens, according to researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School. [click link for full article]

Infants with whooping cough were most likely infected by the people they live with, according to a multi-country study led by researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health.The study found that parents were the source of pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough, in 55 percent of infants. [click link for full article]

Diabetes has become the greatest public health crisis of the next quarter century. To address the burden of this disease, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) is issuing an urgent call-to-action for Americans to find out their risk for type 2 diabetes during the 19th annual American Diabetes Alert® Day. More than six million Americans have diabetes, but don’t even know it. Another 54 million Americans have pre-diabetes, placing them at increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes. [click link for full article]

Mother Love, talk show host, advice guru, and humorist, has declared war against a disease that has taken the lives of both her parents and her sister - and now affects her health. In the April issue of the American Diabetes Association’s Diabetes Forecast magazine, Mother Love speaks about her personal fight against diabetes and her crusade to help others do the same. [click link for full article]

The American Kidney Fund (AKF), the nation’s #1 source of financial assistance to kidney patients, announced today that it is initiating a new program to help qualified dialysis patients pay for prescription bone disease medications under Medicare Part D. Under the program, eligible patients may receive up to $2,000 per year in prescription assistance for bone disease medications. [click link for full article]

The House on Wednesday unanimously approved legislation (HR 1538) intended to improve care for wounded soldiers treated at military facilities, the Los Angeles Times reports (Schreck, Los Angeles Times, 3/28). The [click link for full article]

In what some leading cardiologists are calling a “blockbuster” study, new research could alter the approach to treating patients who have cardiovascular disease but may not be at immediate risk of heart attack or stroke.Co-authored by UK HealthCare’s Linda and Jack Gill Heart Institute cardiologist Dr. [click link for full article]

Bariatric surgery - any of several procedures designed to reduce how much a person eats or how many calories their bodies absorb - can reduce insulin resistance and improve beta cell function in severely obese people, regardless of whether they lose any weight, according to a study by researchers in Italy. With the number of obese people rising rapidly in the U.S. and around the world, bariatric surgery has been growing in popularity. [click link for full article]

People who have type 2 diabetes are more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease as they age, though researchers are uncertain what accounts for the link between the two diseases, according to a new study being published in the April issue of Diabetes Care. [click link for full article]