We applaud the Senate for passing legislation to reauthorize and expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Every day, SCHIP helps uninsured children across the nation receive the care they need for a healthier beginning. America’s hospitals support improving and extending this important program. A first step in protecting the health of America’s children is ensuring access to care. [click link for full article]

Two noted cancer treatment specialists reported yesterday about how they are using technologies from Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) to target tumors more accurately and to speed up delivery of ultra-precise intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) treatments. [click link for full article]

Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH) and Yale University announced that Yale alumnus Joel E. Smilow (Yale College ‘54) will make a major gift to support the new, 14-story cancer hospital currently under construction at Yale-New Haven. The comprehensive patient care facility will be known as the Smilow Cancer Hospital. “We are building one of the finest, patient-focused, cancer care facilities in the country,” said Marna P. Borgstrom, president and CEO of YNHH. [click link for full article]

“Medicaid’s Role in Family Planning,” Guttmacher Institute, [click link for full article]

Officials at the Ohio Department of Education are not applying for a $1.25 million, five-year grant from CDC intended to prevent the spread of HIV among teenagers, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. [click link for full article]

The St. Petersburg Times on Tuesday published a series on Medicare and the prescription drug benefit. Headlines and summaries appear below.”The A, B, Ds of Medicare … and HMOs and PPOs. The Good News: Most of You Have Until Dec. 31 To Pick a Plan. [click link for full article]

A new Swiss study has found that overall, drug-eluting stents do not offer good value for money and this would still be the case if they were considerably cheaper. They are however, cost-effective when used to treat high-risk patients with particularly narrow arteries or who have stents fitted to bypass grafts. [click link for full article]

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), U.S. Comptroller General David Walker and other witnesses on Wednesday testified before the Senate Budget Committee on legislation that would establish a commission to address issues related to the long-term financial stability of entitlement programs including Medicare, CQ Today reports (CQ Today, 10/31). [click link for full article]

The Politico on Wednesday examined Sen. Arlen Specter’s (R-Pa.) earmarks for abstinence-based sex education programs. According to The Politico, Specter — the ranking member on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, [click link for full article]

Fourteen percent of Gulf Coast residents reported serious mental illnesses two years after Hurricane Katrina, compared with 10.9% six months after the 2005 storm hit the area, according to a Harvard University survey, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. [click link for full article]