“You sound terrible. Go home.” A new survey about flu in the workplace shows that 33 percent of organizations send employees home if they come to work sick. Just over one in 10 offer telecommuting options for workers who are ill but ask to work from home. The 2008 Flu Prevention in the Workplace Survey from the Society for Human Resource Management provides a snapshot of how human resource professionals are responding to the flu season.

Women with diabetes are seven times more likely to have a stillborn baby compared to other women.These findings will be presented next week at Diabetes UK’s Annual Professional Conference in Glasgow. Research looking at 130 pregnancies in Leicester of women with Type 1 diabetes between 1999 and 2006 showed that 3.9 per cent resulted in stillbirth. This compares to 0.55 per cent according to a report on the pregnancy outcomes of all women.

Vain British men perceive themselves to be more than three inches slimmer than they really are and are ignoring a warning sign for diabetes. In a study being presented next week to Diabetes UK’s Annual Professional Conference (APC) in Glasgow, attended by over 3,000 healthcare professionals, more than 500 men and women were asked to estimate their waist size. Most under-estimated by an average of 2.7 inches.

The Stockton Record on Thursday looked at mental health among Hispanics. According to a study by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, fewer than one in 11 Hispanic immigrants seek care from mental health specialists, and fewer than one in five use services from general health care providers.

While there is an inexpensive, generic medication that can stop severe pain and the need for blood transfusions associated with sickle cell disease, few patients receive the treatment, Reuters reports. An NIH consensus panel discussed the issue on Wednesday.

Humana last month launched a program, called “Healthy Returns,” that provides its Medicare plan beneficiaries with gift cards to Macy’s, CVS, Lowe’s and

Private Medicare Advantage plans can cost beneficiaries more than traditional Medicare for home health care, nursing homes and certain hospital stays, according to a report released on Thursday by the Government Accountability Office, the New York Times reports.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center has announced that Ronald O. Perelman, chairman of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc., has made a $50 million gift to the Medical Center to be equally divided between NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College, in support of health care in New York City and around the world. The gift will establish the Ronald O.

Data from the ADVANCE Study, involving 11,140 high-risk patients with type 2 diabetes, provides no evidence of an increased risk of death among those patients receiving aggressive treatment to lower blood glucose.This contrasts findings from the 10,251 patient ACCORD trial which halted the intensive glucose control arm of the study 18 months early because a data review revealed that patients who received intensive treatment to lower blood glucose are at higher risk for death.

Barr Pharmaceuticals has agreed to pay $5.9 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that Barr accepted $20 million from Warner Chilcott for agreeing to not sell a generic version of Warner’s oral contraceptive Ovcon for five years, the Wall Street Journal reports.