The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it is seeking a $2.2 million penalty against a California hearing aid manufacturer for violations of federal law, including manufacturing standards violations and the failure to notify the FDA of a change in an outside supplier or vendor, which may have exposed recipients of the devices to unnecessary health risks.

UNICEF expresses its relief at the release of four drivers from the State Water Corporation in North Darfur, who were abducted along with drilling equipment in Um Tajok more than a week ago. The drivers have now been safely reunited with their families, although the stolen equipment has not been recovered.

The highest rate of stroke hospitalizations among Medicare beneficiaries exists among African-Americans and in counties located primarily in the southeastern states, according to a new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in collaboration with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

California has not been complying with a state law that requires the Medi-Cal director to review physician reimbursement rates annually and ensure that Medi-Cal beneficiaries have access to physician and dental services, the Sacramento Bee reports. Medi-Cal is California’s Medicaid program.

A group of women in Cuba’s Pinar del Rio province has been operating a peer education program to raise awareness among other women about sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, the Inter Press Service reports. Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health recorded 7,739 HIV/AIDS cases in the country as of October 2007.

A study published in JAMA reports that the drugpioglitazone is more effective at reducing the rate of plaque build-upin the coronary arteries than the drug glimepiride. Both medicationsare designed to treat type 2 diabetes (also known as adult-onsetdiabetes).For patients with diabetes, atherosclerosis - the process in whichplaque sticks to the inner lining of the arteries - can be quiteaggressive and result in higher rates of cardiovascular events.

Summarizes of Medicaid developments in Missouri and Oklahoma appear below. Missouri: The Missouri House on Wednesday voted 88-61 to reject a bill that would have expanded Medicaid coverage to state residents with incomes up to 90% of the federal poverty level — nearly four times the current eligibility limit, the Kansas City Star reports.

The “meteoric rise” of angioplasty during the past three decades “has ended,” according to several analyses, USA Today reports. Angioplasty, which involves guiding a small balloon through a blocked artery that supplies blood to the heart, has grown into an $8 billion-a-year industry since it was introduced in 1977, according to USA Today.

The rate of hospitalizations among Hispanics for diabetes-related leg and foot amputations increased between 2001 and 2004, while rates declined slightly for blacks and remained steady for whites, the Schenectady Daily Gazette reports (Schenectady Daily Gazette, 3/24). The findings — from the

U.S. residents are focusing more attention on the national economic slump than the potential insolvency of Medicare reported by program trustees on Tuesday, according to experts at a panel discussion on Wednesday, CQ HealthBeat reports. The panel was hosted by the American Enterprise Institute (Cooley, CQ HealthBeat, 3/27).