The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced steps it is taking to encourage physicians and other eligible professionals to take part in the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI), a program designed to improve the quality of care provided to Medicare beneficiaries. These steps, including a variety of new reporting options, will make it easier for eligible professionals to participate and receive feedback on their performance.

Based on observations of more than 4,000 infants, researchers in an NIH newborn research network have identified several factors that influence an extremely low birth weight infant’s chances for survival and disability. The findings offer new information to physicians and families considering the most appropriate treatment options for this category of infants.

Consumers should have access to a health care marketplace that provides information on the quality and cost of health care - such transparency empowers them to make better health care choices. As a provider of health insurance to more than 44 million Americans, the Medicare program is a considerable resource for such information.

Conservative Senate Republicans should not “drag their feet and jeopardize” the reauthorization of the President’s Plan for Emergency AIDS Relief during the current congressional session, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) writes in a Politico opinion piece, adding, “Delay is not the friend of those suffering abroad or …

Cook County, Ill., Judge James Epstein on Tuesday issued a temporary injunction to block Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s (D) efforts to expand the state’s FamilyCare program, the

Congresswoman Grace F. Napolitano (D-Norwalk) addressed a plenary session of the 12th Annual Conference of the National Hispanic Medical Association’s (NHMA) today. She spoke at a session titled “Recognition and Management of Depression and Co-Morbidities in the Hispanic Population.” The session will be held from 11 am - 3 pm in Room HC-7 of the U.S. Capitol. It will be the first meeting of the newly elected Board of Directors who will serve from 2008-2012.

Conservative Senate Republicans should not “drag their feet and jeopardize” the reauthorization of the President’s Plan for Emergency AIDS Relief, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) writes in a Politico opinion piece, adding, “Delay is not the friend of those suffering abroad or … of our own nation’s health.

Maryland health officials this summer will send letters to tens of thousands of state residents notifying them that family members might be eligible for state and federal health insurance programs, the Baltimore Sun reports. The General Assembly earlier this month

This month, UK supermarkets will begin to sell a new range of fruit smoothies ‘boosted’ with ingredients that are said to assist weight-loss, protect the endothelium, relieve mental fatigue, improve recall, and prevent infections in elderly people and children. At £1.79 ($3.55) for 250ml they cost about the same or less than regular fruit smoothies and they have been specially formulated to meet the taste and texture requirements that emerged from extensive consumer research.

The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday examined how “pediatric experts are wrestling with an emotionally fraught issue: whether to let some babies at risk for a potentially serious respiratory virus take their chances with the disease or to preventively administer an expensive drug that may or may not work.” Palivizumab, a synthetic antibody marketed by