Orshe

FDA head Margaret Hamburg also urged Congress to pass pending food-safety legislation.

Original post:  Egg Recall Roundup: Avoid Runny Yolks, FDA Head Says

What kind of federal taxes should insurers be able to deduct from their revenue to calculate the MLR?

The rest is here: Health-Care Overhaul Nitty-Gritty: The Medical-Loss Ratio and Taxes

Sen. Vitter has also called on HHS to remove the new U.S. Preventive Services Task Force breast cancer screening recs from the agency’s website.

Read the original post:  Senator Slams FDA Advisory Committee’s Avastin Decision

A long cover story in Washington Monthly has gotten people talking about group purchasing organizations again.

Original post:  GPOs Back Under the Microscope

Also: justifying insurance premium increases to regulators; Dell bets on health IT; reducing medical waste.

Continued here: A.M. Vitals: Lilly Focuses on Alzheimer’s, Diabetes, Cancer

Also: victory for Mass. insurer; production problems being addressed by J&J; medical ghostwriting.

Read the original: A.M. Vitals: Aetna Finds California Rate Filing Error

We’ll have to go through this again at the end of November. (Happy Thanksgiving!)

View post:  Medicare ‘Doc Fix’ Looks Likely … See You in November!

Congress seems ready to next week finalize a so-called “doc fix” that will give physicians a 2.2% pay increase.

Go here to see the original: Medicare Pay Cut: It’s a Bad News/Good News Kinda Day

Yesterday the Senate effectively rejected a spending bill that included a 19-month fix for Medicare payments.

Here is the original: Medicare Doc Fix Update: 19-Month Relief Flops in Senate

Pfizer dominated the samples biz, with $2.7 billion in free meds in 2007.

See the original post here: Big Drug Companies Gave Out $3 Billion in Samples in ‘07