The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released its final rule on Medicaid recovery audit contractors (RACs), directing states to coordinate with other contractors, entities auditing Medicaid providers and state and federal law enforcement agencies.

Researchers from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) have estimated that Medicare contractors nationwide overpaid physicians $28.8 million for incorrectly coded services provided during 2008 and 2009.

BOSTONThe severity of heart failure (HF) may play a role in the overall commonness of comorbidities, Robert Lee Page II, PharmD, associate professor in the department of clinical pharmacy at the University of Colorado Anschutz medical campus in Denver, said during a Sept. 19 presentation at the 15th annual Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA) scientific meeting. While some comorbidities (hypertension, COPD and coronary artery disease) have been well-recognized, depression and obesity are beginning to crop up as potential problems.

Three government agencies will collaborate to develop a chip to screen drugs faster and more efficiently than current methods for safety and effectiveness, according to a Sept. 16 statement from President Barack Obama. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the FDA will develop the chip to carry specific cell types that reflect human biology to report on whether specific compounds are toxic to humans.

The number of new cases of breast cancer diagnosed worldwide has risen dramatically from about 640,000 in 1980 to 1.6 million in 2010. During the same period, cervical cancer incidence and death rates have been decreasing, but the disease still killed 200,000 women in 2010, according to the first global estimates published Sept. 14 in The Lancet. The report shows that, in 2010, 51 percent of the 1.6 million new cases of breast cancer and 76 percent of the 425,000 new cases of cervical cancer occurred in developing countries.

The rates of new lung cancer cases in the U.S. dropped among men in 35 states and among women in six states between 1999 and 2008, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Among women, lung cancer incidence decreased nationwide between 2006 and 2008, after increasing steadily for decades. Smoking cessation fueled the decline and other data have suggested CT screening could motivate smokers to quit.

GE, along with its healthcare and financial partners, has launched a healthymagination initiative aimed at accelerating cancer innovation and improving care for 10 million cancer patients globally by 2020.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), along with several association and industry partners, has launched Million Hearts, an initiative that aims to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes in the U.S. over the next five years. Currently, cardiovascular disease (CVD) costs $444 billion every year in medical costs and lost productivity for people living in the U.S.