Federal investigators are scrutinizing a series of flawed brachytherapy implants at the Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital in Philadelphia as well as at other VA hospitals. According to a June 21 report in the New York Times, over a span of more than six years, 92 of 116 brachytherapy treatments had botched dosing during the procedures.

Reps. Artur Davis, D-Ala., Steve Israel, D-N.Y., and Mary Jo Kilroy, D-Ohio, have introduced bill HR 2872 to establish a national demonstration project to improve the quality and cost effectiveness of cancer care for Medicare beneficiaries.

President Barack Obama Sunday released plans to cut in half the prescription drug expenses of Medicare Part D beneficiaries who have reached the coverage gap (doughnut hole) in their prescription benefit. Simultaneously, pharmaceutical companies have agreed to foot the bill for $80 billion in Medicare drugs over the next decade for this population.

The combined use of Medicare Parts A and B billing claims composes a sensitive measure of cardiovascular events in older patients after kidney transplant, according to a study published online June 18 in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

Patients treated for Hodgkin lymphoma with radiotherapy (RT) experience a substantially increased risk of stroke and transient ischemic attack, according to a study published online June 17 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Medical technology company Elekta has entered a cooperative agreement with SEK, a Swedish export credit company. The agreement entails customer financing and applies globally with the exception of North America, where Elekta already has an established partner for customer financing.

Data released by the Radiology Business Management Association (RBMA) this week demonstrated that the use rate of diagnostic imaging equipment in an outpatient setting is approximately one half the amount claimed by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) and the Administration of President Barack Obama.

Benchmarking utilization patterns provides a foundation for assessing the appropriateness of cancer care in the future, according to research published in the July issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.