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MedPAC Questions Spending But Comes Up Short On Solutions
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission - an independent group that makes recommendations to Congress on Medicare issues - said in its annual June report that the "government must give doctors and health-care facilities incentives to rein in costs in providing care for the elderly and disabled," the Wall Street Journal reports. The panel, known as MedPAC, raised specific questions about high priced imaging services that encourage doctors to over use them, the possibility of penalizing physicians who provide poor care at high cost with lower payments, and whether to cut payments to private plans that provide Medicare coverage (Zhang, 6/16).
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Strategies Evolving As Retractable Safety Syringe Suppliers Strive For Traction
Following the lead of the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act in the U.S., government regulations regarding syringe needle handling and disposal continue to proliferate worldwide, fostering increased demand in the use of safety syringes. Retractable syringes represent the most elegant approach to addressing the caregiver sharps risk issue by lowering the risk of user error and de-emphasizing the need for a separate sharps disposal step.
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Goal Of Good Quality Medicines Advanced By New USP Agreement With 9 ASEAN Countries
Furthering its mission to improve the quality of medicines worldwide, the U.S. Pharmacopeial (USP) Convention has signed a cooperative agreement with nine countries belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). In a drive to strengthen capacities and certification status of national drug quality control laboratories, officials from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand had formed an ASEAN Reference Materials Working Group (ARMWG) to focus on modern, international measurement standards for medicines in the region. The agreement with USP is the culmination of discussions that started in 2008 with the aim of improving the production, precision and quality of ASEAN Reference Substances (ARS).
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Adolescent Women's Contraceptive Use Is Less Consistent Than That Of Adult Women, With A Much Higher Failure Rate

A new study of women"s contraceptive use around the world finds that sexually active 15-19-year-olds are more likely than their 20-49-year-old counterparts to use contraceptives inconsistently and, on average, experience a 25% higher rate of contraceptive failure. The study"s authors, Ann K. Blanc of EngenderHealth et al., believe that compared with adult women, adolescent women face more obstacles to consistent contraceptive use-including feeling embarrassed about seeking out contraceptives, not being able to afford them and not knowing how to use them correctly-and may be more likely to abandon a method and try another if they experience side effects, which often leads to gaps in contraceptive use. The authors also note that, in comparison with adult women, adolescents tend to use methods with higher failure rates, to use methods less effectively and to be more fertile-all factors that increase the risk of unintended pregnancy. Despite the barriers they may face in using contraceptives consistently, roughly 25% of sexually active young women had used a method by age 19, with many countries experiencing substantial increases over the last few decades. Blanc and colleagues observe that the rising proportion of young women practicing contraception, coupled with global trends toward staying in school longer and delaying childbearing, have created a greater demand for comprehensive contraceptive services. The authors believe that meeting the contraceptive needs of young people will only become harder as the global population of adolescents increases. They conclude that meeting this expanded need will require greater investments in improving the quality of health systems, as well as in instituting targeted programs and policies aimed at increasing young people"s knowledge of and access to contraceptive services. The study, "Patterns and Trends in Adolescents" Contraceptive Use and Discontinuation in Developing Countries and Comparisons with Adult Women," analyzed nationally representative surveys conducted between 1986 and 2006 for more than 40 developing countries. It appears in the June 2009 issue of International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health


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