Reuters Health News Summary


Reuters | Updated: 11-12-2019 10:31 IST | Created: 11-12-2019 10:31 IST
Reuters Health News Summary

Following is a summary of current health news briefs. U.S. Supreme Court justices lean toward insurers on $12 billion Obamacare claims

U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared sympathetic to claims made by health insurers seeking $12 billion from the federal government under a program set up by the Obamacare law aimed at encouraging them to offer medical coverage to previously uninsured Americans. The justices considered a challenge by a group of insurers of a lower court's ruling that Congress had suspended the government's obligation to make such payments. The insurers have said that ruling constituted a "bait-and-switch" that would enable the government to withhold money the companies were promised. U.S. Supreme Court leaves in place Kentucky abortion restriction

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday left in place a Kentucky restriction requiring doctors to show and describe ultrasound images to women seeking an abortion, turning away a challenge arguing that the measure violates the free speech rights of physicians. The justices declined without comment to hear an appeal by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of a lower court ruling that upheld the law after a federal judge previously had struck it down as a violation of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment guarantee of free speech. Many summer camps may not be prepared for kids with allergies

(Reuters Health) - Although most summer camps welcome kids with food allergies, they often don't require individualized emergency plans from these campers, a U.S. study suggests. Researchers surveyed 559 leaders at 258 summer camps about food allergy policies, training, medication availability, anaphylaxis events, and confidence in staff to recognize and treat anaphylaxis - a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction that can be triggered by things like bee stings or peanuts. Bluebird bio, Bristol-Myers' multiple myeloma therapy shows promise in early study

Bluebird bio Inc and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co on Monday reported encouraging initial data from an ongoing early-stage study testing their experimental therapy for multiple myeloma in patients who did not respond to prior treatments. The lowest dose of the therapy, bb21217, had a median duration of response of 11.1 months and an overall response rate of 83% in heavily pre-treated patients with at least three prior lines of therapy, according to data presented at the American Society of Hematology Conference. High schools struggle to follow state concussion laws

(Reuters Health) - High schools across the U.S. face numerous barriers to implementing laws intended to help students recover from concussions, a small U.S. study suggests. Researchers interviewed 64 high school athletic trainers from 26 states and the District of Columbia about challenges they encountered when trying to follow state policies designed to educate coaches and parents about concussions, remove athletes from sports during concussion recovery and ease athletes back into sports participation safely. Starboard picks stake in Mednax, calls for co's sale: WSJ

Activist investor Starboard Value LP is pushing healthcare service provider Mednax Inc to sell all or part of itself, reported the Wall Street Journal citing people familiar with the matter. Starboard, which acquired a sizable stake in the company, has privately nominated a majority slate of directors for Mednax's board. Children conceived from frozen embryos at increased risk for certain cancers

(Reuters Health) - When frozen embryos are used during in vitro fertilization (IVF), the resulting children have a slightly higher risk than other kids for certain types of cancer, evidence from Denmark suggests. Analyzing health records of more than a million Danish children, researchers found that babies conceived through assisted reproduction involving frozen embryo transfer were more than twice as likely to develop childhood cancer, particularly leukemia and neuroblastoma, a type of brain cancer, according to the report in JAMA. J&J CEO spurns U.S. congressional hearing on carcinogens in talc products

Johnson & Johnson Chief Executive Officer Alex Gorsky has declined to appear at a U.S. congressional hearing set for Tuesday on the safety of the company's Baby Powder and other talc-based cosmetics. In an announcement, the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy said that its efforts to persuade Gorsky to testify included "repeated attempts to accommodate the company" over nearly a month. Correvio suffers fresh blow as heart drug fails to win FDA panel backing

Independent experts to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday voted against Correvio Pharma Corp's drug to correct irregular rhythm in the upper chambers of the heart in adult patients, the latest setback to the company's efforts to market a potential blockbuster in the country. The panel voted 11-2 against approving the drug, Brinavess, citing serious safety risks, including low blood pressure and irregular rhythm in the lower heart chambers, and deaths during the trials. UK reports bird flu for first time since 2017

Britain's government said bird flu had been confirmed at a chicken farm in eastern England on Tuesday, the first such report since June 2017. Some 27,000 birds at the farm would be slaughtered following the discovery of the H5 strain, which the agriculture ministry described as "low pathogenic."

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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