Month: October 2013

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal court challenge to new limits on abortions in Texas may hinge on complicated legal questions created by a myriad of U.S. Supreme Court rulings over the past decade on when a state may ignore medical considerations and limit the procedure, attorneys in the case argued Wednesday.

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – For information on how drugs work and affect people, a new study says regulatory reports that are rarely published are better sources than the typical documents that are publicly available. German researchers found that so-called clinical study reports produced by pharmaceutical companies had complete information on 86 percent of study outcomes that are relevant to patients. In contrast, only about 39 percent of those outcomes were found in other sources, such as studies published in academic journals. …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Executives from top health insurance companies agreed to form new technical teams to help the Obama administration fix a website used to sign up for ‘Obamacare’ health insurance, the White House said on Wednesday. “We are collaborating closely with the insurers to address problems we have witnessed in what are called ‘834’ forms and in direct enrollment,” the White House said after top executives from 14 insurance companies met with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and other top administration officials. …

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge says he’ll rule on the legality of Texas’ strict new abortion law before it can take effect next week.

By Laila Kearney SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California Governor Jerry Brown intervened on Wednesday to block 1,800 San Francisco-area bus drivers and other workers from walking off their jobs just as the traffic-clogged region is recovering from a massive commuter rail strike. At Brown's request, the Alameda County Superior Court imposed a 60-day cooling-off period on Alameda-Contra Costa Transit Agency (AC Transit) workers to stop a walkout planned for early Thursday, Brown's office said on Wednesday. …

By Gabriel Debenedetti WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The budget and debt standoff in Washington that led to a U.S. government shutdown this month was a fundraising boon for Democratic groups, which had one of their most lucrative months of the year. But the Republicans' push to hold up government funding to try to delay or defund Democratic President Barack Obama's healthcare law also apparently paid off for independent conservative groups, which raked in millions of dollars in the two months before the partial shutdown of the U.S. government began on October 1. …

U.S. researchers have discovered a relationship between obesity and lower pancreatic cancer survival rates after diagnosis. Their work is one early step in defining the link between cancer and obesity.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Health and Human Services Department will hold daily news briefings starting Thursday on progress addressing the myriad technical issues that plague the healthcare.gov website. The briefings for reporters come as the Obama administration tries to limit the damage from the glitch-plagued rollout of the site, which could affect the number of uninsured Americans who sign up for insurance. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

By David Lawder and Mark Felsenthal WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House sought to limit the political damage from the troubled rollout of the government's healthcare website as Republicans increased pressure on Wednesday to delay parts of President Barack Obama's signature domestic policy. Obama administration officials held a closed-door briefing for Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives and planned a session with insurance company executives to explain steps they are taking to quickly resolve problems with Healthcare.gov. …