Category: Insurance

MEwens
McNeil Oversight Changes: Johnson & Johnson is replacing two company group chairmen who had been charged with turning around the McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit after a series of recalls, the WSJ reports. Patrick Mutchler, charged with overseeing McNeil last April, is retiring and will be replaced by Roberto Marques. Meantime, the duties of […]

Laura Landro
Consumer Unit Oversight Changes: Johnson & Johnson is replacing two company group chairmen who had been charged with turning around the company’s consumer health unit after a series of recalls, the WSJ reports. Patrick Mutchler, charged with overseeing McNeil Consumer Healthcare last April, is retiring and will be replaced by Roberto Marques. […]

MEwens
Hostile Bid For Illumina: Swiss drug maker Roche is making a $44.50 per-share hostile bid for Illumina, valuing the gene-sequencing company at $5.7 billion, the WSJ reports. Illumina has already rejected an offer of $40 per share, Roche says. The latest bid represents a premium of about 18% to Illumina’s $37.69 closing price […]

MEwens
In the Big Issues special report on health care, the WSJ explores the pros and cons of proposed patient identification numbers.
The numbers would be assigned to every individual in the U.S., similar to a Social Security number, but for use by health-care providers. Proponents say that as medical records go digital and […]

MEwens
Even a small gap in Medicaid coverage can have consequences for diabetics, new research suggests.
The study looked at 3,384 diabetes patients who received medical care at 50 clinics in Oregon from 2005-2007. The care was mostly free, but some recommended diagnostic tests and other services — including cholesterol screening, HbA1c testing to determine […]

MEwens
The future of the health-care overhaul law hinges on a decision by the Supreme Court in 2012; the court will hear a case challenging the law’s constitutionality over three days starting March 26, with a decision expected by the end of June. Meantime, though, more provisions of the law are due to […]

MEwens
Focus on Formula: Wal-Mart and Supervalu have removed certain containers of Mead Johnson Nutrition’s Enfamil infant formula from their store shelves following the death of a Missouri infant from a rare bacterial infection, the WSJ reports. The FDA is testing the formula for the presence of the Cronobacter sakazakii bacteria that killed the […]

MEwens
Up to the States: The onus is on the states to make the tough decisions about what treatments must be covered by individual and small-group plans under the health-care overhaul law, the WSJ reports. The Obama administration said states would be able to align coverage standards with those of popular federal- and state-employee […]

MEwens
New Medicare Plan: Republican Rep. Paul Ryan and Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden plan to today propose a plan for changing Medicare that would permit private health-insurance plans to compete for enrollees with the traditional Medicare plan, the WSJ reports. The plan, which would take effect in 2022 and wouldn’t apply to current Medicare […]

MEwens
Gene Therapy Advance: Researchers reported online in the New England Journal of Medicine that they saw success in using gene therapy to treat hemophilia B, with four of six patients making enough of a crucial blood-clotting factor to skip their usual protein injections and the other two requiring injections less frequently, the WSJ […]