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AARP Endorses Bill To Help Americans Get Care In Their Own Homes
More than one million Americans are living in nursing homes, but many would prefer to receive the services they need in their own homes, where they would be more comfortable and potentially save the health care system money in the long run. Unfortunately, many Americans who want to be cared for at home can"t because of a costly institutional bias in Medicaid, which pays for nearly two-thirds of the country"s nursing home residents. While state Medicaid programs are required to provide nursing home care, home and community-based services that are often less expensive are optional, leaving them first in line to be cut in a poor economy.

With Vandetanib (Zactima™) In Patients With Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) Presented At American Society Of Clinical Oncology
Data from the Phase III ZODIAC1 study in advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients, with the investigational drug vandetanib, were presented today at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Orlando. Results show that the study met its primary endpoint, demonstrating that the addition of vandetanib to docetaxel resulted in a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS), the length of time a patient lives without their cancer growing (hazard ratio [HR] 0.79, 97.58% CI 0.70-0.90; PAbout vandetanib
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Long-Term Care Program Would Provide Revenue - At First
A long-term care program could produce some needed dollars, at least in the short range, CQ Politics reports: "A new insurance program for long-term care that Democrats have included in a Senate health overhaul bill would produce about $58 billion in revenue for the government over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office, helping to offset the cost of the legislation. Democrats acknowledge that spending in the long-term care program would increase after 10 years and that it likely would not remain a very profitable enterprise for the government. It is even possible, they say, that the program could become insolvent; in that case, the secretary of Health and Human Services would be authorized to close its enrollment. "The CBO says that premiums would have to rise significantly higher than Democrats have assumed for the program to remain financially sound."
Public Health

Quality And Purity Of Popular Stevia Sweetener Strengthened By New Reference Standards

As the number of food and beverage products sweetened with stevia-based ingredients continues to grow in the United States and worldwide, the U.S. Pharmacopeial (USP) Convention announces that new reference standards for Rebaudioside A and Stevioside are now available. The reference standards for these two ingredients complement the soon to be released written testing standard for high-purity Rebaudioside A in the Food Chemicals Codex (FCC), a collection of documentary standards for food ingredients that allow manufacturers to demonstrate the quality, and thus related aspects of safety, of the products they provide to consumers. The reference standards for Rebaudioside A and Stevioside are authenticated pure chemicals against which both producers and purchasers can compare their ingredients to help ensure and substantiate the identity, quality, purity, strength and consistency of their food ingredient, protecting their products and brands from low-quality, potentially adulterated ingredients, thus helping to maintain food safety. The internationally recognized FCC and its associated reference standards are produced by USP, a nonprofit scientific organization that has set chemical standards for close to 200 years. These standards - for pharmaceuticals, excipients, dietary supplements and food ingredients - are used in more than 130 countries throughout the world. The new stevia standards demonstrate the commitment of USP to continue to support the food industry with quality monographs and reference standards. "These new reference standards, taken together with the written standards in the FCC, provide a powerful tool to help ensure the authenticity of the ingredients manufacturers are using in their new stevia-based product lines," said James Griffiths, Ph.D., vice president of food, dietary supplement and excipient standards for USP. "As these ingredients are produced all over the world in widely disparate facilities, their authenticity, quality and purity cannot be taken for granted. It is thus important for ingredient producers who want to safeguard their products to demonstrate the quality of their ingredients to their customers. USP is well poised and committed to providing useful tools for enabling interested parties to readily verify new stevia-based sweeteners and numerous other food ingredients." The new reference standards have been thoroughly tested and endorsed by USP"s Reference Standards Expert Committee, a group of independent volunteer experts, to ensure their suitability for use. The written FCC testing standard for high-purity Rebaudioside A is expected to be released August 31, 2009. Francine Pierson US Pharmacopeia


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