U.S. Government Will Pay Hospitals for
Treatment Provided to Illegal Aliens
News-Medical.Net
Health care providers in the U.S. will, as from this week, be able to charge the government for emergency care they provide to illegal aliens. Final guidance was issued on May 9th by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which has set up a system for reimbursement. $1 billion has been set aside over four years to fund the program which was created by Medicare legislation passed in 2003.

Drug's Effect on Cancer Stuns Doctors
Experimental Drug Stops Cancer
The Associated Press
No one could have been more surprised than the doctors themselves. They were just hoping to relieve the symptoms of a deadly blood disorder and ended up treating the disease itself. In nearly half of the people who took the experimental drug, the cancer became undetectable. Specialists said Revlimid now looks like a breakthrough and the first effective treatment for many people with myelodysplastic syndrome, or MDS, which is even more common than leukemia.

Researchers Show How Leukemia Develops After Cancer Treatment
ACS News Today
A team of 20 scientists from the US, England, and France has learned how certain chemotherapy drugs can lead to a particular type of leukemia several years after cancer treatment. The leukemia, called acute promyelocytic leukemia, represents about one-fifth of all leukemias that develop after chemotherapy.

Pediatricians Add Value to Parenting Classes
HealthDay News
Parents of toddlers exhibiting disruptive behavioral problems can benefit from short education classes held in their pediatricians' offices, according to a preliminary study. "Pediatricians and family practitioners are in an ideal position to identify children's behavior problems early," principal investigator Dr. Ellen C. Perrin, chief of the division of developmental-behavioral pediatrics at the Floating Hospital for Children, Boston, and director of the Center for Children with Special Needs, said in a prepared statement.

Employer Drug Testing Slows Spread of Use
Billings Gazette
NEW YORK -- Employers are catching more workers using methamphetamine, but the drug's spread into the workplace appears to have slowed considerably, a new study finds. Employers who screen job applicants and workers for drugs saw the number testing positive for amphetamines increase by 6 percent last year. Positive tests for methamphetamine, one of two stimulants in that class of drugs, increased by 3 percent, according to a report to be released Monday by Quest Diagnostics Inc., one of the country's largest drug screening firms.

Chiropractor in Botox Probe Gets License
The Associated Press
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A chiropractor who owned the clinic where four people were paralyzed after they were injected with the raw botulism toxin instead of the anti-wrinkle drug Botox has regained his suspended license. Thomas Toia was placed on supervised probation for three years and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine, but the Florida Board of Chiropractic Medicine ruled Friday that he could begin seeing patients again.

Obesity-Linked Lung Stress May Trigger Asthma
HealthDay News
Lung compression may be a key factor linking asthma and obesity, new research shows. There's increasing evidence that excess weight gain raises risks for asthma, but little is known about physiologic links between the two.

Rapid Healing Trick Falls Foul of Anti-Doping Rules
NewScientist.com
Professional athletes who opt for an emerging treatment called "blood-spinning" in the hope of healing their injuries faster could fall foul of the World Anti-Doping Agency. The agency ruled last week that the procedure, based on concentrating and re-injecting a person's own blood, could introduce banned substances into the body.