| Current Birmingham Medical News |
Children’s Hospital’s Regional Poison Control Center: Not Just Kid Stuff
In 1958, one doctor sat down at a telephone with his reference book and began saving lives. Fifty years later, that one-man department has mushroomed into the Regional Poison Control Center (RPCC) at Children’s Hospital, which now answers 38,815 calls a year for patients ranging from 4 hours to 109 years old.
Jane Ehrhardt
Cystic Fibrosis UAB Drug Trial Offers Hope
Back in college, Dr. Steven Rowe worked at a summer camp for patients with special needs, including those with cystic fibrosis (CF), an experience that had a profound effect on his life. Today, Dr. Rowe, an assistant professor of medicine at UAB, has the satisfaction of working as lead investigator on trials of a drug that may produce benefits for patients with a particular mutation of CF.
Cara Clark
UAB Researchers Lead the Way in Lupus Research
The Program Project in the Genetics of SLE at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), which is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has brought together scientists from across the nation to study lupus.
Lori Ditoro
| Healthcare Recruiting Focus |
Alabama Providers Face Difficulties with NPI Transition
HIPAA has mandated the adoption of National Provider Identifier (NPI) numbers with the goal of improving the efficiency of electronic claims.
“In the past, providers have had to use a different ID with each carrier when filing claims,” said Nancy Ellis of MediSYS. “With the NPI, they will have one number that works everywhere.”
Laura Freeman
Reimbursement Checkup: How Healthy Are Your Receivables? Needs EDITING
When you went to medical school, it probably wasn’t because you’d always dreamed of being an accountant. However, understanding the financial side of healthcare is an essential part of practice management.
We asked reimbursement specialists from three Alabama medical billing firms about the most effective strategies for making sure your claims are paid promptly and correctly.
Laura Freeman
Fertility: The Process of Egg Donation
More than 100,000 children in this nation owe their lives to egg donation technology. “It’s very accepted technology, because it’s a pretty simple routine,” said Virginia Houserman, MD, board-certified reproductive endocrinologist and director of the egg donation program at ART Fertility Program of Alabama, where close to 200 babies have been born due to this procedure since 1997.
JANE EHRHARDT
HPV Vaccine Reduces Unwanted Pap Test Results
The new HPV vaccine, GARDASIL®, reduced abnormal Pap test results by 43 percent, according to a recent analysis based on three large randomized trials. The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) served as a major enrolling site for the trials that included the United States, Europe and Asia.
JANE EHRHARDT
Current Physician Spotlight
Archived Physician Spotlight
Pandemic Influenza: Planning for the Unimaginable
It is Tuesday, October 5th. Downtown Birmingham is abandoned. The few who are present on the street wear white paper masks. The downtown hospitals’ emergency rooms overflow with the elderly and small children, coughing and wheezing. Some who began to feel ill only this morning will be dead by nightfall. Under large white tents, people wait in endless lines for medications that are in short supply.
Robin Franco
Recent CVS Caremark Settlement on Drug-switching Allegations
CVS Caremark Corporation (CVS) recently agreed to a $37.5 million settlement with the federal government and over twenty states. The settlement arose from allegations that CVS improperly switched patient prescriptions to increase Medicaid reimbursements. According to the Department of Justice, from 2000 to 2006, CVS routinely dispensed Ranitidine, a heartburn and ulcer medication, in the more expensive capsule form rather than the less expensive tablet version of the drug.
KELLI C. FLEMING
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