Deciding when a resident is eligible to move to skilled care ranks among the most challenging dilemmas for long-term care facilities. Tracking Medicare Part A admissions rules, MDS assessments, eligibility requirements and benefits periods can stymie even the most careful administrators and clinicians — and negatively impact reimbursements, which can average from $350 to $650 per day for each Medicare resident.

Author Elizabeth Malzahn takes the mystery out of the process with “Long-Term Care Skilled Services: Applying Medicare’s Rules to Clinical Practice,” a practical, easy-to-read, 147-page guide for anyone involved in resident care decisions, compliance or payments in the long-term care arena.

Chock-full of clear examples, the book illustrates the roles of key players like nursing or therapy directors, chief financial officers or administrators, and explains how to properly manage the skilled services maze to minimize critical mistakes like over- or under-payment. Read the rest of this entry »


Sanofi-aventis announced a research collaboration with Columbia University Medical Center for the development of innovative diabetes medicines.

This three-year research collaboration, with the laboratory of Dr. Gerard Karsenty, will investigate the role of the osteoblast-secreted peptide, osteocalcin, in diabetes management.

In a landmark paper published in the research journal Cell in 2007, Dr. Karsenty, the Paul A. Marks Professor and Chair of the Department of Genetics and Development at Columbia University, and colleagues revealed that bone-forming cells called osteoblasts produce osteocalcin, a hormone that influences blood sugar levels and fat deposition.  These findings provided the first in vivo evidence of endocrine regulation of energy metabolism by the skeleton and opened the door for an entirely new area of exploration for novel pathways, targets and therapies directed toward metabolic disorders, including diabetes.

“We have spent more than a decade uncovering the biology of osteocalcin,” said Dr. Karsenty, “so we are delighted to have sanofi-aventis as a collaborating partner to help us continue this research.”

The collaboration will benefit from the extensive biological expertise of Dr. Karsenty and his team around osteocalcin and its role in metabolic regulation, while leveraging sanofi-aventis’ long and successful experience with drug discovery and development.

“Sanofi-aventis strives to deliver innovative and integrated patient-focused solutions for people living with diabetes, and this collaboration with Columbia University is an opportunity to collaborate with leading scientists on a new approach to diabetes management,” explained Dr. Paul Chew, Senior Vice President, U.S. Chief Science Officer and Chief Medical Officer, sanofi-aventis U.S.  ”Sanofi-aventis is excited to work with Dr. Karsenty and his team to help translate their findings into potential new therapies that benefit patients.”

Under the collaboration, sanofi-aventis will sponsor research in Dr. Karsenty’s laboratory and has an option to license and develop existing patents and results that may arise from the research into potential diabetes treatments.  Financial terms of this agreement were not disclosed.


The Healthy Home, a new book containing simple solutions for making your home healthier, was released through Vanguard Publishing.

Written by award-winning microbiologist Dr. Myron Wentz and USANA Health Sciences CEO Dave Wentz, The Healthy Home tackles everyday problems from chemicals in our household products to contaminants in our food and more. The authors will be traveling across North America on The Healthy Home book tour from March 25 to April 21, 2011 and are proud to donate all their proceeds to Children’s Hunger Fund (CHF), a nonprofit organization distributing food and other vital resources to children from impoverished communities worldwide.

“I was inspired to write this book while preparing for the birth of my first child,” says Dave Wentz. “The Healthy Home is meant to inform readers about the toxic hazards in their homes they may not know about.  It provides easy solutions for improving their homes and, ultimately, the long-term health of their families.”

The Healthy Home Book Tour , which is free and open to the public, will include book signings and a presentation featuring scientific demonstrations.

“As a scientific researcher and long-time health advocate, I know what hidden dangers to look for,” says Dr. Myron Wentz, who is also author of A Mouth Full of Poison: The Truth about Mercury Amalgam Fillings. “Many people have not been given the tools to recognize those dangers, and this book will give them that.”

Dr. Wentz, a long-time supporter of Children’s Hunger Fund, chose the charity because of its reputation as one of the nation’s most cost-effective charities. For the past ten years, CHF has given an average of 99% of its revenue to programs serving children in need.

“It is no small thing to donate the proceeds of your book to charity,” says Dave Phillips, CHF President and Founder. “Dave and Dr. Wentz have shown incredible generosity, which is going to have an impact all over the world. Whether in the slums and villages in the world’s most impoverished regions, or in the wake of disasters like the one unfolding in Japan, we will be able to provide food and hope to the innocent children who are suffering through it all.” Read the rest of this entry »


Spacebound Bacteria Inspire Earthbound Remedies

  • Author: Health Informer
  • Filed under: Health News
  • Date: Mar 22,2011

Recent research aboard the space shuttle is giving scientists a better understanding of how infectious disease occurs in space and could someday improve astronaut health and provide novel treatments for people on Earth.

“With our space-based research efforts, including the International Space Station, we are not only continuing our human presence in space, but we are engaged in science that can make a real difference in people’s lives here on Earth,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “NASA’s leadership in human spaceflight allows us to conduct innovative and ground-breaking science that reveals the unknown and unlocks the mysteries of how disease-causing agents work.”

The research involves an opportunistic pathogen known as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the same bacterium that caused astronaut Fred Haise to become sick during the Apollo 13 mission to the moon in 1970.

Scientists studying the bacterium aboard the shuttle hope to unlock the mysteries of how disease-causing agents work. They believe the research can lead to advanced vaccines and therapies to better fight infections. The findings are based on flight experiments with microbial pathogens on NASA shuttle missions to the International Space Station and appear in a recent edition of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

“For the first time, we’re able to see that two very different species of bacteria – Salmonella and Pseudomonas – share the same basic regulating mechanism, or master control switch, that micro-manages many of the microbes’ responses to the spaceflight environment,” said Cheryl Nickerson, associate professor at the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe. “We have shown that spaceflight affects common regulators in both bacteria that invariably cause disease in healthy individuals [Salmonella] and those that cause disease only in people with compromised immune systems [Pseudomonas].” Read the rest of this entry »


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