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Department Of Justice, HHS Boosts Number Of Investigators, Prosecutors Looking At Medicare, Medicaid Fraud
HHS and the Department of Justice on Wednesday launched the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team to detect and prevent fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, the Washington Post reports (Johnson, Washington Post, 5/21). DOJ also plans to establish teams to address fraud in the Medicare Part D program and CHIP (Kennedy, AP/Houston Chronicle, 5/20). Wednesday"s announcement also included a recommendation by President Obama"s administration to include $311 million in the fiscal year 2010 budget to address health care fraud, which is a 50% increase from FY 2009. According to Attorney General Eric Holder, efforts to combat health care fraud will contribute to the administration"s health care overhaul plans (Clark/Weaver, McClatchy/Kansas City Star, 5/20). The task force, which will include HHS and DOJ staff members, law enforcement agents and prosecutors, will meet biweekly, CQ HealthBeat reports (Norman, CQ HealthBeat, 5/20). Under the plan, existing enforcement teams in Miami and Los Angeles will be expanded and new teams will be established in Houston and Detroit, where officials say suspicious billing patterns have emerged. In addition, the plan will set up task forces in 10 other major cities, which were not named (AP/Houston Chronicle, 5/20). The enforcement teams will increase site visits to durable medical equipment suppliers upon their enrollment. In addition, officials will expand training to help providers identify and prevent fraud or other mistakes (CQ HealthBeat, 5/20). The task force will use electronic claims data to detect "unusual billing problems," according to the Post (Washington Post, 5/21). HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the task force also intends to simplify billing systems and assist state officials in conducting Medicaid audits (CQ HealthBeat, 5/20). According to Holder, the joint task force will allow officials to share real-time intelligence data on health care fraud by monitoring claims payments, billing patterns and targeted surveillance (AP/Houston Chronicle, 5/20). Money

Official Launch Of A European Obesity Day Online Survey
On the 16th May Member of European Parliament Magor Imre Csibi (Romanian MEP of the Alliance for Liberals and Democrats), the UK National Obesity Forum (NOF) and the Belgian Obese Patients organisation (BOLD) launched the "European Obesity Day" online survey. With excess weight and obesity increasing across Europe at an alarming rate, the online survey seeks to understand to what degree this is of concern to European citizens and what steps we think should be taken to address this pressing issue.
News of the day
Study Rewrites Textbook On Key Genetic Phenomenon
Because females carry two copies of the X chromosome to males" one X and one Y, they harbor a potentially toxic double dose of the over 1000 genes that reside on the X chromosome.
Diagnostics

Motor Molecules Use Random Walks To Make Deliveries In Living Cells

Cells rely on tiny molecular motors to deliver cargo, such as mRNA and organelles, within the cell. The critical nature of this transport system is evidenced by the fact that disruption of motors by genetic defects leads to fatal diseases in humans. Although investigators have isolated these motor to study their function in a controlled environment outside the cell, it has been difficult for researchers to follow these fascinating molecular transporters in their natural environment, the living cell. Now, two articles published by Cell Press in Biophysical Journal, make use of incredibly tiny, glowing "quantum dots" to track the miniscule motions of myosin V in living cells. Interestingly, both research groups independently report that myosin V molecules carry their quantum dot cargo either in a straight line or in a manner akin to a drunken walk. Myosin V is a motor molecule that "walks" in a fashion similar to humans by stepping along actin filament tracks that are assembled in a dense, criss-crossing network inside the cell. A critical feature of these motors is their ability to walk long distances without falling off their tracks. However, this has never been observed within cells. Through the binding of quantum dots directly to a single myosin V molecule, both investigative teams used sophisticated microscopes and sensitive cameras to witness the 72 nanometer strides (equivalent to 1 millionth of an inch) taken by these motors for the first time in cells. In results published in the May 20th 2009 issue of Biophysical Journal, Dr. Giovanni Cappello from the Institut Curie in Paris, France tracked the movement of single myosin V molecules with inside living HeLa cells. Dr. Cappello and colleagues reported that the myosin V can transport cargo for long distances without falling off its track at velocities higher than would be expected based on earlier studies. "Our approach goes beyond conventional experiments on organelles and opens interesting perspectives for studying intracellular transport pathways and how motors behave in complex filament networks," says Dr. Cappello. Dr. David Warshaw and colleagues from the University of Vermont College of Medicine used quantum dots to follow the activity of myosin V in COS-7 cells. Their findings, published in the July 22nd 2009 issue of the journal, suggested that myosin V"s apparent drunken walk is in fact the motor taking turns at almost every intersection it encounters along the dense and randomly oriented intracellular actin highway. "Cargo delivery in cells can"t totally be a random process, therefore, using the approach described here we can characterize how motors and cargo link up and understand the engineering design principles Mother Nature uses to guarantee efficient and effective delivery of cargo within cells," offers Dr. Warshaw. Researchers include Shane R. Nelson, M. Yusuf Ali, Kathleen M. Trybus, David M. Warshaw, of the department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, University of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT. Cathleen Genova Cell Press


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