Two independent insurance agencies on Wednesday announced they have merged to create what company executives say is Augusta's largest insurance firm.

AHIP recently announced a new online training program for brokers, agents, and plan marketing staff that is designed to strengthen their ability to provide Medicare beneficiaries the information they need to make the decisions that are best for them.  This initiative builds upon the Medicare Advantage and Part D marketing principles that were adopted by AHIP's Board of Directors in May 2007. 

Congress finally concluded the annual appropriations process last week by passing legislation, H.R. 2764, that provides roughly $500 billion in appropriations for hundreds of federal programs and agencies for the fiscal year that began on October 1.

In the final days of the 2007 session, the Senate and the House approved S. 2499, the "Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007."  This bill was approved by unanimous consent in the Senate and by a vote of 411 to 3 in the House.  President Bush will sign this bill into law. 

"We shouldn't put too much stock in the details of their plans, but look at the big picture, which will give us some idea of what the new president would push Congress on."

On Tuesday, most people opened presents and enjoyed Christmas dinner with their families.  But some did so with an ear to their pagers and cell phones. For every hospital in south-central Idaho, physicians specializing in family medicine, orthopedic surgery and other fields stayed on call over the holiday, ready to respond should an emergency room need them.

Albuquerque Public Schools nurse Nancy Benton uses any excuse to look at kids' teeth when they come into her office at Cochiti Elementary School.

Cheaper generic copies of some of the world's most expensive medicines could be on the way -- good news for consumers but painful for companies' bottom lines.

St. Lucie County's new program will continue to teach abstinence outside of marriage but also will highlight how HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases are transmitted and how to prevent them.

The modest spending increase that Congress approved for a popular children's health insurance program will maintain coverage for those already enrolled. But many lacking insurance will have to look elsewhere.

A government program to address a national health care crisis by placing foreign doctors in America's rural towns and inner cities is being undermined by employers - mostly U.S. doctors who profit by exploiting the physicians and diverting them from the patients who need them.

The modest spending increase that Congress approved for a popular children's health insurance program will maintain coverage for those already enrolled.

The agencies responsible for Medicaid also have been reorganized and integrated to better monitor waste. That pales next to 2005, when Spitzer's attorney general office recovered $274 million in Medicaid fraud. In New York's Medicaid program, that loss would represent $1.3 billion, according to officials in the state comptroller's office.

Virginia State University has received a $4 million federal grant to give more minority students an opportunity to study biomedical sciences and to help reduce health disparities among populations.

On December 19, the House and the Senate adjourned for the year after completing action on several end-of-the-session legislative priorities. 

Physicians who invest in their own hospitals caught a break this week when Congress declined to pass a bill that included a series of controversial restrictions.

Kids without health insurance will be able to get free wellness examinations when they enter kindergarten, through a new initiative at the West Virginia Children's Health Insurance Program, Gov. Joe Manchin said Thursday.

"ECHO developed the Alabama Type 2 Diabetes Report to serve as a useful resource for employers in their efforts to provide work-site wellness and care management programs to help employees manage chronic conditions like diabetes more effectively," said Karen Hill, President/CEO of ECHO.

Thousands of area employees and their families who get health coverage from SummaCare soon can seek care from University Hospitals without paying extra.

Congress has passed a Medicare regulation that saves two local rehabilitation hospitals from potentially losing patients.

Californians overwhelmingly support a plan to provide medical coverage to most of the state's uninsured as well as hiking the tax on a pack of cigarettes by $2 to help pay for it, according to a Field Poll released Thursday.

For the past two years, drugstore chains have been boosting their pharmacists' roles by introducing programs to help customers manage their health.

Hospital emergency departments across the United States, already struggling with overcrowding and growing patient loads, are increasingly unable to find specialists to help treat seriously injured and ill patients, according to medical experts.

Genentech appears to have resolved a dispute with ophthalmologists that will allow the company's drug Avastin to continue to be used to treat eye diseases, both sides announced on Thursday.

States are having a hard time following in the footsteps of cities that have succeeded in banning artery-clogging trans fats from restaurant menus.