In Brief

More than 100,000 beneficiaries are now participating in voluntary Medicare Health Support programs designed to reduce health risks and improve the quality of life for chronically ill patients. The eight pilot programs connect participants with specially trained health professionals to help patients manage their health, adhere to their physicians’ plan of care and reduce their health risks. According to CMS, chronic conditions are a leading cause of illness, disability and death among Medicare beneficiaries and account for a disproportionate share of health care expenditures.

Spending on national health care will double by 2015, reaching some $4 trillion yearly, according to a CMS study published in the online journal Health Affairs. Main factors contributing to the increase are the aging of the population and changes in medical technology and utilization, the agency said. The study, based on data from 2004, anticipates the nation’s health expenditures will reach more than $2 trillion this year.

A new form of insulin approved by the Food and Drug Administration allows diabetics to ingest it through an inhaler. Exubera, a powdered form of recombinant human insulin, is the first new delivery option introduced since insulin was discovered in the 1920s, the FDA said. Manufactured by Pfizer, Exubera can be used with a specially designed inhaler and is intended for the treatment of adult patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Employees of the VGM Group will eventually take ownership of the company under a new stock option program. Over the next few decades, Van G. Miller, CEO and founder, Jim Walsh and John Deery Jr., both minority stockholders in the HME buying group, said that they will be selling the multi-million dollar organization to its more than 400 employees. There will be no change in day-to-day operations, which will continue to be run by the current management team.

DME and home care staffing provider Arcadia Resources has acquired Crystal Lake, Ill.-based Remedy Therapeutics, the company’s 19th acquisition in almost two years. Remedy has annual sales of $2.7 million, Arcadia said. Remedy founder Michael Burke will serve as Arcadia’s regional manager for the Chicago area.

A federal court has ordered a medical supplier to serve a 30-month prison term and pay more than $300,000 in restitution for pretending to be a government compliance officer and defrauding government health programs. Carla E. Davison, 45, who owned Phoenix Automated Medical Services, Twinsburg, Ohio, pleaded guilty in 2004 for pretending to be an employee of the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. According to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of Ohio, she collected at least $17,150 from seminars she presented, which certified attendees as a “Practice Compliance Officer.”

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