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Even in nursing, no equal pay for women

By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) – Even though nine out of 10 nurses are women, men in the profession earn higher salaries, and the pay gap has remained constant over the past quarter century, a study finds. The typical salary gap has consistently been about $5,000 even after adjusting for factors such as experience, education, work hours, clinical specialty, and marital and parental status, according to a report in JAMA,

Germanwings says had no problem with crashed plane before takeoff

Germanwings said it was unclear what caused its Airbus A320 aircraft to crash in the French Alps on Tuesday but that there had been no problems with the plane before takeoff. “There were no anomalies on the plane,” the Lufthansa unit’s Managing Director Thomas Winkelmann told journalists at a news conference on Tuesday, hours after the crash. He said Airbus delivered the plane to Lufthansa in 1991, after which it

Humana says previously disclosed DOJ query involves other companies

Humana Inc, one of the largest U.S. providers of Medicare Advantage healthcare plans for older people, said on Tuesday that it believes a previously disclosed government query for information is part of a wider review involving many healthcare companies. Humana first said the U.S. Department of Justice had asked it to volunteer information about risk adjustment matters on Feb. 18. “Humana believes that this request for information is in connection

Lack of insurance bars some from hepatitis C treatment

By Kathryn Doyle (Reuters Health) – Survey data from 2001 to 2010 show that lack of insurance kept some people with hepatitis C virus from getting treatment. Recently, more effective and well-tolerated drugs have been developed to treat hepatitis C, removing many of the discouraging side effects of older drugs. The infection is curable and transmission can be prevented, researchers write in the American Journal of Gastroenterology. Once they’ve been