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Demand for cosmetic procedures rose in 2012 as more Americans asked for Botox, fillers and chemical peels, according to new figures.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) reported Tuesday that the number of cosmetic procedures performed in the United States rose by 5 percent last year to 14.6 million.

The vast sum of those procedures were minimally invasive treatments, not surgeries, the association said. 

Rep. Adrian Smith (R-Neb.) will join a powerful healthcare subcommittee in the 113th Congress.

Smith won a spot on the Ways and Means Committee's subcommittee on health. The committee finalized its subcommittee assignments Friday after adding its final Republican member.

The subcommittee's GOP roster includes some of the party's heavyweights on healthcare policy, namely Reps. Paul Ryan (Wis.) and Tom Price (Ga.).

A newly introduced, bipartisan bill would allow federally funded research into organ transplants between two HIV-positive people.

Federal law bans research into whether such transplants could work. The bill, sponsored by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), would allow federal funds to be used for research into transplants where both the donor and recipient are HIV-positive.

“This legislation will allow those infected with HIV greater hope in obtaining organ donations by lifting the federal ban on research and allowing sound science to explore organ exchanges between HIV-positive donors and HIV-positive recipients,” Coburn, who is a physician, said in a statement.

Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) took to the Internet Tuesday night before and after President Obama’s State of the Union address to answer questions on Reddit.

Polis responded to questions for several hours on the popular website, which hosted President Obama’s “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) session in August of 2012. The site also spearheaded opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act.

AMA’s are self-posts by users inviting other users to ask them any questions they may have. President Obama’s generated so much traffic that the website had difficult staying up.

Wal-Mart medical clinics trail CVS, generating 39 percent growth.

Slower growth of health costs eases U.S. deficit.

New SARS-like virus infects British patient in tenth case globally.

The SEAL says he was told "you're out of the service, your coverage is over."

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, plans to hold a hearing on marijuana policy this Congress.

Efforts to curb rising healthcare costs will cause the use of telehealth technology to spike, a new analysis predicted.

IMS Research, which studies the electronics industry, forecast a nearly sixfold rise in the number of telehealth patients over the next five years. About 1.3 million U.S. patients will use communications technology to interact with doctors by 2017, the firm said.

"The cost of healthcare is a critical issue in the United States, with nearly one of every five dollars’ worth of the country’s gross domestic product going to medical expenditures,” said Theo Ahadome, an analyst who worked on the report. "Telehealth can help mitigate these costs by reducing the number of patient readmissions and cutting down on in-home care visits." 

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced three appointments Wednesday to a newly formed panel that will study the best ways to cover long-term care such as nursing-home stays.

Congress created the new board late last year as it formally repealed the CLASS program in President Obama's healthcare law, which was intended to cover long-term care but proved unworkable. 

Budget sequestration will curtail $3 billion in economic activity if cuts hit the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on March 1, advocates said Tuesday.

Advocacy coalition United for Medical Research (UMR) released new figures showing that the NIH supported more than 402,000 jobs and about $58 billion in economic output last year.

The group warned that if sequestration takes effect, 20,500 life science jobs would be lost along with $3 billion in economic activity. Read more...