Among today’s current medical news: Obama is urged to dump his Medicare chief; the iPad 2.0 holds promise for healthcare; the happiest man in the world; and more pharma layoffs.

The Senate has passed by unanimous consent legislation temporarily halting the 23 percent cut in physician payments under Medicare that was scheduled to take effect on Dec. 1, reports MedPage Today.

Dr. Donald Berwick, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is facing a hot seat in Washington, D.C., tomorrow as he prepares for his first appearance in front of the U.S. Senate since a controversial recess appointment in July.Republican senators, led by healthcare hawk Charles Grassley of Iowa, are [...]

Medicare chief Dr. Donald Berwick counseled the medical technology industry’s leaders today to remain optimistic as the healthcare reform act plays out. “The resource we need more than any other is optimism. At this time of fretfulness about our economy and the state of healthcare in the country, no leadership is more important than leadership that says we can do this, that we can invent our way into the healthcare system that we want and need for ourselves and our loved ones,” Berwick said in a speech at AdvaMed’s annual MedTech conference in Washington, D.C.

A federal judge has indicated that he will green-light a lawsuit filed by elected officials from 20 states who are challenging the constitutionality of the new healthcare law and its requirement that most people buy medical insurance, the New York Times reported.

Newly installed Medicare chief Donald Berwick — the Cambridge health guru and former Harvard professor who is keeping a low profile after encountering controversy over his appointment — is moving quickly behind the scenes to seed the U.S. health care system with up to 300 accountable care organization (ACO) sites to test new models of caring for patients.

Dr. Donald Berwick’s appointment as head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services came as “a breath of fresh air” at the agency, according to CMS chief medical officer Dr. Barry Straube. “Don Berwick is our administrator, finally,” Straube said. “It’s a breath of fresh air to all of us.”

In a letter to Dr. Donald Berwick, the newly appointed Director of the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), Senator Charles Grassley asks for clarification of Mr. Berwick’s potential conflicts of interest as Director of his Institute of Health Care Improvement:One of the many significant issues related to your [...]

With the unvetted recess appointment of Donald Berwick to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), some interesting questions that would have been asked at his Senate confirmation hearing were scuttled, like this one:

Barack Obama’s recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick as head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) marks a new low in his destructive presidency, and that is saying something!After forcing the Orwellian Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) onto an unwilling populace and through a reluctant Congress, he installs an elitist [...]