Happy Constitution Day!  The Senate was back to work today after yesterday’s Navy Yard tragedy. The Senate confirmed Elaine Kaplan to be a U.S. Claims Court judge by a 64-35 vote. After Ms. Kaplan is sworn in, OPM will need to designate a new acting director. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee postponed yesterday’s business meeting to tomorrow afternoon.

This is National Health Information Technology Week. Yesterday, HHS held a Consumer Health IT Summit to tout (what else?) the Blue Button and the new Blue Button Plus (as discussed in this Modern Healthcare article). MobiHealth News provides a roundup on the summit. In the better late than never department, HHS has released an updated model HIPAA notice of privacy practices — the compliance date is next Monday September 23.  WEDI is sponsoring a free webinar tomorrow on the ICD-10.

The Washington Post’s Wonkblog accurately points out based on a new CDC report that taking antibiotics that you don’t need can kill you. Healthcare professionals and health plans should continue to spread the word on this issue.

The Washington Post reports that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has halted imports of eleven generic drugs from Ranbaxy’s Mohali factory in Punjab province, India. “With revenues of $2.3 billion for the last fiscal year, Ranbaxy is the leading drugmaker in India’s $26 billion generic pharmaceutical industry.” In other words we do import drugs from other countries provided that the plants are under FDA supervision.