Last night the U.S. House of Representatives brought us one large step closer to a national healthcare system. Investors should be cognizant of the financial effects that would follow.

In the extreme short-run, it would be reasonable to assume that the U.S. stock market would react negatively, although short-term price movements are often chaotic. In the intermediate-term, if the legislation goes forward, the healthcare sector should perform at a lower level than in periods prior to national healthcare.

The chart below shows the historical relative price performance of several healthcare sectors versus the S&P 500. They are: biotech ($DJUSBT), pharmaceuticals ($DJUSPR), healthcare providers ($DJUSHP), medical equipment manufacturers ($DJUSAM) and medical supplies ($DJUSMS). The overall healthcare sector is represented by $DJUSHC.

Biotech and pharmaceuticals have underperformed. We expect that relationship to be accentuated. The other sectors are expected to have lower relative performance than before, particularly the healthcare

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Baltimore-(TFN):Time to panic? If you are part of the Obama administration the answer is yes. If you are an American investor, hold off on the freaking out for at least another month or so.

With the nation’s unemployment rate officially in double-digit territory and the under-employed rate ready to the 20% mark, the politicians that promised bliss in the days ahead are eating their words today.

And that means Wall Street is eating its recent gains.

For nearly a month, the Dow has hovered around the 10,000 mark. After hundreds of billions of dollars were withdrawn earlier this year, it was relatively easy to put that money back to work and send the equities market higher.

But now that the economic data is showing facts of slower-than-expected expansion rather than “ideas” of growth, investors are forced to explain their logic. The Dow doesn’t want to budge from 10k.

So far, I’ve heard very

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Bruce Weitzberg CEO and President of Patient Access Solutions, Inc. (OTCPK: PASO) stopped by SmallCapVoice.com to let the listeners know that his Company, Patient Access Solutions, Inc. (PAS) is a Healthcare Solutions Company which has created a formidable array of technology, resources and allies to enable it to become an agent of radical change in what has traditionally been a slowly evolving healthcare information technology environment. The Company’s products are designed to allow healthcare providers an easy migration of the EMR environment. Among these products are D-PAS, which is a state-of-the-art digital pen and paper technology based on Anoto technology, used to capture handwritten information into digital forms and EMR systems and PAS Data Center, which is a terminal solution that allows healthcare providers to quickly and easily determine benefit eligibility. More information on Patient Access Solutions, Inc. and its products can be viewed at www.pashealth.com.

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Following the recent merger of Pfizer (PFE) and Wyeth, a U.S. court imposed a huge fine on the company’s subsidiary Pharmacia & Upjohn for fraudulent marketing of its painkiller Bextra (valdecoxib). The penalty of $1.195 billion was the largest criminal fine ever imposed in the U.S. In addition, a criminal forfeiture of $105 million was enforced on the company.   In September, Pfizer had agreed to pay an additional $1 billion along with interest to settle civil allegations related to fraudulent promotion of four drugs – Bextra, the anti-psychotic drug Geodon, the antibiotic Zyvox and the anti-epileptic drug Lyrica – as well as claims that the company paid kickbacks to physicians to prescribe these and nine other drugs.   In addition to the huge penalty, Pfizer had to agree to comply with the terms of a new and significantly expanded corporate compliance program. It seeks to ensure that ...

Dell Inc. (DELL) has recently made an announcement, that it will promote the Salesforce.com (CRM) software products to its customers in the United States , which will help Salesforce to access Dell’s small and medium sized (SMB) corporate customer base.  This is in line with Salesforce’s recent strategy to increase its SMB customer base. Under this agreement, Dell will be selling Salesforce software and at the same time, integrating it with its customers’ existing software. Around $9 billion of management software are sold in a single year, which is expected to be one of the fastest growing sectors in technology.  As per a recent forecast by Gartner, web based sales of management software is expected to jump from $1.9 billion in 2008 to around $4 billion in 2013. We believe that this is good news for both Dell as well as Salesforce, since Dell is trying ...

ZOLL Medical (ZOLL) obtained clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its new model of the LifeVest wearable defibrillator. The physicians advise LifeVest for their patients, who run the risk of sudden cardiac arrest. LifeVest enables physicians to assess the long-term arrhythmic risk in their patients and take suitable actions. ZOLL rents out LifeVest to patients like other durable medical equipments.   ZOLL’s LifeVest business continues to grow strongly despite constrained capital spending by healthcare providers. LifeVest revenues increased 58% year over year to $11.9 million during its fiscal third quarter, while total revenues declined 5%. More than 2,900 physicians have recommended the product in the current fiscal. Presently, over 2,000 patients are using LifeVest.   With growing clinical acceptance, ZOLL is optimistic about the growth prospect of this high-margin (over 75%) product and estimates a potential market of more than $1.8 billion dollars in ...

Immucor (BLUD) reported net income of $19.4 million, or $0.27 per diluted share, for the fourth quarter of FY 2009, compared to $18.3 million, or $0.26 per diluted share, a year ago. Revenues grew 15.2% to $79.0 million on higher price and volume. Revenues include a negative forex impact of around $3 million y-o-y.  Gross margin contracted to 69.9% from 72.0%, mainly due to $1.8 million of expense incurred on the Quality Process Improvement Project. Operating expenses grew 22.9% to $26.1 million, primarily resulting from the takeover of BioArray and direct marketing initiatives in France and United Kingdom. R&D grew 117.9% to $3.1 million (4.0% of revenues) and SGA grew 11.1% to $21.9 million (27.6% of revenues).  Reagents revenues grew 14.8% to $69.2 million – Traditional Reagents contributed $52.1 million (up 15.2%) and Capture Reagents contributed $17.1 million (up 13.5%). Instruments revenues totaled $9.1 million – ...

ZOLL Medical (ZOLL) reported net income of $1.5 million, or $0.07 per share, for the third quarter of FY 2009, compared to $5.7 million, or $0.27 per share, a year ago. Revenues dropped 5.1% to $95.1 million, reflecting constrained capital purchases by hospitals in the U.S. and strengthening dollar (a negative forex impact of around $3 million y-o-y). The temperature management business, which was acquired from Alsius Corporation this May, contributed nearly $2 million of revenues. Order backlog stood at around $9.8 million at the end of the quarter.  Gross margin contracted to 51.2% from 53.5%. Operating expenses grew 6.5% to $47.9 million on higher SGA and R&D spending. R&D grew 27.5% to $10.8 million (11.3% of revenues) and SGA grew 1.7% to $37.2 million (39.1% of revenues).  Revenues from North American market fell 2.7% to $72.8 million. Hospital market contributed $26.6 million (up 1.1%), including ...

Patient Care Technology Systems (“PCTS”), a subsidiary of Consulier Engineering Inc., offers solutions to healthcare providers to improve patient processing and flow, increase capacity, and improve patient and staff safety with real-time location and tracking equipment.

The company today announced it has been chosen by Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center to provide the facility with tracking and management technology for its 4.1 million-square-foot campus. PCTS will track and manage hospital assets through the integration of a hybrid RLTS from CenTrak, a leading provider of tracking infrastructure for healthcare facilities.

“After a comprehensive, multi-year RTLS marketplace review, we chose Patient Care Technology Systems because of their proven experience in implementing scalable, workflow-intelligent solutions that can meet our demanding current and future needs,” Tony Marra CHFM, director of facility services at WFUBMC stated in the press release. “Their ability to integrate the right locating technology with software that can be tailored

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Last week, American Physicians Service Group, Inc. (AMPH) announced its inclusion in the Russell 3000 Index. The Russell 3000 Index measures the performance of the largest 3000 U.S. companies that represents about 98% of the investable U.S. equity market. The membership in the Russell 3000 remains in place for one year.

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, AMPH is a leading provider of medical professional liability insurance services for physicians, dentists and other healthcare providers in Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Its insurance subsidiary, American Physicians Insurance Exchange (API), has written business for over 30 years.

Currently, the company insures over 6,200 physicians, dentists, and other healthcare providers, the vast majority of which are in Texas. Its competitors include companies like American Physicians Capital (ACAP), Proassurance (PRA) and FPIC Insurance (FPIC).

A.M. Best has assigned a financial strength rating of A- (Excellent) and issuer credit rating (ICR) of a- to. A.M. Best

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