Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Generic Drug Prices Fall, Brand Name Prices Rise: Report

Generic prescription drug prices fell sharply while there was a considerable rise in prices for popular brand name prescription drugs over the past year, according to a new report.

Between September 2011 and 2012, prices of the most widely used brand name drugs increased 13.3 percent, while generic drug prices decreased about 22 percent, according to Express Scripts Holding Co., the Wall Street Journalreported.

Overall spending on prescription drugs in the U.S. rose 3.5 percent over the first nine months of this year, according to Steve Miller, chief medical officer at Express Scripts, which manages drug benefits for health plans.

"Despite drug companies taking bigger price increases, we're able to take advantage of the huge number of generics," Miller told the WSJ.

The increase in spending on prescription drugs so far this year is greater than the 2.7 percent growth rate for all of 2011. However, last year had the lowest growth rate reported by Express Scripts in nearly two decades of analyzing such data.

In addition, the company said that prescription drug spending was basically flat in the third quarter and is expected to remain so in the current quarter as well, WSJreported.

Interestingly, brand name drugs that already face generic competition are among those whose prices increased. These include drugs such as Pfizer's cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor and Merck's asthma treatment Singulair.

Miller noted that it is common for drug makers to cut the prices of brand name drugs when generics comes on the market and then increase them later when it is clear who the brand-loyal customers are, WSJreported.

However, the impact of such prices increases on the nation's overall drug costs may be muted if they occur when the brand name drugs have little remaining market share, Miller added.

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Conversion to Electronic Medical Records Open to Fraud and Abuse: Report

Medicare's failure to develop appropriate safeguards has left the nation's conversion to electronic medical records vulnerable to fraud and abuse, according to a report by federal investigators.

Proponents say that the use of electronic medical records -- a central part of health care overhaul in the U.S. -- will improve patient care and reduce costs through better coordination of medical services, The New York Timesreported.

The Obama administration is spending billions of dollars to encourage doctors and hospitals to switch to electronic medical records.

But Medicare has failed to implement adequate safeguards to ensure that information being provided by hospitals and doctors about their electronic records systems is accurate, according to the report by the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Medicare.

To qualify for incentive payments, doctors and hospitals must show that their systems lead to better patient care by doing such things as checking for harmful drug interactions, The Timesreported.

The investigators concluded that Medicare "faces obstacles" in overseeing the incentive program "that leave the program vulnerable to paying incentives to professionals and hospitals that do not fully meet the meaningful use requirements."

In a statement released Wednesday, a Medicare spokesman said: "Protecting taxpayer dollars is our top priority and we have implemented aggressive procedures to hold providers accountable. Making a false claim is a serious offense with serious consequences and we believe the overwhelming majority of doctors and hospitals take seriously their responsibility to honestly report their performance."

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Tobacco Companies Must Tell Public About Smoking Lies: Judge

U.S. tobacco companies must publish corrective statements to tell the public they lied about the dangers of smoking, a federal judge ordered Tuesday.

The corrective statements in various types of ads must also outline the health risks of smoking, including the fact that smoking causes an average of 1,200 deaths a day, the Associated Pressreported.

In her ruling, Gladys Kessler of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia said each corrective statement ad must state that a federal judge has concluded that all the defendant tobacco companies "deliberately deceived the American public about the health effects of smoking."

The corrective statements are part of a case the federal government brought in 1999 and Kessler said they are based on specific findings of fact made by the court, the APreported.

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