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

U.S. Senators to Push Elimination of Medicare Rx Plan Penalty

A bipartisan group of senators announced late Tuesday that they would push legislation to eliminate the financial penalty on people who sign up late for the new U.S. Medicare prescription drug benefit plan.

The announcement came just 13 hours after Monday’s deadline for enrollment, The New York Times reported.

Bush administration officials, who have defended the penalty for the last six months, said it was premature to take a position on the issue, the newspaper said.

Monday’s deadline prompted a rush as people who’d waited until the last minute signed up in order to avoid the late-enrollment penalty.

While phone calls to UnitedHealth Group were generally answered within two minutes, callers to Humana often had to wait more than 30 minutes. They’re the two biggest Medicare insurers, with 45 percent of the market.

Callers to Medicare’s toll-free line often had to wait more than 15 minutes, the Times reported.

The Bush administration has said it would not waive the financial penalty for people who missed Monday’s initial sign-up deadline. That penalty will increase future premiums by 7 percent or more.

—–

FDA Orders Stronger Warnings on Three Asthma Medicines

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has ordered the makers of the asthma drugs Advair Diskus, Foradil Aerolizer and Serevent Diskus to update their labels with new warnings that the medicines may increase the risk of severe asthma episodes, and death when those episodes occur.

The medicines belong to a class called long-acting beta 2-adrenergic agonists (LABA), which are long-acting bronchodilator medicines that help relax the muscles around the airways in the lungs.

Even though LABAs decrease the frequency of asthma attacks, they can make asthma attacks more severe when they do occur, the FDA said in a public health advisory released Monday.

The advisory highlights a number of recommendations, including not to use LABAs as the first medicine to treat asthma or to treat wheezing that is getting worse.

—–

Report Identifies Top Preventive Health Services

Daily aspirin use, immunization for children and smoker interventions lead a list of the top 25 beneficial and cost-effective preventive health services for Americans, which was released Tuesday by the Partnership for Prevention.

However, the report also found that more than 50 percent of Americans who need recommended preventive health services go without them.

“Currently, about 95 percent of healthcare dollars in the United States are spent on treating diseases, with relatively little attention paid to preventing diseases, which should be a national priority,” Dr. David Satcher, former U.S. Surgeon General and chair of the National Commission on Prevention Priorities (NCPP), a blue-ribbon panel convened for the report, said in a prepared statement.

The report was published online Tuesday by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and will appear in the July print issue.

—–

FDA Approves Resumed Sales of Synthetic THC Drug

A synthetic version of the active ingredient in marijuana — withdrawn from the U.S. market 17 years ago — will be back on sale in two or three weeks as a prescription drug for vomiting and nausea caused by chemotherapy.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave approval Monday for the resumption of sales of Cesamet, said manufacturer Valeant Pharmaceuticals International of Costa Mesa, Calif. The company bought the drug, also called nabilone, from Eli Lilly and Co. in 2004,