Latest KFF Health News Stories
Study Finds Dramatic Increase In Hospital ‘Observation Care’ For Medicare Patients
Although patients don’t often know the difference between observation and inpatient care, observation care leaves them on the hook for a much larger bill. A study published in Health Affairs finds this circumstance becoming more common.
Political Divide Deepens On Deficit Reduction And Tax Issues
Reuters reports that even last week’s poor jobs report did not spur Congress toward a compromise. As it stands, Republicans are pushing for major cuts to entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid while Democrats want to preserve these programs and ask people with higher incomes to bear more of the tax burden. The partisan divide, meanwhile, is also evident regarding women’s issues and health policy.
Handicapping The Health Law’s Future
News outlets report on how stakeholders — ranging from state governments to safety-net health care facilities — are taking steps to prepare for the health law’s implementation as well as the Supreme Court’s decision on its constitutionality.
CMS Raises Questions About N.H. Medicaid Reimbursement; Other Medicaid News
The federal agency requests state data and analysis about cuts in payments to hospitals in recent years.
WellPoint To Buy 1-800 Contacts
The planned deal is being described as a step in which the insurer would gain its first “direct-to-consumer business outside selling individual health coverage.”
Half Of New Yorkers Say Soda Ban Proposal Goes Too Far, But Legal Challenges Could Be Hard To Win
Half of New Yorkers say the proposal by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to limit the size of sugary drinks goes too far, but nalysts say legal challenges to the limits might not be able to stop the policy.
NPR continues its series exploring the issues that occur when families care for elderly relatives.
Viewpoints: Why Changing Doctors’ Practice Is Difficult; HHS As ‘Giant Venture Capital Investor’
A selection of editorials and opinions on health care policy from around the country.
State Roundup: Embattled Planned Parenthood Runs School Clinic In Calif.
A selection of health care stories from California, Arizona, New Jersey, Michigan, Texas and Kansas.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including previews of today’s recall election in Wisconsin.
In this post in the Global Post’s “Global Pulse” blog, Janet Fleischman, a senior associate at the Global Health Policy Center of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), reports on the “Saving Mothers, Giving Life” initiative, launched by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday. She describes the project as “an ambitious, dynamic effort by the U.S. government to increase efficiency, spur innovation, and ensure impact in a fundamental area of global health” and writes, “If successful, ‘Saving Mothers’ will be an important dimension of Clinton’s legacy as Secretary, lifting the lives of women, families, and communities around the world.”
USAID Administrator Shah Addresses Fight Against HIV In Children
In this post in the AIDS.gov blog, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah discusses global efforts to end HIV infections in children. “Together with PEPFAR, our efforts have made a significant difference in promoting access to prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) services, helping to cut new pediatric infections in half in the past decade,” Shah writes, adding “We’ve also helped support 9.8 million pregnant women with HIV testing and counseling and provided PMTCT services to more than 660,000 HIV-positive women. As a result, approximately 200,000 infants were born free of HIV” (6/1).
June Issue Of WHO Bulletin Available Online
The June issue of the WHO Bulletin includes an editorial on the management of non-communicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries; a public health round-up; an article on anti-smoking measures and tobacco consumption in Turkey; and a research paper on mortality in women in Burkina Faso in the years following obstetric complications (June 2012).
Bangladesh May Be Facing HIV Epidemic, Inter Press Service Reports
“Bangladesh has shown low HIV prevalence rates so far but may be silently moving towards an epidemic, say experts pointing to underreporting and poor monitoring for the virus in the general population,” Inter Press Service reports. “Professionals and volunteers working in the HIV/AIDS field say there is no room for complacency and that Bangladesh may well be on the brink of an epidemic, going by continuing high levels of STDs alone,” the news service writes.
IRIN Examines Next Steps In Global Fight Against NCDs
IRIN examines the next steps in fighting non-communicable diseases (NCDs), “the leading cause of death worldwide,” noting, “The World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the U.N. World Health Organization (WHO), aims to reduce preventable deaths from [NCDs] like diabetes, heart attacks and strokes, chronic respiratory diseases and cancers, by 25 percent by 2025.” According to IRIN, “WHO is coordinating negotiations on the surveillance, indicators and voluntary targets that will form an eventual global plan to fight NCDs, and is drafting recommendations to be considered by member governments in October 2012.” IRIN provides a link to a WHO summary of “recent discussions [.pdf] with civil society and government representatives on the best ways to rein in NCDs, and how to measure progress.”
Blog Reports On USAID’s New Global Health Strategic Framework
“USAID’s new Global Health Strategic Framework, ‘Better Health for Development,’ lays out the agency’s major health priorities for the next five years,” the Environmental Change and Security Program’s “New Security Beat” blog reports. “‘Core global health priorities’ include reducing maternal mortality, ensuring child survival and nutrition, fostering an ‘AIDS free generation,’ and fighting infectious diseases,” the blog notes, adding, “Family planning and reproductive health is listed as a key area for bilateral engagement” (Kent, 6/1).
Experts Respond To PLoS Editorial Comparing Chagas Disease To HIV/AIDS
“Chagas disease, a parasitic infection spread to humans by insects, is not the new HIV/AIDS of the Americas, according to infectious disease experts who called the comparison,” made in an editorial published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases last week, “‘unrealistic’ and ‘unfortunate,'” ABC News’ “Medical Unit” blog reports. “Rick Tarleton, president of the Chagas Disease Foundation, said the diseases have little in common beyond disproportionately affecting poor people,” the blog notes (Moisse, 6/1).
Speaking at a health conference in Norway on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the U.S. would provide $75 million toward a new public-private effort, dubbed “Saving Mothers, Giving Life,” which aims “to improve the health of mothers and their babies in developing countries,” Agence France-Presse reports (Mannion, 6/2). “At the same conference, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr said Norway would devote up to about $80 million to the effort, whose partners include drug maker Merck & Co. and nonprofit Every Mother Counts,” Reuters writes (Mohammed, 6/1). “Starting in Uganda and Zambia, [the initiative] is focusing on helping mothers during labor, delivery, and during the first 24 hours after a birth, when two of every three maternal deaths occur and 45 percent of newborn deaths occur,” VOA News reports (Stearns, 6/1).
GOP Schedules Repeal Votes To Bring Attention To Health Law
One of the highest profile efforts involves the repeal of the health law’s medical device tax, and one proposal also includes language that would trim the measure’s insurance subsidies for low- and middle-income taxpayers.
Senate Passes Preventing Child Marriage Act
In this post in Management Sciences For Health’s (MSH) “Global Health Impact” blog, Chanell Hasty, policy and advocacy coordinator of MSH’s Office of Strategic Development and Communications, reports on the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act (S. 414), writing, “Key tenets of the Senate bill include expanding investments at the community level to empower girls, promoting community understanding about the harmful impact of marriage, and requiring the U.S. government to develop a strategy to prevent child marriage.” Noting the bill passed on the Senate floor by way of voice vote on May 24, Hasty adds, “If passed by both chambers of Congress, the U.S. government will be committed to policy that protects girls from marriage on a global scale” (6/1).
