Latest KFF Health News Stories
Capsules: Attorneys General Debate The Health Law
Now on KHN’s blog, the Mass. and Va. attorneys general brought their opposing cases to the National Press Club in Washington today.
Capsules: Mass. Nurse-Midwives No Longer Need Physician OK To Practice
Also on the blog, Bay State nurse-midwives will no longer need a doctor to oversee their decisions.
Group Seeks To Reopen Case Over Access to Plan B
Women’s advocacy group seeks wider access to contraceptive, while study reports lowest teen pregnancy rate in decades.
Insurers Shift More Costs To Patients; Washington Insurance Commissioner Questions Surpluses
More insurers are shifting a growing amount of the cost of providing care to patients, Kaiser Health News reports. In other insurer news, UnitedHealth will overhaul how it pays doctors, and Washington’s state insurance commissioner is asking for permission to consider insurer surpluses when mulling proposed insurance rate increases.
Medicaid Changes Eyed In Georgia, California and Connecticut
Georgia and Connecticut mull reforms, while California deals with the reversal of its plan to charge co-payments.
Democrats To Unveil Options To Pay For ‘Doc Fix,’ Other Measures
News about SGR funding negotiations, other Medicare developments from around the country.
New Program Aims To Reduce Early Elective Deliveries
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the “Strong Start” initiative on Wednesday.
Quantifying The Quality Of Health Aid
In this post on the Center for Global Development’s (CGD) “Global Health Policy” blog, Amanda Glassman, director of global health policy and a research fellow at CGD, and Denizhan Duran, a research assistant in global health policy at CGD, describe a paper they wrote in which they try to determine “[w]hich donor provides the ‘best’ health aid, and why [this is] a relevant question.” They write, “To be honest, one working paper later, we still do not have a definite answer to either question,” but “we do know … that health aid is relevant: effective health aid has saved lives, and technologies like oral rehydration salts and vaccination are among the most efficient development interventions money can buy.” The authors say they “rank donors across four dimensions of aid effectiveness: maximizing efficiency, fostering institutions, reducing burden and transparency and learning,” and invite readers to explore their data.
Komen’s Brinker Apologizes For ‘How We Mishandled This Situation’
In a letter to Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn, the founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure writes, “I made some mistakes.”
WFP, FAO Warn Food Security Worsening For Millions In South Sudan, Call For Action
The U.N.’s World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) “warned [Wednesday] that millions of people in South Sudan are facing worsening hunger and called for urgent action to improve food security through adequate food aid and projects to boost agricultural production,” the U.N. News Centre reports (2/8). “[C]onflict, population displacement and high food prices” are threatening food security for 4.7 million in the new nation this year, up from 3.3 million in 2011, according to a report (.pdf) from the agencies, Reuters notes. “Of those, about one million people are severely food insecure, and that number could double if fighting continues and prices keep rising, the report said,” the news agency writes (2/8).
Water And Sanitation Sector Must Speak Up To Be Included In NTD Eradication Efforts
Applauding the signing of the so-called “London Declaration on NTDs” by a consortium of public and private partners last week, Ned Breslin, CEO of Water For People, writes in this Huffington Post “Impact” opinion piece, “I am saddened by the emphasis on vaccines and medicines as the seemingly only vehicles to eradicate NTDs by London Declaration signatories. And I wonder where water, sanitation and hygiene are in this mix, as by all accounts it is not anywhere to be seen in the NTD eradication initiative.”
Some High-Profile Catholic Democrats Are Criticizing HHS Rule
Sens. Robert Casey and Joe Manchin, Rep. John Larson and Obama adviser Tim Kaine are breaking with the White House on the contraception controversy.
States’ Capabilities To Share Patient Data Vary Greatly
Although the federal government has encouraged sharing of digital health records, the development of state health information exchanges has been slowed by governance, financing and policy issues, according to a Brookings Institution study.
Administration Officials Announce New Initiatives To Promote Innovations In Global Development
In a White House briefing on Wednesday, “senior Administration officials announced a series of new initiatives to promote game-changing innovations to solve long-standing development challenges” in response to President Obama’s “call to harness science technology, and innovation to spark global development,” Gayle Smith, special assistant to the president, and Tom Kalil, senior adviser for science, technology, and innovation, write in this post in the White House Blog (2/8). “The new collaborations we’re launching today will help save lives from hunger and disease, lift people from poverty and reaffirm America’s enduring commitment to the dignity and potential of every human being,” President Barack Obama said at the briefing, according to a White House press statement, which details several new public and private sector initiatives announced at the meeting (2/8).
White House Scrambles For Compromise On Birth Control Rule
Officials say Obama remains committed to the HHS regulation, amid indications they are exploring ways to get around religious groups’ complaints.
Congressional Republicans Vow To Overturn Contraception Rule
Speaker John Boehner was among those who promised Wednesday to get rid of the administration’s regulation that would require religious employers, such as hospitals, charities and universities, to cover free birth control for employees.
Viewpoints: Many Weigh In On Contraception Controversy; NEJM On Essential Benefits
A selection of editorials and opinions on health care policy from around the country.
Hospitals Seek To Consolidate In Ga., Wis. and N.Y.; Other State Hospital News
Hospitals in Atlanta, Wisconsin and New York are consolidating or partnering more closely with others in a bid to reduce costs and save themselves. In other hospital news, small California hospitals market back surgery to patients and a Minnesota hospital faces a “patient abuse” crisis.
This post in the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases’ “End the Neglect” blog reports on an event held on Wednesday in London during which John Kufuor, former president of Ghana and winner of the 2011 World Food Prize, addressed the U.K. Parliament “about how school feeding programs can help millions of people currently living in poverty.” According to the blog, “In coordination with [the Partnership for Child Development (PCD)] and Deworm the World, the Global Network shared information at the event about combining deworming efforts with school feeding programs in order to strengthen agriculture, health and education programs,” noting, “Parasitic worm infections often undermine existing school feeding programs by causing malnutrition and anemia even in children who are well-fed” (2/9).
Every week, reporter Jessica Marcy selects interesting reading from around the Web.
