The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
51,861 - 51,880 of 112,380 Results
State legislatures around America are considering laws to change their Medicaid programs and to address how patients can learn their doctor's malpractice history. They are also contemplating how to cut health care costs and adjusting prescription privileges for nurses.
A selection of health policy news from Connecticut and California, North Carolina, Kansas and Wisconsin.
"Using smartphones is cheaper and more effective than using paper surveys to monitor diseases in the developing world, according to a new study by Kenyan researchers with the [CDC] ... presented Monday at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta," the International Business Times reports. "The study compared 1,019 paper-based questionnaires to 1,019 smartphone questionnaires collected at four sample sites for influenza surveillance in Kenya," the news service notes (3/12).
Aidspan, an independent watchdog of the Global Fund, on Tuesday published Issue 178 of its "Global Fund Observer." The issue features an article regarding applications for funding under the Bridge Funding Mechanism (BFM), currently being processed by the Global Fund Secretariat; an article on the reorganization of the Global Fund Secretariat; an analysis examining financial transaction taxes to potentially generate additional revenue for the Global Fund; and excerpts from three recent commentaries on the current state of the Global Fund (3/13).
South Dakota is allowing insurers to deny children insurance coverage if they don't enroll during open enrollment, a possible violation of the health law. In Missouri, flexibility won't persuade the state to set up a health insurance exchange.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Tennessee will pay $1.5 million to the federal government to settle a HIPAA breach. Insurer and hospital business practices also make news in Georgia and Maine.
GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum solidified his claim to be the favored candidate of the party's conservative base with his wins in Alabama and Mississippi Tuesday night, while rival Mitt Romney stepped up his attacks on President Barack Obama.
The Commonwealth Fund found significant variation based on "hospital referral regions."
The AP reports that these retirees are seeking the appointment of a committee to protect their interests.
The study in the Journal of the American Medical Association appears, at first blush, to contradict findings from the Dartmouth Atlas research.
Joining the two measures is causing some Democrats who back the repeal of the health law's Independent Payment Advisory Board to change their positions.
A selection of editorials and opinions on health policy from around the country.
Democrats and Republicans alike are girding for the unveiling of the 2013 budget plan by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R- Wis., and its provisions to overhaul Medicare.
Meanwhile, other reports explore whether the U.S. Catholic bishops may be considering a change in strategy regarding their opposition to this policy.
On Monday, "a girl admitted to a hospital in West Bengal with polio-like symptoms sparked worries that India's battle against polio may not be over yet," the Wall Street Journal's "India Real Time" blog reports, noting, "The suspected polio case ... comes just two weeks after the WHO removed India from the list of countries where polio is endemic" (Stancati, 3/14). "'It is a suspected case of polio. In medical parlance, the symptoms are called acute flaccid paralysis. The patient is under observation,' Kumar Kanti Das, superintendent of Baruipur Subdivisional Hospital, [where the girl was admitted,] told the local Hindustan Times newspaper," the Guardian writes (Burke, 3/13).
"After seven years of research, the world's largest study of preventative tuberculosis (TB) therapy has found that untargeted, community-wide distribution of TB prevention drugs did not improve TB control in South African gold mines," PlusNews reports. "Conducted among 27,000 gold-mine employees in 15 mines, the Thibela TB study tested the theory that treating an entire community with the first-line TB drug isoniazid could result in long-lasting reductions in active TB cases and TB prevalence," the news service writes (3/9). The study found that "provid[ing] community-wide isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT)" did "not improve TB control," according to Health-e. "However, evidence showed that there were 63 percent fewer TB cases among individuals in the program during the first nine months of the program, providing reassurance that IPT works for people who take it," the news service notes (Thom, 3/14).
"On Monday, the Indian Patent Office effectively ended [German drug maker] Bayer's monopoly for its [cancer drug] Nexavar and issued its first-ever compulsory license allowing local generic maker Natco Pharma to make and sell the drug cheaply in India," Reuters reports. "India's move to strip ... Bayer of its exclusive rights to [Nexavar] has set a precedent that could extend to other treatments, including modern HIV/AIDS drugs, in a major blow to global pharmaceutical firms, experts say," the news service writes, noting, "It is only the second time a nation has issued a compulsory license for a cancer drug after Thailand did so on four drugs between 2006 and 2008." Thailand also has issued compulsory licenses for HIV/AIDS and heart disease medications, according to Reuters (Kulkarni/Foy, 3/13).
In this RH Reality Check blog post, Mandy Van Deven, online administrator for International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF/WHR), discusses how PROFAMILIA-Dominican Republic, an IPPF/WHR member association, "has integrated HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and testing into its extensive clinical sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services." She writes, "There are two key elements to PROFAMILIA's integrated approach: a focus on a broad range of vulnerable groups -- from youth to women and immigrant populations -- and a staunch commitment to fighting the stigma, discrimination and gender-based violence often associated with an HIV-positive status" (3/13).
"Ten months after the West African country [of Cote d'Ivoire] started to emerge from a presidential election crisis during which almost all hospitals and clinics had to shut down for a good six months because they had been vandalized, looted and occupied, the new government under President Alassane Ouattara is trying to make public health care a priority," including implementing "[a] new national health regulation, which came into effect on Mar. 1, that offers free health services to pregnant women, children under five years and people suffering from malaria," Inter Press Service reports. "But in a country recovering from 12 years of political instability since a military coup in December 1999 that was followed by 10 years of [former President Laurent] Gbagbo's autocratic rule, rebuilding a crumbling public health care system takes time," IPS writes, adding, "Hospitals have been suffering from lack of skilled staff, basic equipment and technology for years."
"Poor hospital care poses a risk to the lives of many patients in the developing world," according to a study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) on Tuesday, BBC News reports (McGrath, 3/13). For the study, which was supported by the WHO, researchers from the New York City Health and Hospital Corporation "looked at patients from 26 hospitals altogether across eight countries" -- Egypt, Jordan, Kenya, Morocco, Tunisia, Sudan, South Africa and Yemen -- and "found that harm to patients caused by their health care rather than their disease is a major public health problem and consistent with previous reports from the developed world," according to a BMJ press release.
© 2026 KFF