Latest KFF Health News Stories
Harare Maternity Clinics Reportedly Conducting Compulsory HIV/AIDS Tests On Pregnant Women
“In a move that is likely to raise the ire of HIV/AIDS activists, maternity clinics in [Harare] are conducting compulsory HIV/AIDS tests on pregnant women before they can register for delivery,” the Zimbabwean reports, adding, “Scores of pregnant women in the high-density suburb of Glen-Norah told this newspaper that they were being asked to bring their spouses [to be tested] if they wanted to register to deliver their babies.” According to the newspaper, “The Zimbabwean visited [a clinic] in Glen-Norah where workers confirmed they had turned away ‘a few’ people so they could bring their spouses for testing.”
New Research Could Lead To Cheaper, Easier Production Of Malaria Drug Artemisinin
“Artemisinin, a crucial drug in the global fight against malaria, could soon become cheaper and easier to make, thanks to researchers who have found a better way to synthesize the compound,” Science NOW reports, providing an overview of the research published in Angewandte Chemie on Monday. “‘The impact of this is hard to overestimate,’ says Jack Newman, an industrial chemist at Amyris Biotechnologies in Emeryville, California, who was not involved in the work,” the news service writes. Newman added that “the supply chain to make artemisinin has been a huge problem,” the news service notes.
Marketplace: Partners, Tufts Renegotiate Deal, Ga. Insurer-Provider Fight Grows
Partners HealthCare and the Tufts Health Plan have renegotiated their contract that will lower Tufts’ reimbursements to Partners by $105 million to save money in Massachusetts. In the meantime, an insurer/provider fight in Georgia is growing, and there is marketplace news from Oregon and Colorado.
Quality Reports Find Mixed Bag In Minn., Drop In Postsurgical Deaths
Medical mistakes increased in Minnesota hospitals in 2011, but the number of “adverse events” that led to serious patient harm or death fell, a new report says. In addition, nationwide, postsurgical deaths decreased despite the number of surgeries being up overall, Medscape reports. Michigan and Connecticut, however, are struggling with patient quality issues.
‘Personhood Forum’ Moves Candidates’ Abortion Positions To Center Stage
Although Mitt Romney wasn’t present, the other Republican presidential hopefuls challenged his abortion stance. Meanwhile, with South Carolina’s GOP presidential primary vote fast approaching, the Republican candidates are stepping up their ads and their efforts take the spotlight.
Study Finds Older Women Can Wait Up To 15 Years To Repeat Bone Scans
The researchers reported that osteoporosis more slowly than anticipated and women with a normal scan at 65 do not need to be retested for more than a decade.
Lung Association Criticizes State Tobacco Policies
The advocacy group says states are not doing enough to stop smoking.
Medicare Cost-Cutting Demo Programs Fall Short In Cutting Spending
These findings from the Congressional Budget Office, based on 20 years of efforts to shift the program, are a blow to ongoing Medicare projects as well as a key component of the health law.
House Panel Gives Nod To CLASS Act Repeal Legislation
The House Ways and Means Committee approved legislation that would eliminate the health law’s Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act. Though the Obama administration stopped the program’s implementation last year, many Republicans still want to remove it from the books.
State Budgets Try Capping, Cutting Some Health Care Expenses
In New York, California and Maryland, reactions were varied to the governors’ spending plans.
States Streamline, Add Efficiency To Medicaid, Survey Finds
According to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey, 29 states have streamlined their programs, with most taking advantage of federal incentives to use new technology.
Roundup: State Lawmakers Urge Deficit Reduction
News outlets report on a variety of health policy issues across the country.
In States, Questions Swirl About Medicaid Contracts, Costs, Waiting Lists
Medicaid news from Florida, Washington state, Kansas and Idaho.
Viewpoints: Health Care And The Federal Deficit; Doctors Reassessing Health Law
A selection of editorials and opinions on health care policy from around the country.
Longer Looks: Explaining Medicare’s ‘Premium Support’
This week’s articles come from Washington Monthly, CNN, Governing, American Medical News and Columbia Journalism Review.
Study Finds Global Abortion Rate ‘Virtually Unchanged’ From 2003 To 2008
“After a period of substantial decline, the global abortion rate has stalled, according to new research from the Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization (WHO)” published in the Lancet on Wednesday, a Guttmacher press release reports. “Between 1995 and 2003, the overall number of abortions per 1,000 women of childbearing age (15-44 years) dropped from 35 to 29” but, “according to the new study, the global abortion rate in 2008 was virtually unchanged, at 28 per 1,000,” the press release states. “This plateau coincides with a slowdown, documented by the United Nations, in contraceptive uptake, which has been especially marked in developing countries,” according to the press release. “The researchers also found that nearly half of all abortions worldwide are unsafe, … almost all unsafe abortions occur in the developing world,” and “restrictive abortion laws are not associated with lower rates of abortion,” the press release adds (1/18).
Blog Interviews UCLA Professor About Highly Drug-Resistant TB
The Los Angeles Times’ “Booster Shots” blog features an interview with Otto Yang, a professor at the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, who speaks about drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) and the implications of a highly drug-resistant strain found in India. Yang said, “Obviously [the drug-resistant TB] could be devastating if it spreads, because treatment options are so limited. So far it seems not to have been as contagious as other strains, possibly because the mutations required to make it drug-resistant also make it a little less virulent” (Brown, 1/18).
Cote d’Ivoire Continues To Need Humanitarian Assistance, U.N. Official Says
“Cote d’Ivoire remains in great need of humanitarian assistance nine months after the end of the bloody post-election violence that displaced tens of thousands of people, a senior United Nations relief official said today, urging donors to continue their generosity to the West African country throughout this year,” the U.N. News Centre reports. “Considerable needs remain in several areas such as protection of civilians, restoration of means of livelihood, shelter, access to basic services and voluntary return and reintegration of displaced persons and refugees,” Catherine Bragg, assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and deputy U.N. emergency relief coordinator, said following a three-day visit to the nation, according to the news service (1/18).
MSF Closes Two Large Clinics In Mogadishu After Two Staff Members Killed Last Month
“Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has shut down two major medical centers in the Somali capital Mogadishu after two of its aid workers were shot dead by a former colleague last month, the international medical aid agency said on Thursday,” AlertNet reports. The closure of the two 120-bed centers, the largest of MSF’s 13 projects in Somalia, cuts in half the organization’s presence in the capital, the news service notes, adding that the centers have treated thousands of malnourished children and provided vaccinations or treatments to tens of thousands more patients since August 2011 (Migiro, 1/19).
Famine Refugees Finding Little Relief In Overcrowded Somali Capital
Al Jazeera examines the consequences of Somalia’s ongoing famine, “the worst hunger crisis seen here for two decades.” Many Somalis fled their rural homes to Mogadishu to escape drought and conflict, but “the city has become the epicenter of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” the news service reports, adding, “While new arrivals say that conditions in the capital are better than elsewhere in the country, they are atrocious by any other measure.” In the city, “[m]alnutrition rates are more than double the emergency threshold,” and many refugees face homelessness as camps become more crowded, Al Jazeera reports (Wander 1/19).
