Latest KFF Health News Stories
AP: Poor Neighborhoods Take Toll On Health
The federal government conducted a social experiment to explore the difficulties poor neighborhoods pose to public health.
Viewpoints: If Not CLASS, Then What?; House GOP Abortion Bill; MLK’s Legacy In Health Care
A selection of today’s editorials and opinions from around the country.
CMS Provides New Guidance On EHR Payment Program
Modern Healthcare reports on this development, which will set up a “double check” to ensure that hospitals have what is necessary to become “meaningful users” of electronic health records.
States Take Cautious Approach To Health Law’s New Coverage Mandates
Politico Pro reports that states are waiting to “get greater clarity” on the federal benefit package in order to minimize the extra coverage costs for which they might ultimately be responsible.
Medicare Part B Premium Costs Likely To Cut Into Social Security’s Increase
Social Security benefits will increase by 3.6 percent, but many consumers won’t feel more weight in their wallets because of an expected boost in Medicare costs.
Aid Groups, Health Ministry Plan To Administer Oral Cholera Vaccine To 100,000 Haitians
Working in conjunction with the Haitian Ministry of Health and the Haitian aid group GHESKIO, Boston-based Partners In Health (PIH) will begin an immunization campaign in January aimed at providing two doses of the oral cholera vaccine Shanchol “to 100,000 Haitians living in two vulnerable communities: a neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, where potable water and latrines are luxuries, and to an isolated rural village in the lower Artibonite Valley region,” the Miami Herald reports.
Vaccines Among Most Successful, Cost-Effective Health Investments In History
“Vaccines are among the most successful and cost-effective health investments in history,” Seth Berkley, CEO of the GAVI Alliance, writes in this post in the Huffington Post’s “Impact” blog. Because vaccines have saved millions of lives, “donors, the global health community and developing countries themselves [must] stay focused on immunization,” he writes.
The Guardian Interviews GlaxoSmithKline Lead Researcher About New Malaria Vaccine
The Guardian features an interview with Moncef Slaoui, now chair of research and development at GlaxoSmithKline, who discusses his 23-year involvement in the research leading to the RTS,S malaria vaccine that has shown to halve the risk of malaria among African children. Slaoui said cellular immunity is the key to the vaccine’s success and research on the vaccine has advanced the company’s knowledge of adjuvants, substances that stimulate the immune system, which has allowed the development of other vaccines (Boseley, 10/19).
India Must Stay The Course In Efforts To Eradicate Polio
“Clearly, there is no room for complacency” in India’s efforts to eradicate polio, defined by the WHO as no recorded case of the disease for three years, because “[t]he goal of complete eradication is within reach,” Deepak Gupta, a senior U.N. professional in Strategic Health/Development Communication, writes in an Asia Sentinel opinion piece. “[T]he next three years — till 2014 — will be crucial,” he writes, meaning experts should focus on “intense communication and preventive work, especially with regard to critical risk-factors like poor routine immunization and lack of proper sanitation,” he states, concluding, “The challenge is to ensure the sustainability of the success achieved so far” (10/19).
First Edition: October 20, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports analyzing the super committee’s progress, and detailing how Republican rivals’ stabs at ‘Romneycare’ are starting to gaining traction.
ACO Rule Relaxes Requirements For Doctors, Hospitals
The Obama administration today released much-awaited final rules on Medicare accountable care organizations that make it easier health care providers to participate.
Deficit Panel Hears Advice, Ideas From All Sides
Much of the input the super committee receives is familiar and expected. For instance, Democratic lawmakers are urging the panelists to protect the 2010 health law, Medicare and Medicaid. Republicans are pushing for the health law’s repeal and cuts to federal health programs.
Romney Faces Health Policy Attacks In Tuesday’s GOP Presidential Debate
Again on the defensive about the Massachusetts health law he signed while governor, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney reiterated that he didn’t think the federal government should have used the state’s measure as a model and acknowledged that he didn’t finish the job in terms of reducing health care costs.
Despite Progress In Malaria Vaccine Development, Funding Remains Potential ‘Stumbling Block’
In this Guardian opinion piece, the newspaper’s health editor, Sarah Boseley, responds to the positive results of a large-scale clinical trial of an experimental malaria vaccine reported on Tuesday and recaps other strides made against the disease in recent years, writing that “there is a way to go yet, with more results from the trial to come, and many uncertainties, including how much this vaccine will cost and who will be persuaded to pay.”
Emergency Humanitarian Response In Horn Of Africa Must Shift To Community Development
Though emergency humanitarian assistance has helped keep people alive in the Horn of Africa, “this effort is not sustainable,” David Morley, president and CEO of UNICEF Canada, writes in a Globe and Mail opinion piece. “Trucking in water and flying in food and medicine save lives, but we must rethink the way aid agencies operate in the region. We need to blend the immediate life-saving effort with creative longer-term community development … and involve everyone affected by the crisis. Farmers, herders, refugees and displaced people, local communities and government officials have valuable insights that a massive humanitarian response all too often overlooks,” he continues.
