Latest KFF Health News Stories
Survey Finds Physicians Unhappy With Insurance Companies
Doctors believe plans make unjustifiable denials of claims and have needless preauthorization demands.
Public Sector Employees Retire Sooner To Protect Health Benefits, Pensions
The New York Times reports that many public sector employees are making the choice to retire now before their benefits are futher diminished.
Gingrich’s Policy Positions Draw Attention As His Popularity Grows
The Boston Globe examines how Gingrich’s view of the individual mandate has changed. Meanwhile, Reuters reports on GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s efforts to keep his record as governor of Massachusetts under wraps. Finally, Rick Santorum gets into a health policy fracas in Iowa.
Health Law’s Insurance Exchanges Studied, Demonstrated
In Conn., insurers say exchanges won’t lower costs when they launch in 2014, and Minnesota debuts some possible prototypes.
USA Today: $1.5 Billion In Medicare Prescription Drug Savings
USA Today notes that the government is expected to announce today that the health law’s Medicare doughnut hole provision triggered this savings. In other Medicare news, the federal government announced Monday that Medicare will allow its claims database to be used by employers, insurance companies and consumer groups.
Business Of Health: Iowa Companies Merging, ‘Rapid’ Growth For Mass. Chain
In Iowa, two nonprofit nursing services are joining, and in Mass., Sone system’s growth worryies community hospitals.
Senate Hearing Focuses On Merger Of Two Big Drug Benefit Managers
Express Scripts and Medco Health Solutions are seeking to combine operations, but some senators have raised concerns about the effect on consumers.
A Changing Of The Guard At CMS
CQ HealthBeat reports on the new head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, while other news outlets report on the outgoing administrator’s thoughts on the job and the system.
Study: Number Of Young People Choosing Nursing Jumps
The RAND Corp. study was published in the current issue of Health Affairs.
State Roundup: Calif. Settles Suit On Kids’ Mental Health Services
News outlets report on a variety of state health policy issues.
Multiple-Employer Health Plans To Face Quick Enforcement Procedures
Under a proposed rule stemming from the health law, the secretary of labor will have enforcement tools designed to protect employers, providers and wokers from mismanaged or fraudulent multiple-employer welfare arrangements.
Comparative-Effectiveness Research Takes Center Stage
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute attracted a larger-then-expected volume of applications for its pilot projects grants program. Meanwhile, the institute, which was created by the health law, will release its draft agenda next month.
Viewpoints: The Loss Of Berwick; A Market For Kidneys; Abusing Painkillers
A selection of editorials and opinions on health care policy from around the country.
Legislative Update: Congressional Health Bills Draw Attention
New legislation was introduced to make drug price gouging a federal crime. Also, a measure is pending that seeks to make the upcoming Supreme Court term “must-see TV.” The abortion battle will heat up again in a hearing scheduled today over the Prenatal NonDiscrimination Act.
Still On The Capitol Hill To-Do List: Payroll Tax Holiday Extension, Medicare Doc Fix
Reuters terms the tasks “issues affecting Americans’ pocketbook.” The outstanding questions include how to pay for the payroll tax break extension – could Medicare offer some ideas? Also, could the doc fix fight spill over into January?
New Global Map Shows Difficult-To-Treat Malaria Strain Remains Prevalent In Asia, Latin America
“Declining malaria deaths in Africa and progress toward an effective malaria vaccine are raising hopes the disease will soon be eradicated worldwide,” but “researchers at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, [on Monday] unveiled a new global malaria map that raises new concerns about the disease,” VOA News writes (Sinha, 12/5). The researchers from Britain’s Oxford University mapped the Plasmodium vivax malaria parasite, “which is often recurring and can be deadly,” and found it is “endemic in substantial parts of the world,” particularly in Asia and Latin America, Reuters writes (Kelland, 12/5).
Fake, Poor-Quality Drugs Boosting Malaria Drug Resistance In Southeast Asia, U.S. Experts Say
“Fake or poor quality malaria drugs are boosting resistance in parts of southeast Asia, a problem that is likely to worsen unless tighter regulations are adopted, U.S. experts said Monday” at a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights, Agence France-Presse reports. “‘Drug resistance to the most effective drug available, artemisinin-based combination therapy, is developing and has been recognized in southeast Asia,'” Regina Rabinovich, director of infectious diseases at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said, according to the news service.
Vietnam Should Shut Compulsory Rehab Centers For Drug Users, Sex Workers, U.N. Expert Says
A U.N. expert on Monday “urged Vietnam … to close down its compulsory rehabilitation centers for sex workers and drug users, stressing that detention and forced treatment violate their right to health and perpetuate stigmatization and discrimination of those groups in the society,” the U.N. News Centre reports (12/5). “‘It’s essential to ensure that the considerable resources now invested in these centers are used instead to expand alternative treatments for injecting drug users,’ said” U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health Anand Grover, the Associated Press/Washington Post writes (12/5).
Reuters Examines Role Of Family Planning At Durban Climate Change Talks
“[W]ith studies suggesting that 215 million women around the world want — but cannot get — effective contraception, making sure birth control methods are available to those who want them could be one of the cheapest, fastest and most effective ways of addressing climate change, experts said at the U.N. climate conference in Durban” this week, AlertNet reports. “But getting U.N. climate negotiators to even mention the controversial issue is nearly as difficult as getting them to agree on a long-delayed new global climate treaty,” the news agency adds.
