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Political Pro talks to researchers who helped develop the IOM recommendations for the federal government on what should be offered in health plans. At the same time, a number of news outlets look at news about the implementation of the 2010 health care law.
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including articles on the Capitol Hill stalemate that threatens to cut Medicare payments to doctors and government efforts to keep details of a research experiment on bird flu secret.
A report released last week by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues examining federally sponsored research involving human volunteers, called "Moral Science: Protecting Participants in Human Subjects Research," said that "current rules and regulations provide adequate safeguards to mitigate risk," "recommended 14 changes to current practices to better protect research subjects, and called on the federal government to improve its tracking of research programs supported with taxpayer dollars," according to a Commission press release. "In the report's central finding, the Commission found that the 'U.S. system provides substantial protections for the health, rights, and welfare of research subjects,'" the press release states.
"Haiti has seen a steady decline in the number of cholera cases, as the Caribbean nation settles into its dry season, humanitarian groups said Tuesday," the Associated Press reports, adding, "The seasonal decline in the number of cholera cases is consistent with the findings of a report released Tuesday by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs." According to the report, health officials are recording about 300 cases nationwide per day, compared with 500 cases one month ago, and the mortality rate has dropped or leveled in nearly all of Haiti's 10 departments, the AP notes (Daniel, 12/20).
House Republicans rejected the deal - approved by the Senate before it adjourned for the holidays - to extend the payroll tax cut. This event is the latest in a chain of ongoing congressional sagas marked by questions of what the government should fund and how it pay for it.
News outlets report about what the future could hold for Medicare physician reimbursements now that Congress has, so far, failed to take steps to avert a scheduled payment cut.
In this Guardian opinion piece, Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C., writes that the U.N. "must face up" to a cholera outbreak allegedly brought to Haiti by peacekeeping troops in the aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake. "More than 500,000 have been infected, and the disease -- which Haiti has not had in more than a century -- is now endemic to the country and will be killing people there for many years to come," he writes.
In this post in GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog, journalist John Donnelly reports on tuberculosis (TB) in Estonia and how the country has significantly reduced the proportion of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) cases since 1998. He writes, "The numbers of new TB cases in Estonia were five times that of the Nordic countries in 1998, but the numbers have tumbled since then and last year Estonia had cut that in half, to 2.5 times the number." MDR-TB still represents 22 percent of all TB cases, but several factors -- including "a decision by government leaders to fully fund anti-TB efforts; banning sale of TB drugs in pharmacies in order to cut down on misuse; annual training of all TB medical staff by international experts; and the country ensured it would have enough of the scarce drugs needed to fight MDR-TB" -- have helped bring down the numbers, he reports. Donnelly is reporting independently on a trip made through the Philippines, Estonia, and Peru with photographer Riccardo Venturi "at the invitation of the Japanese company Otsuka Pharmaceutical to look at the human impact of TB" (12/20).
The waiver will change how hospitals are paid and will test new delivery system models.
Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation concluded the nation's public health capacity is being undermined by funding cuts to state and local health departments.
The U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity on "Tuesday asked two scientific journals to leave out data from research studies on a lab-made version of bird flu that could spread more easily to humans, fearing it could be used as a potential weapon," Reuters reports (Steenhuysen, 12/20). The board "recommended that the journals Science and Nature publish only the general discoveries, not the full blueprint for these man-made strains," the Associated Press notes (Neergaard, 12/20). "Editors at the journals ... say they will not agree to the redactions until they are assured the data will be accessible to researchers" according to BBC News (12/20).
The federal funds will help California provide coverage to residents with medical problems. In Missouri, a state senator suggests that officials not make any more plans on the state health exchange until the Supreme Court rules on the legality of the federal health law.
GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney used a TV appearance to take on rival candidate Newt Gingrich regarding a range of policy and political issues. Meanwhile, aides to President Barack Obama blasted Romney for shying away from the similarities between Massachusetts' health reforms and the 2010 health law. Negative ads also flood the Iowa airwaves.
The Kansas City Star reports on how new Health and Human Services rules restrict access to a database that includes information about physician malpractice and discipline issues.
The drugmaker has agreed to settle a civil lawsuit that accused a former subsidiary of overpaying pharmacists for a widely used medication.
Kansas lawmakers grilled state officials about Gov. Sam Brownback's plans to streamline the state bureaucracy. In Wis., the legislative analysis found that private contractors are taking on an increasing share of the work of administering Medicaid programs.
News outlets report on a variety of state health policy issues.
This marks the third year in a row that a health care claim has won this title. This time around, the Democrats take the prize for their assertions that Republicans had advanced policies to "end Medicare."
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