Latest KFF Health News Stories
Mass. Hospital-Doctor Group Still Seeks To Fulfill Premiums Pledge
Partners HealthCare System vowed to pay $40 million to help reduce insurance costs for small businesses, the Boston Globe reports. Also, California group announces plans for an ACO and Minnesota Public Radio examines how cost cutting efforts will affect health care.
HHS Reviewing Florida’s Plans For Medicaid
Officials from Florida and the federal government are working on the state’s plans to move all Medicaid enrollees to managed care plans. Meanwhile, Iowa is planning changes to its Medicaid program that could impact the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. And a Medicaid provider in Georgia finds anomalies in payments.
Nursing Homes To Face Medicare Pay Cut
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finalized an 11 percent drop in nursing home payments, which will kick in next year.
HHS Announces New Guidelines For Women’s Preventive Services
The rule includes everything from distribution of birth control pills to administration of breast exams. Ultimately, women will no longer pay out of pocket for preventive services. However, Politico reports that the Department of Health and Human Services may include a “conscience clause” in the regulation.
Race And The Personalized Medicine Debate
The Washington Post reports on how race is emerging as an important issue in the discussion surrounding personalized medicine.
What Will The Health Law Look Like In The Future?
News outlets report on a range of issues related to the health law, from efforts to repeal the measure’s tax on insurance policies to competing claims about its costs.
Bipartisan Support For NIH Funding Eroding
CQ HealthBeat reports on how there is increasing skepticism, especially from members of the GOP, that the National Institutes of Health should be protected from budget cuts.
Field Trials Of Rapid, Inexpensive And Portable HIV Test Show Success, Researchers Report
“The first field trial for a ‘lab on a chip’ accurately detected both HIV and syphilis among a Rwandan population, researchers reported Sunday” in an online report published by Nature Medicine, the Washington Post reports (Torres, 7/31).
New York Times Examines Maternal Mortality In Uganda
“Half of the 340,000 deaths of women from pregnancy-related causes each year occur in Africa, almost all in anonymity,” the New York Times writes in an article profiling several cases of women who have died during childbirth in Ugandan hospitals.
Development Assistance Committee Review Suggests More Coordination In U.S. Foreign Aid Program
“The U.S. should improve coordination among its more than two dozen government departments to promote coherence in its multibillion-dollar foreign aid program and avoid duplication,” according to a peer review from the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Guardian reports.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about how the politics and policies involved of the debt-ceiling deal are taking shape.
Possible Medicare Cuts In (Very) Tentative Debt Deal
From the morning talk shows throughout Sunday afternoon, a debt-limit deal appeared to be in the works.
Medicare, Medicaid Payments Part Of Default Scenarios
News outlets are covering the possible fallout for the health care system if no debt-ceiling deal is reached.
Nursing Homes Attack Medicare’s Payment Cuts
Medicare announced a change in nursing home payments Friday, according to news coverage.
Political, Economic Tensions In Malawi Threaten New HIV/AIDS Strategy
In a guest post on the GlobalPost’s “Global Pulse” blog, Janet Fleischman, a senior associate at the CSIS Global Health Policy Center, describes the Malawian government’s “plans to launch a ‘test and treat’ program in which all HIV-infected pregnant women will immediately be put on antiretroviral treatment (ART) drugs for life.” But she adds that “[t]he growing political and economic crisis in Malawi, highlighted by the government’s use of force against peaceful demonstrators last week, could also imperil the groundbreaking expansion of Malawi’s national HIV/AIDS program.”
Opinion Pieces Address Drought, Famine In Horn Of Africa
The following opinion pieces address the drought and famine situation in the Horn of Africa:
Ghana Declares Eradication Of Guinea Worm
Ghana on Thursday declared the eradication of Guinea worm in the country, after a 23-year fight against the disease, the Associated Press/Seattle Times reports.
Economist Examines Cholera, Possible Solutions To Mitigate Disease
The Economist in its current issue examines cholera, including the disease’s history, current outbreaks, and research into vaccines and sanitation. “Not all human waste has the deadly bacterium; but all of it is dangerous and better disposal of feces would go a huge way to stopping cholera and other deadly intestinal diseases,” the magazine writes (7/30).
Demonstrators In Swaziland Express Concern Over Possible Antiretroviral Shortages
More than 3,000 demonstrators gathered across Swaziland on Thursday for a second day of protests over the king’s handling of an economic crisis that they say is causing a shortage of medical supplies, including antiretroviral therapy (ART), the Associated Press/Washington Post reports (7/28).
Clinton Praises Innovators For Their Work To Help Mothers And Children
Speaking at the Saving Lives at Birth Development Exchange at the State Department on Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton “prais[ed] innovators from around the globe for their work to protect the health and lives of mothers and children at birth, particularly in rural areas of the developing world,” IPP Digital reports (Babb, 7/28).
