Latest KFF Health News Stories
A pretty big selection of opinions and editorials today.
PepsiCo, WFP, USAID Announce Partnership To Increase Chickpea Production, Address Hunger In Ethiopia
PepsiCo on Wednesday announced a public-private partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP) and USAID to increase chickpea production in Ethiopia in order to secure access to the legume, which “play[s] an increasing role in its food products,” the New York Times reports. If the project is successful in working with small farmers to increase chickpea production, the “increased yield would exceed PepsiCo’s needs,” therefore “some of the additional crops will be used to make a new, ready-to-eat food product that the World Food Programme has used to address famine in Pakistan,” according to the newspaper (Strom, 9/20).
Coordination Of Dual Eligibles’ Care May Offer Savings
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said during a Wednesday Senate Finance Committee hearing that the current lack of coordination for people who are on both Medicare and Medicaid leads to massive amounts of waste and low-quality care, but an Obama administration official said more time was needed to address this issue. Also, a new report written by Emory University’s Kenneth Thorpe and funded by America’s Health Insurance Plans sets a high possible savings estimate if this coordination goal can be achieved.
Lawmakers Explore Savings Potential Of Medicare Extenders
During a Wednesday House Ways and Means Committee hearing, health industry witnesses defended the Medicare “extenders,” which, in many cases, are payment policies enacted to address specific problems faced by specific types of health care providers. Ending some of them would save less than $100 million a year. One economist said, however, that when added up, they can tally an estimated $2.5 billion in savings.
First Edition: September 22, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports that young adults are making gains in health coverage rates.
States Get Grants To Aid Rate-Review Efforts
On Tuesday, the Obama administration announced $109 million in grants to states to help them improve insurance industry oversight, especially regarding their scrutiny of premium increases.
Though drug companies, hospitals, nursing homes and state health programs would take the biggest hit in the president’s proposal, experts say protecting patients will not be simple.
Speaking at a high-level meeting at U.N. headquarters on Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, while lauding the progress made under the Every Woman Every Child initiative since its launch one year ago, noted that millions of women and children “are still dying needless deaths and called for advancing the goal of saving 16 million lives by 2015,” the U.N. News Centre reports. A one-year progress update launched at the meeting, Saving the Lives of 16 Million, “shows that in the first year of the effort, commitments have been implemented and enhanced, new partners have come on board, funding has been increased, policies improved and services strengthened on the ground,” according to the news service (9/20).
A selection of opinions and editorials from around the country.
Mass. Hospitals Oppose State Penalties For Preventable Readmissions
Also in state news, a California news outlet reports on the difficult challenge hospitals face trying to recover overdue bill in a tough economy and another looks at efforts by a handful of hospitals to partner with churches to help reduce health care costs.
Physician Leader: Medical Resident Training Should Focus On Cost-Conscious Care
Medscape reports on an article in the Annals of Internal Medicine delving into issues of physician training.
Insurance Commissioners Plan To Challenge Efforts To Extract More Money From Medigap Plans
Members of NAIC are developing a letter they plan to send to members of Congress regarding this proposal, which the president currently supports for new enrollees.
Critics Complain About Changes In Mental Health Coverage In Iowa, Ariz.
Under Iowa’s new Medicaid rule, psychiatric patients can fill only 15 days’ worth of medications at a time. In Arizona, state officials say the mental health system has weathered deep cuts, but advocates see harm from the move.
State Roundup: Consumers Oppose Ga. Request To Ease Insurer Profit Rules
News outlets report on a variety of state health policy issues.
USA Today: Seniors Key To Fighting Medicare Fraud
Officials believe that “Senior Medicare Patrols” will help make sure criminals who are involved in this health care fraud will be caught.
‘ResistanceMap’ Tracks Antibiotic Resistance Online
“Extending the Cure,” a research project of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy that looks at antibiotic resistance, on Wednesday launched a map “designed to be a tool for public health, researchers, doctors, the media and the public to track resistant pathogens, which is a growing problem around the world,” the Washington Post’s “The Checkup” blog reports. The “ResistanceMap,” funded in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, “compiles data from a variety of sources,” including the CDC, FDA, European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network and Canadian Antimicrobial Resistance Alliance, the blog notes. “Among the trends the map illustrates is that Western Europe is doing a better job than the United States of controlling certain resistant microbes, … [t]he United States and Ireland have the highest rates of vancomycin-resistant enterococcus (VRE),” and “[t]he South has higher rates of resistance compared to the West or Northeast in the United States,” the blog writes (Stein, 9/21).
HHS Spending Bill Stalled By House Impasse
The Senate Appropriations Committee’s consideration of the spending measure will likely be largely symbolic and the actual spending it covers will be handled later this year. The appropriations process, however, has been used by Republicans to attack the health law’s funding.
