Latest KFF Health News Stories
State Roundup: Maine, Minn. GOP Want Insurance Changes
News outlets report on a variety of state health policy issues.
IOM To Issue Report On Preventive Health Care Services For Women
NPR reports that contraception is one area within the report that is drawing a lot of attention.
AP: Boomers Are More Obese Than Other Generations
Although the polls indicate baby boomers are most considered about cancer and memory loss, heart disease and diabetes should be high on their list, too. Also, because of this group’s weight problems, they are setting themselves up for unhealthy golden years.
IAS Conference Opens With Push For Treatment As Prevention
The 6th International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention taking place in Rome this week “started optimistically as the hype surrounding the use of antiretroviral treatment to prevent HIV infection gained momentum. But the focus of much discussion
Groups Up Ante In Effort To End Racial And Ethnic Disparities
Modern Healthcare reports that five major health care organizations have issued a national call for action to address the problem.
Medicare Bundled-Payments Rules Expected Before 2013 Deadline
A CMS official said the release of these health law regulations are being accelerated and will, at least initially, focus on acute- and post-acute care.
CMS Releases Proposed Rule For Health Insurance Co-Ops
Even though considerable doubts surround the survival prospects of these co-ops, they are envisioned as a means to give consumers better value than existing insurance companies. Start-up loans will be available to co-ops that have good odds of becoming financially viable.
Curiosity Emerges Regarding Federal Fallback For Health Exchanges
Politico reports that some experts are beginning to question what level strength the federal health exchange will have.
Ban Says U.N.’s Top Priority Is Sustainable Development
During a speech to the World Trade Organization on Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon laid out his vision for his next term, telling “trade officials and diplomats that ‘the United Nations’ top priority for this year and many years beyond will have to be sustainable development’
PBS Newshour Series Examines Health Challenges In Indonesia
PBS Newshour’s global health unit on Monday began a four-part series examining major health challenges in Indonesia, which “sheds light on the diverse nation’s changing political landscape, deplorable conditions for people there with severe mental illness, the effect of rising food prices and research into a plant that could be used as a male contraceptive,” the Newshour’s “The Rundown” blog states. The blog links to other video, photo and written reports from the team, including a piece on an Indonesian law that encourages breastfeeding (Miller, 7/14).
New Sting Video Targets Ohio Medicaid Offices
In the video, two men posing as Russian drug dealers get advice from Medicaid office workers.
Feds Tussle With Illinois Over State Medicaid Fraud Bill
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has blocked a state law designed to eliminate potential fraud in Illinois’ Medicaid system by requiring recipients to prove they live in the state and have low incomes.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including updates on the deficit talks, new public opinion polls and health law implementation issues.
HIV Vaccine Discovery Requires ‘Open Mind’
In response to Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson’s July 5 piece in which he highlighted several scientific “breakthroughs” in the search for an AIDS vaccine, Robert Gallo, director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, writes in a Post letter to the editor, “Although Mr. Gerson correctly noted that these discoveries are unrelated, he misperceived their relative significance.”
First U.N. Emergency Airlift Arrives In Nairobi To Provide Drought Aid
“The first U.N. emergency airlift flight arrived in” Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, on Sunday, “to assist the hundreds of thousands of Somalis who have fled the drought and famine afflicting their homeland,” ABC News reports (Hasan, 7/17). The jet, which was chartered by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), delivered 100 tons of tents meant for the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, the U.N. News Centre writes. An additional four flights are scheduled to arrive in Nairobi this week (7/17).
USAID Working With International Community To Respond To Drought In East Africa
“Since October 2010, the U.S. Government has provided more than $383 million worth of assistance, including 314,000 metric tons of food,” to countries in the eastern Horn of Africa region, where “[m]ore than 4.1 million people have benefitted from this help,” Donald Steinberg, USAID deputy administrator, writes in a Huffington Post opinion piece.
USAID Must Overcome Legal Hurdle To Providing Humanitarian Aid In Somalia
Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s office said the U.S. is willing to provide humanitarian aid to Somalia, where the militant group al-Shabab controls parts of the country, but “[i]n reality, her hands are tied by paperwork,” Eliza Griswold, author and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, writes in a Daily Beast opinion piece.
Health Experts Continue To React To CIA’s Use Of Vaccine Program To Hunt Bin Laden
Health experts continue to react to the CIA’s use of a vaccine campaign to hunt Osama bin Laden:
UNAIDS’ Sidibe Calls For Increased Access To HIV Drugs At IAS Conference Opening
UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe on Sunday at the opening of the 6th International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention in Rome “called … for an increase in access to drugs that help treat or prevent the spread of the disease, saying it is ‘morally wrong’ to keep millions of people off lifesaving medication,” the Associated Press/Boston Globe reports (7/18).
