Morning Breakouts

Latest KFF Health News Stories

GAO Report Looks At U.S. Aid For Food Emergencies, iWatch Reports

Morning Briefing

According to a GAO report (.pdf) issued last week, “the USAID program designed for food emergencies now spends more than half of its funding to cover multi-year shortages that have become the norm. About 96 percent of the food aid supplied in 2010 went to 21 countries that have received U.S. food aid for four years or more,” iWatch News reports.

First Edition: May 17, 2011

Morning Briefing

Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about the debt-ceiling limit and ongoing budget talks as well as the GOP’s emerging Medicare rift.

AP Reports On Global Fund’s Release Of Information On Corruption, Fund Responds

Morning Briefing

After an Associated Press story on Friday reported that the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria “will make public more detailed information about money it has lost to corruption and mismanagement, but won’t release other information critics have sought … that might have made it possible to calculate how much of the money investigated is lost to corruption, or what percentage of the fund’s overall disbursements are misspent” (Heilprin, 5/13), the Global Fund released a statement saying it “remain[s] fully committed to accountability for the intentions, process, funding and results of our projects.”

LCD Conference Ends With 10-Year Action Plan

Morning Briefing

The Fourth U.N. Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDCs) closed in Istanbul on Friday “with a number of recommendations seeking to halve, from 48 to 24, the number of LDCs during the next 10 years,” the Guardian’s “Global Development” blog reports (Tran, 5/13).

OPINION: New HIV Infections More Expensive Than Providing Antiretroviral Drugs To Existing Patients

Morning Briefing

In light of study findings released last week showing the risk of HIV transmission can be reduced by 96 percent if HIV-positive patients begin combination antiretroviral therapy as soon as possible, a San Francisco Chronicle editorial asks, “The evidence is clearly starting to show that it’s much better to treat patients earlier, but from where will the money come?”

Fits And Starts Continue For Health Law Implementation

Morning Briefing

News outlets report on a variety of aspects of the health law ranging from the IPAB and ACOs to the two states to most recently gain waivers from the Department of Health and Human Services.

World Health Assembly Begins In Geneva

Morning Briefing

As the 64th World Health Assembly gets underway in Geneva, the body will consider “an array of subjects pertaining to reforms of the organisation and its financing, vaccines, fake medicines, and influenza pandemic preparedness, as well as communicable and non-communicable diseases,” Intellectual Property Watch reports (Saez, 5/13).

Uganda Launches PEPFAR-Supported Mobile Male Circumcision Clinic

Morning Briefing

U.S. Ambassador to Uganda Jerry Lanier on Friday in Kampala launched a Mobile Medical Male Circumcision clinic, a project of the PEPFAR-supported Makerere University Walter Reed Project (MUWRP), New Vision reports.

Ugandan Parliament Fails To Debate Legislation Criminalizing Homosexual Acts

Morning Briefing

Legislation that criminalizes homosexual acts in Uganda did not make it to the floor of the country’s Parliament on Friday, meaning “the bill is essentially dead, for the moment,” PRI’s “The World” reports (Porter, 5/13).

Business Trends Shape Medical Practices

Morning Briefing

Minnesota Public Radio reports that independent practices increasingly face an uphill battle while the Minneapolis Star Tribune notes that in workplaces across the nation the “company doctor” is making a comeback.