Latest KFF Health News Stories
Colorado: Rural Health Care Gets Boost From Service Corps Program
In other workforce news, a new law is working its way through the California Senate that would require background checks and “elementary care instruction” for all workers who help out in seniors’ homes.
Hospital Consolidation Trend Continues In Atlanta
The Henry Medical Center announced last week that it would enter partnership talks with Piedmont Healthcare.
Health Care Innovator Offers New Book On ACOs
The Boston Globe reports that Dr. Marc Bard, along with Michael Nugent, has authored a new book in hopes of helping to make health care cheaper and better.
State Roundup: Mass. Considers New Health Payment System
Today’s news includes reports from California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Connecticut, Washington and Oregon.
Medical Device Industry Focuses On Dodging Health Law Tax
The Center for Public Integrity reports that the medical device lobby is working hard to see that one of five pending pieces of legislation that would overturn the existing tax will make it into law.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including a report about President Barack Obama’s effort to rally support for his deficit reduction plan and to block GOP changes to Medicare and other social programs.
GOP Rep. Burgess Says Efforts To Undo Health Law Will Continue
The vice chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Health subcommittee says Republicans see gains from their efforts already.
After Partisan House Budget Vote, Obama And Coburn Dispute Medicare’s Future
And in his Saturday weekly address, the president called the GOP plan ‘wrong for America.’
Governments Struggling To Tame Health Costs
Massachusetts is debating a different way to pay for health care as the health law calls for more coordination of care as an integral part of controlling health care inflation.
Virus-Sharing Draft Agreement Very Close; U.S. Yet To Formally Approve, Reuters Reports
A draft agreement that would ensure countries would share virus samples in exchange for access to affordable vaccines derived from such samples in the event of a pandemic is nearly complete, senior diplomats told Reuters on Thursday. “Consensus has been reached across all regions, including Indonesia which three years ago stopped sharing influenza samples with the World Health Organization (WHO), but the United States has yet to give formal approval, they said,” according to the news service.
Ann Veneman, the former executive director of UNICEF, “took a seat on the board of Swiss food and drinks company Nestle SA on Thursday” and said she plans to look into whether the company has adopted a WHO code on breast milk, the Associated Press/Washington Post reports.
World Bank President Raises Concerns About Volatile World Food Prices’ Impact On Poverty
“World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Thursday warned of rising food inflation and high oil prices resulting from political turmoil in the Middle East as risks to world growth, as they threaten to push more people into poverty,” the Wall Street Journal’s “Dispatch” blog reports.
Updated Edition Of Humanitarian Handbook Includes Section On Protection Principles
Aid groups on Thursday praised the release of an updated handbook to guide humanitarian response efforts, including a new chapter on protection principles, IRIN reports.
Congress Approves Final FY11 Budget
Congress approved a final FY11 budget measure on Thursday, The Hill reports. “The House voted 260-167 to approve the legislation … The Senate signed off hours later on a vote of 81-19, sending the bill to Obama for his signature” (Berman, 4/14).
WHO Will Assist Indian Officials In Exploring Threat Of NDM-1 In Water Supply
The WHO has said it will assist government officials evaluating whether the presence of bacteria containing the NDM-1 gene in the water supply in New Delhi poses health risks, Agence France-Presse/Calgary Herald reports. The announcement comes after the Lancet last week published a report that bacteria carrying NDM-1, a gene that enables resistance to a variety of antibiotics, “was found in 51 out of 171 New Delhi samples taken from water pools and two out of 50 tap water samples,” the news service writes (4/14).
House To Vote On GOP Blueprint To Trim $6 Billion In Spending
The fiscal framework relies on cuts to Medicaid as well as a revamp of the Medicare program. Meanwhile, reaction continues regarding the budget outline unveiled earlier in the week by President Obama.
Congress Approves Current-Year Spending Plan, Votes On Defunding Health Law As Part Of Agreement
Separate measures to defund the health law and Planned Parenthood, which were voted on as part of the compromise that enabled the broader spending bill to move to a vote in both chambers, were approved in the House but defeated in the Senate.
State News: Medicaid Bill Headed For Florida Senate Floor
Today’s news reports come a variety of states, including Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Kansas, Iowa and Michigan.
Obama Makes It Official: 1099 Repeal Signed Into Law
Because the 1099 reporting requirement was a non-health related revenue-raising provision within the health law, its repeal is paid for with a payback provision that recoups funds from people who exceed their estimated income level during the course of the year after receiving subsidies for health insurance.
Camp, Hatch Allege Misuse Of Medicare Advantage Bonus Payments
The GOP lawmakers allege that the administration’s use of certain bonus payments that are available through a demonstration program are for political gain.
