Latest KFF Health News Stories
Stakeholders, GOP Lawmakers Focus Efforts Against Medicare Spending Panel
News outlets report on how the health law’s Independent Payment Advisory Board is the focus of negative attention from numerous vantage points.
Viewpoints: Trying To Regulate Insurance Premium Rates, Fighting Medicare Fraud
A selection of opinions about health care from around the country.
First Edition: January 26, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including details of how health policy fit into the President’s State of the Union address.
Merck, Wellcome Trust Back Project To Develop Improved Rotavirus Vaccine For Developing Countries
“A joint venture between U.S. drugmaker Merck and Britain’s Wellcome Trust charity said on Monday it is working on an oral rotavirus vaccine designed to be cheaper and easier to use than current shots,” Reuters reports. “Hilleman Laboratories, an India-based joint venture set up on a not-for-profit basis in 2009, said the vaccine will aim to protect against diarrhea-causing rotavirus infections and will be based on thin strips or granules that dissolve in the mouth and can be easily transported, stored and administered.”
Washington Post Reports On Administrator Shah’s Goals For USAID
The Washington Post examines plans for reforming USAID, noting some of Administrator Rajiv Shah’s comments during a recent speech at the Center for Global Development. “‘This agency is no longer satisfied with writing big checks to big contractors and calling it development.’ Those challenging words, spoken last week by [Shah], were just one part of his speech forging a new direction for an agency that has been in the backwater of U.S. foreign and national security policies for years. With little more than a year on the job, the 37-year-old medical doctor and research scientist, who once handled the $1.5 billion vaccine fund for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, criticized development programs designed to be ‘extended in perpetuity while goals remain just out of reach,'” the newspaper writes.
British Government Report Calls For Global Food System Overhaul To Prevent Hunger
A British government report, released on Monday, says the current system aimed at ensuring global food security needs to be “radically redesigned,” the BBC reports. “The report is the culmination of a two-year study, involving 400 experts from 35 countries,” the news service writes (Ghosh, 1/24).
Media Outlets Examine GAVI’s Efforts To Bring Pneumonia, Rotavirus Vaccines To Developing Countries
Al Jazeera examines the toll pneumonia and diarrhea take on children living in developing countries and how the GAVI Alliance is working to help improve health outcomes among children through the distribution of pneumonia vaccines around the world.
Speculation Persists About Obama’s State Of The Union Address
Reclaiming public support for the health overhaul will be one of President Barack Obama’s challenges in tonight’s State of the Union address.
Study: EHRs Don’t Boost Quality Of Care
Stanford researchers concluded that on 19 of 20 quality measures, electronic health records offered no clear benefit.
ACOs Present Different Challenges To Different Parts Of Health Industry
Modern Healthcare reports on how various sectors experience different challenges as they move toward ACOs.
Roundup: Penn. Health Plan Foundering; Bachmann Attacks Minn. Medicaid Plan; Small Biz In Calif.
States in today’s roundup include Texas, California, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona and Massachusetts.
Sebelius: $4 Billion In Recouped Funds Is Proof Government Fraud-Fighting Is Working
Of the record amount of funds recaptured from health-care fraud cases, $2.86 billion will be funneled back into the Medicare trust fund.
Insurers Turn To Social Networking To Detect Fraud
The Los Angeles Times reports on this trend, in which social media is becoming a tool for insurers.
Abortion Issues Continue To Draw Attention In New Congress
Some House Republicans view abortion as a possible means to undo aspects of the health law. But, at the same time, some conservative states are beginning to “warm to” the law’s Medicaid provisions related to family planning.
Viewpoints: Anticipating SOTU; ‘Flimflammery’ On Health Law Costs; Disputing Medicare Price Controls
A selection of opinions and editorials.
First Edition: January 25, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including speculation about what, in regard to health policy, President Barack Obama will say during tonight’s State of The Union address and how the GOP will respond to it.
NBC News Examines Drug-Resistant Malaria Along Thai-Cambodian Border
NBC News’ “World Blog” reports on the emergence of drug-resistant malaria along the border between Thailand and Cambodia. “The Pailin area [in Cambodia] is now the epicenter of a fight to contain a growing resistance to Artemisinin, which is the world’s main anti-malarial drug,” the blog writes before noting the global health community’s efforts to contain the spread of drug-resistant malaria.
U.N. Commission To Establish Benchmarks For $40B Maternal, Child Health Initiative Commitments
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will travel to Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday to co-chair a commission that aims to establish benchmarks for the U.N.’s $40 billion maternal and child health initiative that was establish at last year’s Millennium Development Goal summit, the Canadian Press/Toronto Star reports (1/23).
