Latest KFF Health News Stories
Maine Has Most Improved Health Care Quality; Kansas Needs More Dentists
States address a wide range of health policy issues.
Kansas May Join Health Lawsuit; 71 Lawmakers From 26 States Ask To File Brief To Support Law
Governor-elect Sam Brownbeck said he would direct Attorney General-Elect Derek Schmidt to join the lawsuit.
Nevada AG Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Health Care Merger
News outlets report on consolidation in the health care marketplace.
New Safety Reporting Website For Electronic Health Records Launches
EHRevent.org will allow doctors and health-care workers to confidentially report errors arising from electronic health records.
Changes To Flexible Spending Accounts; High Co-Pays Prompt Abandoned Prescriptions
Concern that new rules for flexible spending accounts, which will no longer cover over-the-counter medications, could leave patients and doctors confused.
States Seek Ways To Balance Medicaid Budget, Contemplate Dropping Out Of Program
Officials from Texas and other states threaten to drop out of the Medicaid program while other states seek ways to cover expanding Medicaid budget.
Officials Look To 2 States For Advice On Setting Up Exchanges
Two states – Massachusetts and Utah – are forerunners in establishing health insurance exchanges, a key part of the health overhaul, and are likely to serve as models for other states.
One in Seven Medicare Patients Harmed By Problems In Hospital, HHS Report Finds
A report from the Office of Inspector General looks at ‘adverse events’ in hospitals.
First Edition: November 16, 2010
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about health exchanges, a new study tracking hospital errors and the gathering anticipation surrounding Medicare Chief Donald Berwick’s Capitol Hill testimony this week.
Senator Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) on Friday said that poorly secured medical laboratories in East African countries, which hosts insurgent groups linked to Al Qaeda, are vulnerable to bioterrorism, Agence France-Presse reports.
Haiti’s Health Ministry on Sunday said 917 cholera deaths had been reported in the country as of Friday and more than 14,600 people had been hospitalized, according to an update on the ministry’s website, Reuters reports. The disease has been detected in six of the country’s 10 provinces, according to the Health Ministry. “The central rural province of Artibonite, the epicenter of the epidemic, remained the worst affected, accounting for nearly 600 of the total deaths,” the news service writes. As of November 12, authorities had recorded 27 deaths in the capital city of Port-au-Prince (11/14).
Lancet World Report Details New U.S. Global Development Policy, Global Health Community’s Reaction
Lancet World Report examines elements of President Barack Obama’s U.S. Global Development Policy strategy that he unveiled during the U.N. summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in September. The article summarizes the new approaches described in the U.S. Global Development Policy, pulling direct quotes from Obama’s speech, before writing, “Despite the excitement over a more unified, rational U.S. foreign assistance policy, concerns continue about the slow pace and lack of details. Some also worry that although an important goal of the new approach is to streamline and better organise the assistance structure, they say it remains unwieldy.”
NPR Reports On Dengue Vaccine Progress
NPR’s “SHOTS” blog examines the growing interest of pharmaceutical companies to develop a vaccine to protect against the dengue virus.
Leaders Speak At Partnership for Maternal, Newborn And Child Health Conference
Education for women is the most important factor for positively influencing the health of women and children, Indian President Pratibha Patil said on Saturday at a meeting in New Delhi of The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH), IANS/Sify News reports. “Education is a powerful driver of health. The relationship between poverty, lack of education and limited access to health services, is well recognised,” Patil said at the start of the two-day conference (11/13).
Republicans Increase Challenges To Health Law, Repeal Rhetoric
As congressional Republicans ramp up talk about repealing the health reform law, they are also adding their voices to a challenge to the law in a Florida court.
As Congress Heads Into Lame-Duck, Repeal Of 1099 Reporting Provision Likely
In response to business concerns, Senator Max Baucus aims to repeal new tax reporting requirements.
States address a wide range of health policy issues.
Today’s Op-Eds: Tough Spending Cuts; Plugging The Deficit; Austism Mandates
Opinions and editorials from around the country.
