Latest KFF Health News Stories
“Switzerland’s innovative policy of providing drug addicts with free methadone and clean needles has greatly reduced deaths while cutting crime rates and should serve as a global model, health experts said on Monday,” Reuters reports in an article that examines the outcomes resulting from drug policy reform in the country (Nebehay, 10/25).
ECSA Forum Kicks Off Monday With Discussion On Effects Of Funding, Health Worker Shortages On MDGs
“Officially opening the East, Central and Southern Africa (ECSA) forum on best practices and joint consultative meeting on Monday, [Zimbabwe Minister of Health and Child Welfare Henry] Madzorera said the shortage of health workers and the growing burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases had slowed down progress” toward achieving the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), NewsDay reports.
Bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine Produces Better Immune Response Than Trivalent Vaccine, Study Says
The bivalent oral polio vaccine (bOPV) was found to induce a “significantly higher immune response” than the existing trivalent oral polio vaccine (tOPV), according to a study published on Tuesday in the journal Lancet, Reuters reports (Kelland, 10/26).
Guardian Examines Global Food Price Volatility
“Rising food prices and shortages could cause instability in many countries as the cost of staple foods and vegetables reached their highest levels in two years, with scientists predicting further widespread droughts and floods,” the Guardian reports in a story examining the significance of rising food prices worldwide. The article points to several recent developments that have created cause for concern and includes quotes from global experts.
IPS Reports On USAID’s Implementation And Procurement Reform
Inter Press Service examines recent changes at USAID in line with President Barack Obama’s vision to help build “the capacity of developing countries so that they can develop themselves.”
Pharmaceutical Industry Pays Billions In Fraud Settlements; Walgreen Selling PBM Co.
Walgreen is bowing out of the pharmacy-benefits management business to focus on retail, worksite medical clinics, and specialty pharmacy; drugmakers slammed for false marketing
New Technologies Streamline Health IT System; Electronic Medical Records Raise Privacy Issues
Sharing electronic medical records may get easier; healthcare providers use iPads to view health data; health plans offer online health consultations; electronic health records vulnerable to unlawful perusal.
States, Insurers, Employers Move Forward With Health Law Implementation
News outlets report on efforts to implement the new health law, including high risk pools and insurer brochures that summarize health plan offerings.
Medicare Growing Fiscally Unsustainable, Yet Remains Politically Untouchable
The Medicare program, “an indispensable safety net,” is fiscally unsustainable as it drives the national debt higher each year, yet it may be politically untouchable, The Center for Public Integrity reports in the first of a multipart series.
Physicians’ Efforts Keep Payments On Medicare Database Confidential
The Wall Street Journal mined a database with extensive information about Medicare payments and discovered a New York City doctor who most likely took more than $2 million from Medicare. But such practices are generally difficult to find because of the database’s strict confidentiality requirements.
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Cancels Meeting To Review Prostate-Cancer Screening
The advisory group puts off the difficult issue after initially voting last fall to recommend against screening for men of all ages, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Doctors Agree On Need To Change Medicare Pay, But Not How
Doctors widely believe that the Medicare payment system is unfair, but they disagree about how to fix it, according to a recent study.
First Edition: October 26, 2010
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including more reports about how health reform is playing on the campaign trail.
Cholera Epidemic In Haiti Persists Despite Slowdown In Fatalities
“A multinational medical response has slowed deaths in a Haitian cholera epidemic that has killed more than 250 people so far, but the outbreak is likely to widen, a senior U.N. official said on Sunday,” Reuters reports. The U.N., Haitian government and aid partners “have launched a major effort to try to contain the epidemic” of more than 3,000 cases in the country so far (Delva, 10/25). The New York Times reports that the death rate, according to the Haitian government, has “declined
World Trade Organization Director-General Pascal Lamy highlighted concerns about the global food situation on Friday during a roundtable discussion on the sidelines of the International Organisation of La Francophonie summit, Agence France-Presse reports.
PhRMA Representatives Meet With Officials In India To Discuss Compulsory Licensing
During a visit with government officials, industry leaders and NGOs in India last week, representatives from Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), a U.S. lobbying group that represents the country’s pharmaceutical industry and biotechnology companies, addressed “the Indian government’s proposal to allow local drugmakers to make low-cost version of patented drugs so that they can be made available to patients,” the Economic Times reports. “Issuing compulsory licensing is not a long-term solution and will be counterproductive,” PhRMA Executive VP Christopher Singer said.
At a U.N. Foundation board meeting in Ghana to discuss Millennium Development Goal progress, which concluded on Saturday, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan “called on the citizenry to demand the attainment of these set goals from their political leaders,” the Accra Mail reports. “It is only through this that we can put pressure on the politician to work towards achieving these goals,” he said, according to the newpaper.
Health Politics: Obama Challenges GOP; Insurers Backing Republicans; Democrat Manchin Opposes Law
News outlets report on the role of health care in this year’s elections, including insurance companies funding of GOP candidates.
Health Law Implementation Hitting Snags
Despite pledges to leave employer-based health plans intact, some firms are considering ending or reducing coverage for their workers, according to benefits consultants.
