Latest KFF Health News Stories
Feds Overlooked Medicare Scam Warnings, The AP Reports
The Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services ignored letters from inspectors for three years about suspected Medicare fraud.
CDC Releases Revised Swine Flu Estimates
Based on the updated numbers, about 3,900 Americans have died from the virus.
Potential Success Of U.N. World Food Summit Questioned
Next week’s World Food Summit in Rome “is not likely to make more than token headway in the fight against hunger, with leaders merely pledging to boost aid to poor countries but setting no targets or deadlines for action,” Reuters/New York Times reports.
WHO Revises Clinical H1N1 Guidelines, Sends Antivirals To Some Hard-Hit Nations
On Thursday, the WHO issued revised guidance for the clinical management of H1N1 (swine) flu, the Associated Press reports. According to the AP, the WHO “says doctors shouldn’t wait for lab confirmation before giving anti-viral drugs to pregnant women and other at-risk groups with suspected swine flu” (11/12).
TIME Examines Efforts To Combat Malaria Resistance Along Thai-Cambodia Border
TIME reports on evidence along the Thai-Cambodia border that the malaria parasite is gaining resistance to artemisinin
Global Fund Approves $2.4B For Ninth Round Grants
During its recent board meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria approved $2.4 billion for the three diseases, PlusNews reports. The money is for the fund’s “ninth round of grants, bringing the total amount of approved funding since its inception in 2001 to $18.4 billion,” according to the publication.
Senate Aides: Reid Considering Medicare Payroll Tax Increase On Wealthy
As one of the ways to finance health reform legislation, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asked the CBO about the effect of a one-half percent increase in the Medicare payroll tax for people earning more than $250,000.
Health Reform: Senate Facing Controversies On Coverage Numbers, Abortion Language
The Senate faces its own inner battles regarding the number of people insured and how abortion is handled in its health bill.
Business and Insurers’ Groups Back Health Reform, But Not All Legislation
A group of CEOs, the Business Roundtable, and America’s Health Insurance Plans, the insurance industry group, separately expressed qualified support for health overhaul efforts Thursday, heartening Democratic leaders, but at the same time, urging them to adopt faster-acting reform measures.
GOP Hopes To Rally Sentiment Against Dems’ Health Bills But Face Flap Over RNC Abortion Coverage
The Republican National Committee has offered employees insurance plans that cover elective abortions since 1991
Rural Thoughts On Improving The Health Care System; Plus Other State News
Kaiser Health News examines rural health care in Kentucky and finds community health care models there offer lessons for America’s broader health care system, despite lingering problems.
Maternal Mortality, Abortion Rates Decline In Former Soviet Bloc
Over the last decade, the maternal mortality rate has dropped by 50 percent in some former Soviet bloc and Balkan countries, according to a U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) report released Thursday, Agence France-Presse/France24 reports.
New York Times Examines Impact Of Small, Direct Grants To Boost Development In Afghan Village
The New York Times examines the use of small, direct grants to improve health and development in Afghanistan. The article focuses on efforts in “Jurm, a valley in the windswept mountainous province of Badakhshan, in the northeast,” where small amounts of money
Today’s Opinions And Editorials
Today’s opinion topics include abortion, insurance and filibusters.
News Outlets Examine USAID Administrator Nomination
PBS’ Online NewsHour explores the recent nomination of Rajiv Shah as USAID administrator and the outlook for the agency. “While Shah still needs to be confirmed by the Senate, there has been high anticipation for a successor to be named. There is broad consensus in the government and aid community that the agency
Doctors Face Image Problems; Patients Deal With Shortages, Are Urged To Question Care
Doctors confront the fading image of primary care providers.
Health Policy Research Round Up – Medicare and Massachusetts
The Research Roundup today includes the “secrets of Massachusetts’ success” with health reform legislation, Medicare hospital readmission rates, an examination of Part D and a look at Americans’ attitudes about funding global health.
AMA Takes On Social Issues, Backs Reform, Rebuts 100-Year Trend
After a century of health-reform opposition
Insurer Recruits Employees To Oppose Health Bills, Angers Consumer Group
“In an aggressive new effort to influence the congressional health care debate, UnitedHealth Group this week e-mailed its 75,000 U.S. employees, urging them to contact their senators and providing two form letters attacking specific legislative proposals,” the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
