Latest KFF Health News Stories
Global Fund Updates Global Health Community Advocates On Recent Changes To Organization
“Christoph Benn, director of resource mobilization and donor relations at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, updated global health community advocates Wednesday on … the multilateral organization,” the Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks” blog reports. Benn spoke about staffing changes at the Fund, the organizations’ new risk management framework and the Transitional Funding Mechanism (TFM), and the Obama Administration’s proposed FY 2013 budget request, according to the blog (Mazzotta, 4/4).
Humanosphere Blog Reports On ‘Diseases Without Borders’ Forum
KPLU 88.5’s “Humanosphere” blog reports on a “Diseases without Borders” forum held in Seattle on Tuesday at which Nils Daulaire, director of the Office of Global Affairs for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, stressed that global health is a domestic issue. “‘Our only chance to keep Americans safe is if the systems for preventing, detecting and containing disease
NIH To Award $20M Over 5 Years To Support Global Health Training For Scientists
“A network of global health research training institutions will increasingly focus on the rising levels of chronic diseases in developing countries, the National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center announced on Wednesday,” CQ HealthBeat reports (Bristol, 4/4). NIH will award “about $20.3 million … over the next five years to support 400 early-career health scientists on nearly year-long research fellowships in 27 low- and middle-income countries,” according to a press release from the Fogarty International Center. “Program trainees will study the traditional global health problems such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and maternal and child health, and will address the chronic non-communicable diseases that cause a majority of deaths in developing countries, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes,” the press release states (4/4).
2-Day Meeting Examining Issues Of Censorship Of Scientific Studies Leaves Questions Unanswered
A two-day Royal Society meeting held this week in London — which examined “whether scientific journals should occasionally publish censored versions of papers because the full ones might prove useful to terrorists” — “brought scientists no closer to resolving the question of whether there are any kinds of experiments whose results should be kept from the public,” the Washington Post reports. “The audience of about 200 scientists and ethicists considered numerous questions,” the newspaper writes, noting, “There was general agreement that some experiments are off limits, such as attempting to make the AIDS virus transmissible by air,” but “[t]here was less agreement about the experiments at hand, which changed the characteristics of H5N1 bird flu.”
‘Political Will, Dogged Organization’ Needed To Maintain Momentum Of Deworming Campaigns
In this New York Times opinion piece, journalist Amy Yee examines the cost-effectiveness of and challenges to deworming treatment campaigns in the developing world, deworming campaigns in India and Kenya. She writes, “Intestinal worms are pervasive in the developing world and can have devastating effects. But there is growing awareness about how easy and inexpensive it is to treat worms, as well as surprising longer-term socioeconomic benefits. Research shows deworming to be extremely cost-effective.” Yee provides statistics from previous studies on the various benefits of deworming school-aged children and asks, “If giving deworming pills to schoolchildren is so easy and effective, why haven’t more large-scale programs taken off?”
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about how the budget debate is mixing into presidential poiltics.
President Lashes Out At GOP Budget, Medicare Plan
In a Tuesday speech billed by many as a preview of the Obama reelection campaign’s favorite themes, President Barack Obama blasted the treatment of Medicare, Medicaid and other entitlement programs by the Republicans and warned that their spending blueprint is a form of “Social Darwinism.”
GOP Plans For Health Law Replacement; Obama Softens Court Rhetoric
Republican lawmakers say they are beginning to pull together a health care package that could replace the 2010 law if the Supreme Court overturns it.
A selection of editorials and opinions about health care policy from around the country.
Hearing Date Set For Injunction Request On Express Scripts-Medco Merger
The hearing, which involves an effort by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the National Community Pharmacists Association and independent pharmaciesto undo the merger deal, will be held on April 10.
Hospital News: Officials Plan New Building In Colo.; Mich. Facility Is Shutting Down
Denver hospital officials plan an expansion, a Michigan hospital says it’s shutting down, and in Massachusetts, Steward Health Care plans to buy a hospital.
WellPoint CEO’s Compensation Slid In 2011
As the health insurer’s earnings decreased in the face of losses to its Medicare Advantage plans, its CEO Angela Braly received less in compensation, The Associated Press reports.
Health Plan Settles Fla. Lawsuits; Minn. HMOs Return $73M To State, Feds
In Florida, a health plan in Tampa will pay $137.5 million to settle lawsuits over Medicare and Medicaid claims, while Earvin “Magic” Johnson plans to invest in a new HIV plan there. In Minnesota, the federal government and the state will split $73 million nonprofit HMOs are returning while other Minnesota health plans profits jump 21 percent.
Catholic University Ends Birth Control Coverage
A Catholic University in Ohio ends its health plan coverage of birth control, and Texas is planning to apply for federal block grants to free up money to use on its Women’s Health Program, which is closing.
State Roundup: Feds Deny Hawaii Medicaid Hospital Limit
A selection of state health policy stories from Hawaii, Arizona, Wisconsin, California, Texas, Oregon and New York.
Physician Groups Identify Unnecessary Procedures
The list of 45 tests and procedures was pulled together by nine medical speciality groups to help reduce spending and improve patients’ health.
Quantifying The Health Law’s Medicaid Expansion
The Fiscal Times estimates that the health law’s Medicaid expansion which will offer government coverage to about 15 million low-wage workers and their families.
Federal Court Judge Takes Umbrage At Obama’s Remarks On Judicial Activism
The judge ordered the Justice Department to explain whether Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. believes federal judges have the authority to strike down federal law.
More Must Be Done To Increase Access To Family Planning Services For Women In Rural Areas
“If family planning services, including information about reproductive health, access to birth control, and health care, were available to all women, the deaths of 100,000 women during childbirth could be prevented every year,” Maeve Shearlaw, policy and advocacy coordinator for the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, writes in this post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s “Impatient Optimists” blog. “In other words, access to family planning saves lives,” she writes, adding, “Clearly, more must be done to reach women in rural areas and to increase demand in places where women don’t even know about family planning methods. It is also important to focus on girls and young women, who are more at risk of losing their lives in childbirth — yet simultaneously much less able to reach family planning services” (4/2).
Study Tracking Progress In Maternal, Child Health Highlights Inequities In Intervention Coverage
According to a study published in the Lancet on Saturday, researchers from the University of Pelotas in Brazil tracking progress toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5 — which promote maternal and child health — “discovered that the most equitable intervention was early initiation of breast feeding, and that the attendance of a skilled person at birth proved to be the least equitable intervention,” Medical News Today reports. “The findings furthermore revealed that community-based interventions were more equally distributed in comparison with those delivered in health facilities,” MNT writes, noting that the “most inequitable countries of the evaluated interventions were Chad, Ethiopia, Laos, Nigeria, Niger and Somalia, followed by India, Madagascar and Pakistan, with the most equitable countries being Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan” (Rattue, 4/2).
