Latest KFF Health News Stories
OMB Chief Jack Lew Tapped As New White House Chief Of Staff
Jack Lew will replace Bill Daley in the post later this month after work is completed on the 2013 budget. Democrats and progressives are cheering this Obama administration pick because he has a long record of protecting entitlement programs, especially Medicaid.
Blog Posts Respond To Legislation Enacted In Brazil Requiring Registration Of All Pregnancies
The following summarizes two opinion pieces published in response to Provisionary Measure 557 (PM 557), a legislation enacted by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on December 27 that will require all pregnancies to be registered with the government.
Medicaid News: Advocates Decry Maine Plan To Cut Rolls
In wide-ranging news about state Medicaid programs, outlets look at the controversy in Maine, the lawsuit in Texas that could have ramifications across the country, a suit in Connecticut that charges the state doesn’t have enough staff to process applicants, efforts to require prompt state payments to health care providers and Kansas’ realignment of its Medicaid operations.
Walgreens And Express Scripts: Moving On After The Break Up
A Walgreen Co. executive said that though the transition is difficult now, he expects the company to rebound as the year progresses. Consumers, too, will have to deal with some changes.
Restricting Publication Of H5N1 Research ‘More Perilous’ Than Threat Of Biological Warfare
In this Reuters opinion piece, New York-based writer Peter Christian Hall responds to “the U.S. government’s move to restrict publication of vital research into H5N1 avian flu,” writing, “This unprecedented interference in the field of biology could hinder research and hamper responsiveness in distant lands plagued by H5N1,” yet “no one seems to be challenging a key assumption — that H5N1 could make a useful weapon. It wouldn’t.”
State Roundup: Gov. Opposes Kentucky Hospital Merger
A selection of stories about health care from Kentucky, California and Massachusetts.
Melinda Gates, Nicholas Kristof Answer Readers’ Questions About Development Issues
Last week in a Huffington Post “Impact” blog post, Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, asked readers to submit questions about her recent trip to Bangladesh. In this post in New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof’s “On the Ground” blog, Kristof and Gates answer readers’ questions about development issues in the region. Questions address ways in which those with limited resources can help women around the world, how to factor in unintended consequences — such as rapid population growth — of global health programs, and investing in health versus other sectors (1/9).
Study Finds Home-Visit Program Could Keep Diabetes Patients Out Of The Hospital
The findings, which were published in Health Affairs, suggest time-honored prevention programs could have been responsible for lowered costs.
Viewpoints: Renewing The Call For A Public Option; Keep All Justices On Health Law Case
A selection of editorials and opinions on health policy from around the country.
In New Hampshire, Romney’s Comments Draw Fire From Rivals
GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is under the microscope for his comments during a campaign appearance in which he said he liked “being able to fire people.” Romney made the comments while he was talking about why he wants people to be able to choose their own health insurance.
Questions Continue About The Health Law’s Future
CQ HealthBeat reports on the courses available for the law’s implementation as stakeholders await the Supreme Court’s rulings. Politico Pro reports that the recent denials by the Department of Health and Human Services regarding state medical-loss ratio adjustment requests is very different than earlier experiences.
Social Media Faster Than Traditional Sources In Tracking Cholera In Haiti, Study Says
“Internet-based news and Twitter feeds were faster than traditional sources at detecting the onset and progression of the cholera epidemic in post-earthquake Haiti …, according to a new study published in the January issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (AJTMH),” an AJTMH press release states. “The study is the first to demonstrate the use of data from ‘informal’ media sources in monitoring an outbreak of a neglected tropical disease in a resource-limited setting, and shows that these sources can yield reliable decision-making data during deadly disease outbreaks almost in real-time, often far earlier than traditional surveillance methods that include surveys of hospitals and health clinics,” the press release adds (1/9).
Aid Group Tracks Down Likely First Case In Haiti’s Cholera Outbreak
“A mentally ill man who bathed in and drank from a contaminated river most likely was the first person to be infected” with cholera in the outbreak that began in Haiti in October 2010, researchers from Partners in Health said in a study published Monday in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, the Associated Press/Washington Post reports (1/9). “‘This patient’s case is the first in the community’s collective memory to have had symptoms that are recognizable, in retrospect, to be those of cholera,’ according to the study,” CNN’s “The Chart” notes, adding, “There is no lab method to confirm that this was the first patient to start the epidemic, wrote the authors” (Park, 1/9).
Examining GOP Presidential Candidates’ Global Health Positions
In this article in the online journal Global Health Governance, David Fidler, a professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, writes about the Republican presidential candidates’ positions on global health, saying, “I doubt whether many votes in subsequent GOP primaries will be cast because of global health considerations.” However, “thinking about American conservatism and global health serves as a reminder of the political significance of the nature of U.S. participation as a factor in the vibrancy of global health governance,” Fidler writes, concluding that the positions of the candidates are “interesting to ponder because what President Bush wrought [in creating PEPFAR] forces conservatives to confront global health more seriously than this American tradition of political thought has done before” (1/9).
India On Verge Of Recording Polio-Free Year
If India does not record a new polio case through January 13, “produc[ing] 12 straight months of polio-free surveillance data, it will be removed from the list of countries where polio is considered endemic, leaving only the other three,” Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria, Scientific American reports (Branswell, 1/9). “Asking other countries to draw inspiration from India in their polio eradication drive, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said the country not reporting a single polio case over the last year is a major milestone in the global health sector,” the Economic Times writes (1/10).
Rwanda Working To Meet 2013 Goal To Medically Circumcise 50% Of Men For HIV Prevention
Rwanda is expanding its medical male circumcision program this year, “as the country attempts to reach its goal of medically circumcising 50 percent of men by June 2013 as part of HIV prevention efforts,” PlusNews reports. “The free male circumcision program began in October 2011, and officials at the Ministry of Health say demand is growing,” according to the news service. However, with only 15 percent of men circumcised and a shortage of qualified health care workers, “the goal is unlikely to be met unless lower cadre health workers are involved in the campaign,” PlusNews writes.
TB Screening, Treatment Program Working To Decrease Caseload In Kenya
Al Jazeera examines how “[a] series of public-health campaigns, including more aggressive screening, have been credited with a drop in tuberculosis [TB] cases in Kenya” in this video report. “The screening and treatment program, regarded as one of the best in the developing world, is credited with taking the rate of TB infections in the East African country from a high of 116,000 in 2006 to 106,000 last year,” but not without “an economic and political price,” the news service reports. “For TB screening and treatment programs to be effective, supply chains for drugs and equipment and proper training for staff and administrative back-up must be in place,” Al Jazeera reports (Greste, 1/9).
First Edition: January, 10, 2012
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including new reports that the recession has held down health spending.
Walgreens-Express Scripts Split Has Consumers Checking Their Insurance Cards
News outlets report on the consumer impact of the split between Walgreens and Express Scripts.
DOJ Lays Out Health Law Defense In SCOTUS Brief
Just as the Justice Department reiterated its main argument supporting the health law’s individual mandate, briefs offering an opposing view were filed by the case’s plaintiffs and by 36 Republican senators.
