Latest KFF Health News Stories
Catholic Healthcare West Separates From Catholic Church
With a name change and an end to its governing board’s affiliation with the Catholic Church, Catholic Healthcare West will become Dignity Health.
Hospitals, Doctors Explore Strategies That Could Alter The Care Delivery System
The New York Times reports on a trend in which hospitals are competing for more affluent patients from all over the world. Meanwhile, The Boston Globe reports on a stragey for providing medical care that is catching on in Massachusetts. Finally, CNN explores a trend in which physicians are increasingly taking advantage of Small Business Adminstration loans.
Roe V. Wade Anniversary Casts Spotlight On Policy Battle Over Abortion
Roll Call reports that state legislatures passed a landmark number of anti-abortion measures in 2011 – setting the stage for the year ahead.
What To Look For In The SOTU Address
President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday is expected to include a shift in strategy related to health policy.
First Edition: January 23, 2012
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports looking ahead to President Barak Obama’s State-of-the-Union address and others examining the health law.
Gingrich: Romney’s Mass. Health Plan Too ‘Liberal’ For S.C. GOP
Fresh from his South Carolina victory, Newt Gingrich appeared on three Sunday morning talk shows. Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum were also interviewed.
Boehner, Ryan Say House GOP Will Again Seek To Revamp Medicare
At the Republicans’ annual retreat, the House Budget Committee chairman says, “We’re not backing off the kinds of reforms that we’ve advocated.”
HHS Gives Some Religious Employers An Extra Year To Comply With Birth Control Rule
The extension applies to church-affiliated hospitals, universities and social service organizations. They will now have until August 1, 2013, to comply.
Cutting Military Medical Research Funding Would Jeopardize Health Of U.S. Troops, World’s Poorest
“In recent months, many politicians and presidential hopefuls have called for budget reductions, and many have specifically targeted military spending for cutbacks,” Peter Hotez and James Kazura, past president and president, respectively, of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, write in this Atlantic opinion piece. “[P]rograms such as the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) often find themselves low on the priority list despite their crucial role in saving the lives of our troops on the battlefield and here at home,” they write, adding, “Today, American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan still face formidable tropical disease threats. … For over 100 years, WRAIR has been the U.S. military’s premier institution for preventing these types of tropical infections.”
Blog Covers Experts’ Comments At Country Ownership Roundtable
This post in the Ministerial Leadership Initiative’s (MLI) “Leading Global Health” blog is “the third of a series of perspective pieces on country ownership from the ‘Advancing Country Ownership for Greater Results’ roundtable organized last week by” MLI, a program of Aspen Global Health and Development. “This third of four pieces covers the comments from several participants,” including Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and co-moderator of the session; Mark Dybul, former U.S. global AIDS ambassador, and current co-director at Georgetown’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law; Pape Gaye, president and CEO of IntraHealth; Paul O’Brien, vice president for Policy and Campaigns at Oxfam America; Salif Samake, director of Mali’s Health, Planning, and Statistics Unit in the ministries of Health, Social Development, and the Promotion of Women, Children and Family; and Francis Omaswa, MLI senior adviser, executive director of the African Centre for Global Health and Social Transformation, and co-moderator of the session (Donnelly, 1/19).
Health Law, Abortion Among Hot Topics In S.C. Republican Debate
The GOP presidential hopefuls clashed on a range of issues related to the health law, its individual mandate and efforts to repeal it. Candidates’ positions on abortion were also flashpoints.
President To Push Congress To Revisit Ambitious Effort To Cut The Deficit
And, just hours before President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, House and Senate negotiators will hold a rare public meeting over pending efforts to extend the payroll tax cut and to fix the Medicare reimbursement rate for physicians.
IMHE Researchers Present Update On Global Development Assistance
At a presentation hosted by the Global Health Council on Thursday at the University of Washington, Christopher Murray and Michael Hanlon from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation provided an update on global development assistance for health, the Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks” blog reports (Lubinski, 1/19). The data were based on a recently released report, titled “Financing Global Health 2011: Continued Growth as MDG Deadline Approaches,” which “offers a comprehensive view of trends in public and private financing of health assistance with preliminary estimates for health financing in the most recent years” and “shows that development assistance for health (DAH) continues to rise, albeit at a slower rate than before the recession,” according to an IMHE press release (December 2011).
Keeping Global Health Relevant As Part Of Sustainable Development Agenda
“In 2012 there will be a major strategic shift in global health, away from development and towards sustainability,” a Lancet editorial states. “Since 2000, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), driven by a macroeconomic diagnosis of global poverty, have focused on investment in a small number of diseases as the most effective approach to decrease poverty, … [b]ut this approach is now delivering diminishing returns,” because of emerging challenges such as non-communicable diseases (NCDs), climate change, and financial security, as well as a heightened focus on integration and accountability, the editorial says.
Debate Over Publication Of Bird Flu Studies Continues In Journal Opinion Pieces
“An international debate over whether to censor new research on bird flu may soon prove academic, as other laboratories close in on similar findings showing how one of the most deadly viruses could mutate to be transmitted from one person to another,” Reuters reports. Last year, two teams of researchers reported study results “that showed how the H5N1 [bird flu] virus can be transmitted through airborne droplets between ferrets, a model for studying influenza in humans,” and the findings prompted the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) in December to advise “two leading journals, Nature and Science, to withhold details of the research for fear it could be used by bioterrorists,” the news service writes.
Risperdal Lawsuit Settlement: Largest Medicaid Fraud Case In Texas
Texas and Janssen Pharmaceuticals reach a $158 million settlement on a suit claiming that the company lied about the efficacy of the anti-psychotic medicine.
India’s Ministry Of Health Dismisses Claims Of ‘Totally Drug-Resistant’ TB
In a January 17 statement, India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare “dismissed reports that a form of incurable tuberculosis [TB] has arrived in the country,” saying “that a team of doctors sent by the ministry found that seven of the patients are responding to treatment” and the cases would be classified and managed as extremely drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB), Nature News Blog reports (Jayaraman, 1/19). “Earlier, doctors in Mumbai said 12 patients had a ‘totally drug resistant’ form of TB, and three had died,” according to BBC News. “A WHO official in India told the BBC that there is no recognized case of totally drug resistant TB anywhere in the world,” the news service writes (1/20).
UNAIDS Officials Say Progress Being Made Against HIV/AIDS In Africa, Asia
Speaking at a media briefing in Geneva on Thursday, Sheila Tlou, UNAIDS director of the regional support team for Eastern and Southern Africa, said the region is making progress in scaling up access to prevention and treatment services, including behavior change and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programs, the U.N. News Centre reports. “We have to now focus on making sure that we scale up voluntary medical male circumcision, behavior change, and all those [interventions] to make sure that we reduce infections,” she said, adding that improving access to treatment also is critical, according to the news service (1/19). “‘There has been quite a lot of progress since 1997 with a 25 percent reduction in new infections in our region,’ said Tlou,” Agence France-Presse notes (1/19).
Federal Judge Renews Her Order Blocking Calif. Cuts To In-Home Care
The state had planned to cut $100 million from the program beginning this month.
Legislation Update: Fla. Lawmakers Advance Bill On Workers’ Comp Drugs
A Florida bill would keep doctors from dispensing “repackaged drugs” at higher prices, while the Kansas measure would bar a single agency from assessing a disabled person’s needs and then working as the case manager and providing services.
