Latest KFF Health News Stories
Calif. Revamping Mental Health Services
As the state shifts emphasis to the most serious patients in hospitals and prisons, other groups raise concerns.
State Roundup: FBI Questions Prime Healthcare Billers In Calif.
News outlets report on a variety of health policy issues around the country.
Health Policy Issues Draw Headlines For Romney And Gingrich
News outlets fact check the policy question behind GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s $10,000 bet. Meanwhile, other stories focus on Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s support for the Medicare Part D drug program.
Viewpoints: The High Cost Of Treating Patients Who May Die; Young Girls And Plan B
A selection of editorials and opinions on health care policy from around the country.
TV Cameras And The Supreme Court: Health Law Adds Pressure To The Mix
USA Today reports on how the court’s upcoming consideration of challenges to the health law have triggered stepped-up interest in televising the high court’s proceedings.
Berwick Places Blame For Health System’s Ills On Delivery System
The now-former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is speaking out about what he might do next and what is wrong with the health care system.
Medicaid Prompt-Pay Bill Introduced; Grassley Asks CMS About Hedge Funds
Modern Healthcare reports that Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif., and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., have introduced legislation to require Medicaid to pay its bills promptly. Also in the news, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Monday that he believes the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services may have given special treatment to information requests from hedge funds and political intelligence brokers.
Central African Republic In State Of ‘Chronic Medical Emergency,’ MSF Report Says
“The Central African Republic (CAR) is in the grips of a chronic medical emergency, according to a report released today by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF),” an MSF press release states. “Four mortality studies carried out by MSF over the past 18 months reveal crude mortality rates in some regions of CAR at three times the emergency threshold of one death per 10,000 people per day, which, according to the World Health Organization, is considered a humanitarian crisis,” the press release adds (12/13).
People In Swaziland Protesting Shortages Of ARVs Amid Government Financial Crisis
In Swaziland, where a “deepening financial crisis is taking a toll on service delivery, and the country is experiencing an unprecedented number of protests over issues such as school closures and a lack of HIV treatment,” “[a] new wave of HIV activism is rising … as people living with HIV take to the streets in protest, many for the first time in their lives, over continued shortages of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment,” PlusNews reports.
Unexplained Kidney Disease Affecting Rural Workers Across Central America, PRI’s ‘The World’ Reports
PRI’s “The World” reports on an epidemic of an unexplained kidney disease that is affecting rural workers across Central America, writing, “[I]t’s the second biggest cause of death among men in El Salvador, and in Nicaragua it’s a bigger killer of men than HIV and diabetes combined,” and “the latest theory is that the victims are literally working themselves to death.” According to the news service, “El Salvador’s health minister recently called on the international community for help,” stating that “the epidemic is ‘wasting away our populations.'”
Early Warning Systems Helping Aid Agencies Respond To Potential ‘Food Crisis’ In Sahel Region
Africa’s Sahel region is facing a potential “food crisis,” “[b]ut the good news is that the world’s Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) is giving West African countries and donor nations a period of time to prepare, says the aid group Oxfam,” the Christian Science Monitor reports. “Early reports suggest that as many as six million people in Niger and 2.9 million people in Mali live in vulnerable areas, where low rainfall, falling groundwater levels, poor harvests, lack of pastureland, rising food prices, and a drop in remittances from family members living abroad are starting to take their toll,” according to the newspaper.
Use Of Rapid Male Circumcision Tool Will Help Africa Reach HIV Prevention Goals
In order for Rwanda to reach its HIV prevention goals, the country “need[s] to reach two million men in two years to benefit from the protective effect of [voluntary medical male circumcision] in order to achieve this as part of a comprehensive, combination HIV prevention strategy,” Agnes Binagwahois, Rwanda’s minister of health, writes in a Washington Post opinion piece. However, “the only method widely approved for funding is the surgical method, which is expensive and impractical for countries lacking physicians and surgical infrastructure,” and it would take more than 12 years to reach the country’s goal, she says.
Canadian Researchers Develop Portable Device To Monitor HIV In Rural Areas
A team of Canadian researchers has “created a portable device that uses a computer chip with software capable of analyzing blood tests outside the lab … that could make it easier, faster and cheaper to track the progression of HIV in patients living in the developing world,” Postmedia News/Vancouver Sun reports. According to the news service, “The team’s portable cell analyzer makes it possible for health care workers to monitor HIV patients in remote areas by testing their blood on the spot and receiving results within minutes, [University of Toronto lead researcher Rakesh] Nayyar explained.”
U.S. Investments In HIV Treatment Internationally, Domestically ‘Should Pay Off’
“We welcome the Obama administration’s announcement of a farsighted effort to treat millions more [people living with HIV] abroad, especially in sub-Saharan Africa,” a New York Times editorial writes. “The administration expects that the expanded treatments can be paid for with existing resources, by pushing for greater efficiencies and more financing from recipient nations. But if that effort stalls, the administration should re-evaluate quickly whether to ask Congress for money,” the editorial states.
First Edition: December 13, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including details about various provisions included in the payroll tax extension measure being considered today by the House.
USAID Administrator Urges Journalists To Cover Important World Issues, Including Global Health
“Journalists have a responsibility to cover important world issues and stories, urged Dr. Rajiv Shah, administrator of USAID, while speaking at an event at Harvard University on Thursday evening,” GlobalPost reports. “He was welling with emotion as he told this story” of a Somali mother fleeing to Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp “to a gathering of journalists and experts on global health at a forum sponsored by GlobalPost, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism,” the news service writes.
Only With Universal Access Will Power Of Vaccines Be Fully Harnessed
In this post in Huffington Post’s “Impact” blog, Orin Levine of the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) recounts recent progress in expanding vaccine access to the world’s poor, writing, “From rolling out the first diarrhea vaccines in Africa, to doubling the number of low-income countries approved for vaccines against pneumonia, to announcing they will now assist countries [to] introduce vaccines for that prevent cervical cancer, the GAVI Alliance and its partners are tearing down the barriers to vaccine access that have historically divided rich from poor on our planet. To appreciate how far we’ve come you need to remember where we started.”
Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad To Introduce New Meningitis Vaccine
“The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday said that Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad, who are in the ‘meningitis belt’ stretching across Africa, will this month introduce a new vaccine designed to eliminate a particular strain of the often deadly disease,” Afrique en ligne reports (12/10). “Alison Brunier, a spokesperson for WHO, told journalists in Geneva that the three countries plan to vaccinate about 22 million people [among] them, focusing on the highest-risk demographic category — those aged between one and 29 years” and that “the immunization campaign should be completed within a couple of weeks,” the U.N. News Centre writes (12/9).
