Latest KFF Health News Stories
First Edition: September 22, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports that young adults are making gains in health coverage rates.
States Get Grants To Aid Rate-Review Efforts
On Tuesday, the Obama administration announced $109 million in grants to states to help them improve insurance industry oversight, especially regarding their scrutiny of premium increases.
Though drug companies, hospitals, nursing homes and state health programs would take the biggest hit in the president’s proposal, experts say protecting patients will not be simple.
Speaking at a high-level meeting at U.N. headquarters on Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, while lauding the progress made under the Every Woman Every Child initiative since its launch one year ago, noted that millions of women and children “are still dying needless deaths and called for advancing the goal of saving 16 million lives by 2015,” the U.N. News Centre reports. A one-year progress update launched at the meeting, Saving the Lives of 16 Million, “shows that in the first year of the effort, commitments have been implemented and enhanced, new partners have come on board, funding has been increased, policies improved and services strengthened on the ground,” according to the news service (9/20).
A selection of opinions and editorials from around the country.
Mass. Hospitals Oppose State Penalties For Preventable Readmissions
Also in state news, a California news outlet reports on the difficult challenge hospitals face trying to recover overdue bill in a tough economy and another looks at efforts by a handful of hospitals to partner with churches to help reduce health care costs.
Physician Leader: Medical Resident Training Should Focus On Cost-Conscious Care
Medscape reports on an article in the Annals of Internal Medicine delving into issues of physician training.
Insurance Commissioners Plan To Challenge Efforts To Extract More Money From Medigap Plans
Members of NAIC are developing a letter they plan to send to members of Congress regarding this proposal, which the president currently supports for new enrollees.
Critics Complain About Changes In Mental Health Coverage In Iowa, Ariz.
Under Iowa’s new Medicaid rule, psychiatric patients can fill only 15 days’ worth of medications at a time. In Arizona, state officials say the mental health system has weathered deep cuts, but advocates see harm from the move.
State Roundup: Consumers Oppose Ga. Request To Ease Insurer Profit Rules
News outlets report on a variety of state health policy issues.
USA Today: Seniors Key To Fighting Medicare Fraud
Officials believe that “Senior Medicare Patrols” will help make sure criminals who are involved in this health care fraud will be caught.
‘ResistanceMap’ Tracks Antibiotic Resistance Online
“Extending the Cure,” a research project of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy that looks at antibiotic resistance, on Wednesday launched a map “designed to be a tool for public health, researchers, doctors, the media and the public to track resistant pathogens, which is a growing problem around the world,” the Washington Post’s “The Checkup” blog reports. The “ResistanceMap,” funded in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, “compiles data from a variety of sources,” including the CDC, FDA, European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network and Canadian Antimicrobial Resistance Alliance, the blog notes. “Among the trends the map illustrates is that Western Europe is doing a better job than the United States of controlling certain resistant microbes, … [t]he United States and Ireland have the highest rates of vancomycin-resistant enterococcus (VRE),” and “[t]he South has higher rates of resistance compared to the West or Northeast in the United States,” the blog writes (Stein, 9/21).
HHS Spending Bill Stalled By House Impasse
The Senate Appropriations Committee’s consideration of the spending measure will likely be largely symbolic and the actual spending it covers will be handled later this year. The appropriations process, however, has been used by Republicans to attack the health law’s funding.
President, Party Leaders Offer ‘Super Committee’ Conflicting Advice
The GOP leaders say new taxes should be unacceptable. The president says any cuts to Medicare without also increasing revenue would trigger a veto. And the House Majority Leader advises the panel to “think small.”
Four Insurers May Help Provide Answers To Health Cost Puzzle
Four major health insurers announced plans yesterrday to pool their health care claims data into a single database to enable researchers to mine for information about trends in costs, utilization and intensity of care.
Rockefeller: ‘Blended Rate’ Proposal Could Be End Of CHIP
Sen. John D. Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said Tuesday that the deficit plan announced this week by President Barack Obama would take a significant toll on states’ CHIP programs.
State-Federal Tensions Surround Plans For Health Exchanges
At a meeting this week, state regulators offered their objections to the Obama administration’s plans. One focus was the partnership model which would utilize joint state-federal operation of some exchanges. Meanwhile, in Minnesota, GOP lawmakers step-up their criticism of the state’s efforts.
