Latest KFF Health News Stories
Test To Properly Diagnose Fever In Children Needed ‘Desperately’
“[F]ar too many children in Kenya and other African countries continue to suffer unnecessarily each year due to the misdiagnosis of fever, which contributes to the deaths of nearly three million children of less than five years of age from malaria and pneumonia,” Willis Akhwale, head of Kenya’s Department of Disease Prevention and Control in the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, writes in a Daily Nation opinion piece, saying that health care workers “desperately need a test that can quickly and accurately identify and distinguish between fever-causing diseases.”
World Leaders Unanimously Approve NCD Political Declaration
World leaders attending the first-ever U.N. High-level Meeting on Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs) kicked off the summit on Monday by “unanimously approving a ‘political declaration’ meant to stem a rising tide of [NCDs], now the world’s leading killer,” CNN reports (Ariosto, 9/19). The declaration “call[s] for a multi-pronged campaign by governments, industry and civil society to set up by 2013 the plans needed to curb the risk factors behind the four groups of NCDs — cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes,” according to the U.N. News Centre.
A new analysis (.pdf) conducted by the African Leaders Malaria Alliance, the Evidence to Policy Initiative at the University of California-San Francisco, and the Clinton Health Access Initiative “warns that if the countries that have produced impressive reductions in malaria cut or stop control activities, malaria will rapidly resurge and a decade of progress will have been in vain,” BMJ News reports.
U.N. Set To Announce Expansion Of ‘Every Woman Every Child’ Program
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday is expected “to announce a significant expansion of the organization’s ambitious global program to tackle infant and maternal mortality and boost access to reproductive health over coming years,” the Financial Times reports. The announcement “will highlight the doubling of commitments from governments, the private sector and non-profit organizations on funding and policy initiatives for the ‘Every Woman Every Child’ program,” the newspaper writes (Raval et al., 9/19). The announcement comes “[a]s the U.N. General Assembly opens a new session” and is “being called on [by the international community] to provide more family planning services to hundreds of millions of women,” according to VOA News (DeCapua, 9/19).
Foreign Affairs Examines History Of Negotiations On NCD Political Declaration
Foreign Affairs on Tuesday published an analysis examining the history of negotiations behind the political declaration approved on Monday by leaders attending the U.N. High-level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs).
State Roundup: Brownback Blasted For Rejecting Federal Grant
News outlets report on a variety of health policy topics in the states.
Kansas Medicaid ‘Imperiled,’ Says Lt. Governor
Meanwhile, an audit finds La. Medicaid providers received improper payments; Texas pharmacists are lining up against the state’s push to put more people in Medicaid managed care; and payment arrangements for Connecticut’s Medicaid medical homes programs are drawing debate.
New Organ Donation Rules Under Consideration
The Washington Post reports that the changes being discussed are controversial and have triggered concerns.
Big Monthly Premium Hikes Likely Next Year For Medicare Rx Plans
According to a study by Avalere Health, seniors with the most popular plans will experience an increase in costs, even though monthly premiums on average are expected to go down next year.
GOP Presidential Hopeful Rick Perry’s Record On Women’s Health Scrutinized
As the GOP presidential primary campaign continues to heat up, news outlets focus on Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s state policy record: An NPR report today examines his funding for women’s health. Meanwhile, Michele Bachmann offers her take on employer-sponsored health insurance.
Viewpoints: Mixing Politics And Deficit Cutting; Transparency In Health Care; Doctors’ Salaries
A variety of views about health policy from around the country
HHS Publishes Guidance For Health Exchange State Partnership Model
Meanwhile, Arizona’s efforts to create an exchange are morphing into a political hot potato. Also in the news, WellPoint has purchased its own private exchange to compete with the state-run versions envisioned in the health law.
MedPAC Offers Possible Offsets For Medicare Physician Pay Fix
Still, Obama’s deficit-reduction plan, released yesterday, includes no funding for the doc fix. Some are eyeing a Medicaid adjustment that will garner $13 billion in savings as a possible source of money — but competition is stiff for these funds.
Insurers Agree To Supply Health Claims Data To New Academic Institute
This agreement, which The New York Times described as “unusual,” will create a database for research on health care costs and utilization, according to The Wall Street Journal.
First Edition: September 20, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including details and analysis of President Barack Obama’s debt-reduction plan, which would trim health programs by $320 billion and links such entitlement trims to new taxes.
Obama Debt Plan Includes Cuts To Medicare, Medicaid
News reports offer details of the plan, which is designed to reduce the federal deficit by more than $3 trillion over the next 10 years, also includes a $3.5 billion reduction in funds for the health law’s prevention and public health trust fund as well as a new Medicaid “blended rate.”
Leverage Mobile Technology And Social Networking To Strengthen Health Systems
Alexander Finlayson, Katherine Hudson and Faisal Ali, all affiliates of MedicineAfrica, a social enterprise providing a platform for health care educational and research partnerships between Northern and Southern collaborators, write in a SciDev.Net opinion piece, “Health scientists in developing countries can use social media to tackle research priorities, … build[ing] networks and shar[ing] the knowledge needed to make strategic progress towards strengthening health systems.” They say that mobile technology can enable “direct interaction with patients, helping remote training of health care workers, and supporting the education of scientists,” and that the use of social media outlets, such as Twitter, can “facilitate collaboration between scientists in developing countries,” preventing duplication of research (9/15).
Introduction Of Free Caesarean Sections In Congo Leads To Increase In Procedure
“A health policy shift that saw the introduction in May of free caesarean section operations in 35 hospitals across the Republic of Congo — to curb the growing rate of maternal and infant mortality — seems to have prompted a proliferation of such operations, according to health officials,” IRIN reports. “‘We are virtually living in the hospital because there are so many consultations,’ said Jean-Claude Kala, head of gynecology at Makelekele Hospital, south of Brazzaville,” the news service writes.
Global Trade Negotiations Must Consider Inequalities In Access To Medicines
Some of the issues to be addressed at the U.N. High-level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) taking place this week in New York “are controversial, including those relating to intellectual property rights for new medicines, diagnostics and medical devices,” James Love, director of Knowledge Ecology International, writes in an Al Jazeera opinion piece. “By continuing to assert that the Doha Declaration is in fact limited in various ways, U.S. and European trade negotiators have tried to discourage the granting of compulsory licenses on patents for high-priced drugs for cancer and other non-communicable diseases,” he continues, before outlining a proposal called the “cancer prize approach” that would de-link drug prices from research and development incentives.
