Latest KFF Health News Stories
Administration Advances Health Care Cuts
Obama administration officials say the funds would come from payments to hospitals and other facilities without directly imposing new costs on beneficiaries or making radical changes to the Medicare program.
CMS Issues Proposed Medicare Payment Rules
The measure would increase hospital outpatient rates, dramatically cut physician payments and link surgical center payment to quality.
The Essential Role Of Midwives
Mary Ellen Stanton, a senior maternal health advisor at USAID, and Chris Thomas, global health communications and policy advisor at USAID, outline the agency’s work to promote better health outcomes for women and children in the developing world on GlobalPost’s “Global Pulse” blog.
Faith Communities Play A Key Role In Global AIDS Fight
“One of the great lessons of this fight is that the single fastest way to mobilize at the grassroots level around the world is through local congregations. Nothing comes close to the size and scope of this pool of compassionate volunteers,” Rick Warren, founder and pastor of the Saddleback Church, writes in a CNN opinion piece reflecting on his involvement in the global fight against HIV/AIDS.
AIDS Vaccine May Be Far Off, But Path To It Is Getting Clearer
In his latest Washington Post opinion piece, columnist Michael Gerson highlights scientific efforts to create an AIDS vaccine, noting the work of researchers at the Vaccine Research Center.
New Tools Can Significantly Reduce HIV/AIDS Worldwide
“We are entering a new era in HIV prevention. PEPFAR promoted a ‘combination prevention’ strategy from the beginning. But the tools were limited. Scientific advances could give individuals the ability to determine the prevention intervention that works best for them. Preliminary mathematical models suggest that combining a full range of prevention interventions is additive
Drug Companies’ Desires To Maintain Status Quo Are ‘Lethal’
In the second of a two-part Al Jazeera opinion-piece series “examining the methods by which multinational drug corporations inflate their expenses and justify their pricing strategies,” Khadija Sharife, a journalist and visiting scholar at the Center for Civil Society, looks at U.S. tax laws, lax oversight of international clinical trials, the cost of research on new pharmaceutical compounds, and vaccine manufacturing.
Washington Post Examines Increase In Number Of USAID Contract Suspensions
“The U.S. Agency for International Development, as it cracks down on vendor impropriety, has more than doubled the number of companies and nonprofit groups it has suspended or debarred from receiving new contracts,” the Washington Post reports in an article focusing on the agency’s suspension of government grants in March to the Washington-based nonprofit Academy for Educational Development (AED).
Germany To Restore Half Of Global Fund Donation Withheld Earlier This Year
“Germany is unblocking half of the funding it withheld from” the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria “following revelations of corruption earlier this year,” the Associated Press reports.
New Report Suggests Only Small Risk Of Mobile Phones Causing Cancer
“A committee of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection has concluded after a comprehensive review that there is little cause for concern about the suggested link between mobile phone use and brain tumors,” BMJ reports (Watts, 7/4).
States Continue Push To Keep Federal Money From Planned Parenthood
Also in the news, a national abortion rights organization has filed suit in Texas to block the implementation of a new state law requiring women have pre-abortion sonograms.
States Wrestle With Medicaid Funding And Budgets, Contracts, Rule Changes
News outlets report on Medicaid developments in Kentucky, Colorado, Arizona and Hawaii.
State Roundup: Calif. Weighs Bill To Curb Premium Increases
A variety of state health policy issues are in the headlines.
India Must Not Become Complacent Despite AIDS Control Program’s Success, Prime Minister Says
“India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday hailed the country’s success in slashing new HIV/AIDS infections by half in the past decade, but warned against complacency,” Agence France-Presse reports. Speaking at a conference on AIDS in New Delhi, Singh said the country’s HIV prevention program “can justifiably claim a measure of success,” but “there should be no room for complacency,” as an estimated 2.4 million Indians are living with the disease, according to AFP.
Viewpoints: ‘Imaginary’ Mandates, Premium Hikes, Medicare Leadership
A selection of opinions and editorials from around America.
LA Times: Study Urges More Mammogram Guidelines
New research, published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, argues for a more complex approach to determining who should have a mammogram and when.
Wis. School Districts And Insurers Feud Over Federal Dollars
Wis. school districts that have switched insurers are seeking to get health insurance company affiliated with Wis. teachers’ union to release federal funds designed to help cover early retirees, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
AJC: Hospital Execs Pay Raises Eyebrows
In other news, The Boston Globe reports that Quincy Hospital has declared bankruptcy just days after its trustees approved a deal for the facility to be acquired by Steward Health Care System.
Employers Maintain Corporate Fitness Programs, On-Site Medical Clinics
Despite recent hard economic times, large businesses appear to be continuing their investment in corporate fitness programs and, in another effort to curb high health costs, on-site health centers.
Dems To CMS: Hold Firm On Medicaid ‘MOE’ Requirements
Meanwhile, a Government Accountability Office report finds that, although most physicians accept some new Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program patients, a majority of primary care docs say they have difficulty finding specialists to provide care for these young low-income patients.
