A selection of health policy stories from California, North Carolina, Texas, Massachusetts, Kansas, Wisconsin and Colorado.
CommonHealth/WBUR: Mass. Gov.'s 11th Hour Proposal On Reining In High-Priced Hospitals
The House and Senate are under the gun to reach an agreement on how to lower health care costs while improving care. A conference committee aims to have a bill out on Sunday. Their deadline is Monday evening. In the meantime, several major issues are still unresolved, including what to do about hospitals that use their market clout to demand high prices that are not based on higher quality. Attorney General Martha Coakley, the state's top insurers and several consumer groups argue that price is a critical issue. "Any meaningful health care reform legislation must include efforts to address the market power of providers and the negative impact on costs that we identified in our reports," said Corey Welford, Coakley's chief of staff, in a statement (Bebinger, 7/26).
San Francisco Chronicle: $100 Million OKd For Stem Cell Research
California's stem cell funding agency on Thursday approved nearly $100 million in grants for research into heart disease, cancer and spinal cord injuries, and to the cheers of dozens of patients and their supporters, it also awarded money to rare but devastating diseases with no cure. In all, eight research projects - including three from the Bay Area - were granted $151 million in state funding by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine at its annual grant review meeting in Burlingame (Allday, 6/27).
North Carolina Health News: NC Proposes Plan To Move Mentally Ill From Adult Care Homes
After 13 months of negotiation with federal officials over resolving North Carolina's longstanding practice of housing mentally ill people in old folks' homes, the state has a plan of action to move mentally ill residents into the community. State officials say they're ready to take the first steps at implementation. The plan answers complaints made to the U.S. Department of Justice two years ago by Disability Rights North Carolina that alleged the state was in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act by housing people with mental illnesses in facilities, originally meant to house the frail elderly. The U.S. DOJ investigated the complaint, and last summer agreed North Carolina was breaking the law, and also was in violation of a Supreme Court ruling that calls for housing to integrate people with disabilities into the community (Hoban, 7/26).
California Watch: Prescription Drug Monitoring System Running Low On Funds
The state's prescription drug monitoring program, which was dealt a major blow amid state budget cuts, is still operating but may run out of money by the end of this year, according to the attorney general's office. The program, called CURES, is used by law enforcement to track the prescribing of doctors suspected of dispensing too many addictive narcotic pain medications. Doctors also query the database to determine whether patients are "doctor shopping," or seeking potent drugs from multiple sources to feed an addiction (Jewett, 7/27).
KQED: Primary Care Efforts To Involve Patients In Decision Making
All day, every day, people make medical choices that have repercussions for common yet dangerous conditions like asthma, heart disease and diabetes. Although chronic disease takes a greater toll on people with lower socioeconomic status, chronically ill patients are part of every community. In California and across the country, public health officials and physicians keep searching for the best way to get patients involved in improving their health (Harris, 7/26).
Reuters: Molina Healthcare Reports 2nd-Qtr Loss, Texas Weighs
Health insurer Molina Healthcare Inc reported a second-quarter loss and warned that enrollment in its Texas health plans may decline in the third quarter as higher medical costs in the region eat into premium revenue. … The company said higher costs in Texas "had a disproportionately large impact on its overall financial results" as the region contributed about a quarter of Molina's total premium revenue in the second quarter (Siddiqui, 7/27).
Boston Globe: UMass Medical Gets $6.7 Million Federal Grant To Battle Health Disparities
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School say they will use a new $6.7 million grant to battle significant health disparities in the region by using a grassroots approach that features patients telling their stories to inspire others. The school announced Thursday that it was awarded a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to establish a new Health Equity Intervention Research Center with scientists from UMass Boston (Lazar, 7/26).
Kansas Health Institute News: Report Questions Economic Viability Of Mid-Level Dental Providers
So-called mid-level dental providers would not be an economically viable way to extend access to oral health care in Kansas and four other states, according to a report released Wednesday by the American Dental Association, a dentist group. But the models used in the report are not comparable to the mid-level model being proposed in Kansas, said proponents of licensing Registered Dental Practitioners here. The report examined the economic viability of three mid-level models: dental health aide therapists, dental therapists and advanced dental hygiene practitioners (Cauthon, 7/26).
Modern Healthcare: Wis. Shared-Savings ACO Teams With Aetna
Aurora Health Care, Milwaukee, will collaborate with Aetna to offer commercial health insurance plans through Aurora's accountable care organization, according to an Aetna news release. The Aurora Accountable Care Network will provide Aetna plans primarily for small and midsize businesses in Wisconsin, although plans for large, self-funded employers will also be available, according to Aetna (Selvam, 7/26).