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Mass. and Minn. officials struggle with controlling health costs, guaranteeing quality

News outlets report that Massachusetts' health reform hasn't adequately addressed the soaring cost of health care, according to the state's Attorney General.

21 Nov 2010

NSW nurses to strike on Wednesday

NSW nurses are bent upon going on strike despite requests from Deputy Premiera and Minister for Health Carmel Tebbutt for them to re-enter negotiations. The strike is set to go ahead against the orders of the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC).

21 Nov 2010

Growing emergency room ‘access block’ problem in Australian hospitals

Shockingly the number of Australians who die waiting for a hospital bed is on par with road deaths said a senior Canberra emergency department doctor. According to Australian National University medical school’s road trauma chairman, Associate Professor Drew Richardson, 30 per cent of emergency wards’ work now involves caring for patients whose initial treatment has ended but still await a bed. He suggested a seven-day-a-week surgical roster to avoid the build-ups of patients that overcrowd wards.

21 Nov 2010

Repeal, replace and revise are the new health overhaul buzzwords as congressional power changes hands

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and 32 other GOP senators officially filed a brief on Thursday in favor of a court case challenging healthcare reform. McConnell filed a 16-page brief in a federal case based in Florida arguing that a key part of the new healthcare law, the requirement that all individuals have health insurance, was unconstitutional.

20 Nov 2010

Today's OpEds: Opposing views on hospital medical errors; lesson for Andy Harris; Dems and abortion

If a 747 jetliner crashed every day, killing all 500 people aboard, there would be a national uproar over aviation safety and an all-out mobilization to fix the problem. In the nation's hospitals, though, about the same number of people die on average every day from medical "adverse events," many of them preventable errors such as infections or incorrect medications.

19 Nov 2010

Report examines how health care reform affects personal costs, coverage, quality of service

Although most people's knowledge of the new health care law is limited, their opinion on how it will affect their health care depends on what type of private health insurance plan they currently have and their political affiliation, according to a recent report issued today by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute.

19 Nov 2010

Today's Op-Eds: The ObamaCare suit; Fixing physician pay; A federal takeover of Medicaid; Cues from Britain

The voters showed their loathing for the law on November 2, and a large, united legal front of states would increase the chances that the courts find it unconstitutional and preserve our federal system (11/18).

19 Nov 2010

Bed shortages plague Queensland public hospitals

According to the Australian Medical Association of Queensland there is a 500 bed shortage in the public hospitals in Queensland. This information came in the national public hospital report card on Thursday that was released by the Australian Medical Association.

18 Nov 2010

57 million Americans have prediabetes: Study

Prediabetes is a warning sign that type 2 diabetes is around the corner. People with prediabetes have blood sugar levels that are higher than normal but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. Approximately 24 million Americans have type 2 diabetes, but an even more staggering 57 million people in the United States have prediabetes, meaning they are at grave risk of developing this disease. And once a prediabetic person becomes diabetic, there is no turning back.

18 Nov 2010

US has highest out-of-pocket costs and most complex health insurance

A new 11-country survey from The Commonwealth Fund finds that adults in the United States are far more likely than those in 10 other industrialized nations to go without health care because of costs, have trouble paying medical bills, encounter high medical bills even when insured, and have disputes with their insurers or discover insurance wouldn't pay as they expected. According to the report, the findings highlight the need for Affordable Care Act reforms that will ensure access to health care, protect people from medical debt, and simplify health insurance.

18 Nov 2010

Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation launches projects to improve care, reduce cost

Kaiser Health News: "Promising fast action, the new Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation is launching a series of initiatives aimed at improving medical care while reducing its cost, officials said Tuesday. ... In one initiative, eight states will participate in a Medicare demonstration project to evaluate the effectiveness of doctors and other health professionals working 'in a more integrated fashion and receiving more coordinated payment,' according to CMS, the parent agency of the center and a part of the Department of Health and Human Services.

18 Nov 2010

Insurer news: 2010 could be record profit year; Anthem settles underpayment cases

A California health insurer will pay seven hospitals $1.62 million to settle a dispute over alleged underpayments, the Los Angeles Times reports. "Anthem, a unit of health insurance giant WellPoint Inc. of Indianapolis, admitted no wrongdoing and said in a statement that it settled the matter to avoid litigation. Regulators said the problem stemmed from Anthem's process for handling claims.

18 Nov 2010

Lawmakers elbow for influence as they return to Capitol Hill

Lawmakers are elbowing around Capitol Hill to cement their places in the coming fight over health reform, and industry groups are attempting the same.

17 Nov 2010

GST debates continue & heath reforms come under threat

The federal opposition demands more transparency from the Australian government on how much GST the states will have to hand over under a new health plan. Early this year all states apart from WA, agreed to hand over a third of their GST payments for the federal government to take responsibility for 60 per cent of the cost of running, staffing and building public hospitals. This is estimated to deliver $7.4 billion in funding for extra hospital beds, support for GPs, boosted aged care services and training for more doctors and nurses.

17 Nov 2010

Public Health Law Network receives $95,000 grant to develop legal training curriculum for NACCHO

The Public Health Law Network Western Region at Arizona State University has been awarded a $95,000 grant to develop a public health legal training curriculum and exercises for the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO).

17 Nov 2010

Kansas may join health lawsuit; 71 lawmakers from 26 states ask to file brief to support law

Kansas City Star: "If Kansas Gov.-elect Sam Brownback and Attorney General-elect Derek Schmidt have their way, Kansas will soon be among" states participating in a federal lawsuit against implementation of the federal health law. "Although several of the lawsuits have been dismissed, one of the most prominent — filed by the state of Florida on behalf of 20 other states — was recently approved for further review.

17 Nov 2010

Republicans confront realities of health overhaul, position themselves in Congress

The Christian Science Monitor reports that the health overhaul is resting in the GOP's crosshairs. The ultimate defense to the repeal effort is the presidential veto pen. Even with a new majority in the House come January, Republicans concede that winning a repeal vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate is unlikely and the two-thirds needed to override a presidential veto, well out of reach.

16 Nov 2010

Today's Op-Eds: Congress needs conservative leadership; reviving tort reform; can states afford to drop Medicaid?

Nothing has gone quite so awry as the massive, government-run Obama health program, and it is plain that the individual mandate, the employee mandate, the abortion funding, the tangle of outsider/insider councils like the comparative effectiveness board and the effective nationalization of healthcare under grants of authority to the Department of Health and Human Services.

16 Nov 2010

Hospital upgrades: Promises to keep

The Victorian Coalition has announced hospital upgrades around the state and softened its opposition of the national health agreement.

16 Nov 2010

Employees will see changes in 2011 health benefits

"Workers who have received their annual enrollment packets for insurance benefits" should expect slight changes to their plans this year due to the health care overhaul. Most employees can expect to pay more next year, due in part to the 1 to 2 percent increase in insurance costs brought about by the law.

16 Nov 2010

Health Reform News and Research

Mass. and Minn. officials struggle with controlling health costs, guaranteeing quality

NSW nurses to strike on Wednesday

Growing emergency room ‘access block’ problem in Australian hospitals

Repeal, replace and revise are the new health overhaul buzzwords as congressional power changes hands

Today's OpEds: Opposing views on hospital medical errors; lesson for Andy Harris; Dems and abortion

Report examines how health care reform affects personal costs, coverage, quality of service

Today's Op-Eds: The ObamaCare suit; Fixing physician pay; A federal takeover of Medicaid; Cues from Britain

Bed shortages plague Queensland public hospitals

57 million Americans have prediabetes: Study

US has highest out-of-pocket costs and most complex health insurance

Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation launches projects to improve care, reduce cost

Insurer news: 2010 could be record profit year; Anthem settles underpayment cases

Lawmakers elbow for influence as they return to Capitol Hill

GST debates continue & heath reforms come under threat

Public Health Law Network receives $95,000 grant to develop legal training curriculum for NACCHO

Kansas may join health lawsuit; 71 lawmakers from 26 states ask to file brief to support law

Republicans confront realities of health overhaul, position themselves in Congress

Today's Op-Eds: Congress needs conservative leadership; reviving tort reform; can states afford to drop Medicaid?

Hospital upgrades: Promises to keep

Employees will see changes in 2011 health benefits

How ELRIG Is Helping Mid-Career Scientists Navigate Leadership, Career Change and Redundancy

The role of UV-Vis in biopharma QC

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