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Sole Miss. abortion clinic readies for license revocation hearing; N.Y. Gov.'s abortion bill criticized

Mississippi health department officials are challenging the license of the state's only abortion clinic, while critics of a proposal to expand abortion rights by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo say it would hurt women.

1 Mar 2013

Post-2015 development agenda should focus on accelerating progress made against HIV, TB, malaria

"In a little more than two years, the world will hit an important target: the date by which the Millennium Development Goals [MDGs] are meant to be achieved," Lucy Chesire, executive director and secretary to the board of the TB ACTION Group, writes in the Huffington Post's "The Big Push" blog.

28 Feb 2013

TikoMed, BRI partner to investigate IBsolvMIR in phase II trial for chronic pancreatitis

Baylor Research Institute (BRI), the research arm of Baylor Health Care System, and TikoMed AB announced today that an agreement has been established to investigate TikoMed´s product IBsolvMIR® in a phase II clinical trial.

28 Feb 2013

Viewpoints: Michelle Obama makes a business case for healthy food; Orszag weighs reforms to Medical malpractice

For years, America's childhood obesity crisis was viewed as an insurmountable problem, one that was too complicated and too entrenched to ever really solve. According to the conventional wisdom, healthy food simply didn't sell - the demand wasn't there and higher profits were found elsewhere - so it just wasn't worth the investment. But thanks to businesses across the country, today we are proving the conventional wisdom wrong.

28 Feb 2013

Interview highlights Kenya's first national health conference, examines role of women in building strong health systems

In a post in Management Sciences for Health's (MSH) "Global Health Impact" blog, Jonathan Quick, president and CEO of MSH, interviews Sylvia Vriesendorp, technical lead on leadership at MSH, about Kenya's First National Conference on Health Leadership, Management and Governance, which took place in February and "demonstrated the long-term vision of the Kenyans who are running the health system."

28 Feb 2013

Proposals to transform Medicaid spur enthusiasm, worries

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber pushes his state's model for "reinventing" Medicaid with coordinated care organizations, while a proposed expansion of Medicaid managed care in Texas sparks worries about care for the disabled.

28 Feb 2013

IRIN examines access to reproductive health care in Uganda

"Boosting women's access to reproductive health care could significantly reduce both the number of unsafe abortions and the high cost of post-abortion medical care in Uganda, experts say," IRIN reports.

28 Feb 2013

Medicaid physician pay boost stalled by delay in federal regs

No states appear to have implemented a temporary Medicaid physician pay boost more than eight weeks after it was supposed to have gone into effect, according to provider groups tracking the issue.

28 Feb 2013

Arkansas governor vetoes bill banning abortion after 20 weeks

The move by the Democratic governor sets up an override fight with a Republican legislature that wants the ban to apply except in cases of rape, incest or if the mother's life is in danger.

28 Feb 2013

Other governors pressured for and against Medicaid expansion

In North Carolina, lawmakers passed legislation barring the state from expanding the program for the poor, while in Pennsylvania, Kansas and West Virginia, supporters are pressing the economic and political advantages of the health law provision made optional by the Supreme Court.

28 Feb 2013

IPS examines health implications of child marriage in Afghanistan

Inter Press Service examines the relationship between child marriage and the health of women and girls in Afghanistan. "In Afghanistan, the maternal mortality rate is on the rise; hospitals are filling up with anemic women and girls; and in over 200 districts, high schools are devoid of even a single female pupil," the news service writes, adding, "These issues are not unrelated -- they are all products of a grave social problem in this country of 35 million people: early child marriages."

28 Feb 2013

N.J.'s Christie joins ranks of GOP govs to opt to expand Medicaid

The decision by Gov. Chris Christie would provide health insurance to an estimated 104,000 of the poorest 1.3 million uninsured residents of the state. With this move, Christie follows other Republican governors who were staunch opponents of the health law, including Ohio's John Kasich and Florida's Rick Scott.

28 Feb 2013

CSIS report examines Global Health Policy in Second Obama Term

"I am pleased to share with you a new report and video series from the CSIS Global Health Policy Center, 'Global Health Policy in the Second Obama Term,'" J. Stephen Morrison, senior vice president of the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) and director of the CSIS Global Health Policy Center, writes in a letter posted on the center's "Smart Global Health" blog.

28 Feb 2013

Poll: Americans have mixed feelings about people with mental illness

In related news, a new study found that spending on mental health care has increased over the past five years.

28 Feb 2013

Sequester scare touches issues related to Medicare, Medicaid spending

The $85 billion in scheduled spending cuts to defense and discretionary accounts are scheduled to kick in Friday, and movement toward a last-ditch strategy has not been evident.

28 Feb 2013

State roundup: Health care industry calls drug testing bill in N.H. 'vague'

Representatives from the health care industry said Tuesday they have a vested interest in stopping employees from stealing controlled substances but a bill being considered by New Hampshire lawmakers to drug test their workers is too vague. The proposal is part of the legislative response to a recent scandal at Exeter Hospital, where an employee allegedly stole drugs and replaced them with Hepatitis C infected syringes later used on patients.

28 Feb 2013

UNAIDS, UNDP release issue brief on TRIPS transition period extensions for LDCs

"The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today launched a new issue brief", titled "TRIPS transition period extensions for least-developed countries [LDCs]," a UNAIDS press release reports.

28 Feb 2013

U.N. agencies appeal for additional assistance for food, health and education in Mali

"A top United Nations relief official who just returned from a trip to northern Mali said Tuesday that desperation, hunger and fear had pervaded the region in the year since Islamist militant extremists seized control, and that only $17 million of the organization's appeal for $373 million in emergency aid had been donated so far," the New York Times reports.

28 Feb 2013

Counting the cost of bariatric surgery

Bariatric surgery for obese patients is not cost-saving relative to medical care, shows a 6-year follow-up study in JAMA Surgery.

28 Feb 2013

House Ways and Means Committee chair says 'doc fix' is on his to-do list

And a Tuesday hearing of the House Ways and Means health subcommittee focused on options for finding cost savings in the traditional Medicare program.

28 Feb 2013