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Consumers, employers reconsider insurance costs

Individuals and businesses are weighing the pros and cons of buying health coverage as a result of the advent of high-deductible policies, as well as the provisions of the health law set to take effect in 2014.

29 Aug 2012

Bill Gates reflects on Angola's success against polio

In this post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, Bill Gates, co-chair of the foundation, reflects on Angola's success against polio, writing, "Angola marked a full year without a new case of polio" this month, an accomplishment that serves as "the latest evidence that we are extremely close to ending polio forever."

29 Aug 2012

Washington Post examines Guinea worm eradication efforts

The Washington Post examines global efforts to eradicate Guinea worm disease, writing, "The parasitic infection which has sickened millions, mostly in Asia and Africa, is on the verge of being done in not by sophisticated medicine but by aggressive public health efforts in some of the poorest and most remote parts of the world."

29 Aug 2012

Feds push Maryland to think big on health cost control

Kaiser Health News staff writer Jay Hancock, working in collaboration with Politico, reports: "If quiet negotiations between policymakers and industry bear fruit, Maryland could join the short list of states attempting to go far beyond the Affordable Care Act in improving health and limiting spending."

29 Aug 2012

Anova Cancer Care to participate in CyberKnife research study

Anova Cancer Care has been chosen to participate in a landmark national prostate cancer study. The goal of the two-year study is to determine the best treatments for prostate cancer. The study will look specifically at prostate cancer radiosurgery.

29 Aug 2012

Insuring your health: Health law has gaps in men's care

In her latest Kaiser Health News consumer column, Michelle Andrews writes: "The federal health care overhaul greatly expanded women's access to free preventive services, particularly for sexual and reproductive health. Men didn't fare nearly as well."

29 Aug 2012

UMHS, MidMichigan Health announce plans to affiliate as clinical and business partners

MidMichigan Health and the University of Michigan Health System have announced plans to affiliate as clinical and business partners.

29 Aug 2012

As GOP convention picks up, health issues draw attention

News outlets report on how the most conservative Republicans are uniting around Mitt Romney, even as he appears more open to embracing the Massachusetts health law he signed while that state's governor.

29 Aug 2012

Capsules: Vermont goes for gold (silver, bronze and platinum, too)

Now on Kaiser Health News' blog, Vermont Public Radio's Bob Kinzel, working in partnership with KHN and NPR, reports: Vermont is the only state in the nation on a path to a single payer health system.

29 Aug 2012

Johns Hopkins' Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality receives Moore Foundation grant

Johns Hopkins' Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality has received an $8.9 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the first award given as part of an ambitious new $500 million, 10-year program designed to eliminate all preventable harms that patients experience in the hospital.

29 Aug 2012

Exchange planning takes hold in states -- each with different flavor

Vermont, the District of Columbia and Connecticut are among those planning health law-mandated marketplaces where consumers and small businesses can buy insurance -- each with its own twist.

29 Aug 2012

HealthPartners receives Acclaim Award from American Medical Group Association

The American Medical Group Association (AMGA) today announced that the recipient of the 2012 AMGA Acclaim Award is HealthPartners for "Triple Aim 2.0: Designing Culture to Support Better Health, Better Experience at a Lower Cost," an inventive and patient-centered approach to align the Institute of Medicine's Aims to identify and drive performance improvement, innovation, and culture throughout the organization.

29 Aug 2012

Boehner predicts GOP victory, but not a mandate to overhaul Medicare

At a lunch with reporters, Mr. Boehner said that the nation's dire fiscal position, driven by health care spending, would confront Washington next year "regardless of who wins the election." But he was cautious about predicting a mandate for the House Republican plan to end the government guarantee for Medicare, replacing the program with fixed contributions that older Americans would use to buy private health insurance or pay into the government plan.

29 Aug 2012

Global Fund, Nigeria sign agreements worth $225M to prevent, treat malaria

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and Nigeria on Friday "signed two grant agreements ... worth a total of $225 million to support programs that will prevent and treat malaria," a Global Fund press release reports.

29 Aug 2012

Fear of stigma prevents pregnant women from seeking prenatal care, studies show

Though many pregnant women are aware that treatment could save their lives and the lives of their infants if they test HIV-positive during prenatal care, a new study and literature review have found that a "fear of being stigmatized as an AIDS patient is still a major barrier to good medical care for pregnant young women in many countries," the New York Times reports.

29 Aug 2012

Voters need more information on free trade agreement that could impact drug prices

In an opinion piece in the Guardian's "Comment is Free" blog, Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, discusses potential policies contained within the "Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), a pact that the United States is negotiating with Australia, Canada, Japan and eight other countries in the Pacific region."

29 Aug 2012

GAO: States vary in how they document long-term care eligibility

States vary in how they document financial eligibility for Medicaid long-term-care coverage and no state had adopted an electronic asset verification system as of late 2011, the Government Accountability Office said.

29 Aug 2012

Penn physician develops VALUE framework for teaching-hospitals, residency programs

Despite the national consensus on the need to improve the value of health care while reducing unnecessary spending, teaching hospitals often struggle to design curricula to train future physicians to deliver such care to their patients.

29 Aug 2012

NPR's new global health, development beat mixes social media, on-the-ground reporting

"NPR's new global health and development beat is a good example of a hybrid approach to storytelling, one that places just as much emphasis on social media as it does on shoe-leather reporting," Poynter.org Associate Editor Mallary Jean Tenore reports in the organization's blog.

29 Aug 2012

Politico examines Republican Party's abortion platform in relation to other countries' policies

Politico examines the Republican Party's stance on abortion policy compared with abortion laws in other countries worldwide, stating, "No other nation in the Western world restricts abortion as severely as the Republican Party is calling for in its draft platform."

29 Aug 2012