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Person's insurance status determines nursing home hospitalizations

The decision by nursing homes whether or not to treat an ill resident on-site or send them to a hospital are often linked to that person's insurance status. A new study out this month shows that on average individuals enrolled in Medicaid are 27 percent more likely to be sent to the hospital than individuals with private insurance - decisions that often result in higher costs of care and poor health outcomes.

4 Oct 2011

First Edition: October 4, 2011

Today's news highlights include reports that the Supreme Court kicked off its new term by hearing a key Medicaid case that tests whether providers and patients can go to court to challenge decisions by cash-strapped states to reduce Medicaid payments.

4 Oct 2011

Fear of trouble and embarrassment a reason for avoiding online error-reporting systems

"Too busy," and "too complicated." These are the typical excuses one might expect when medical professionals are asked why they fail to use online error-reporting systems designed to improve patient safety and the quality of care. But, Johns Hopkins investigators found instead that the most common reason among radiation oncologists was fear of getting into trouble and embarrassment.

4 Oct 2011

Senate Republicans doubt prospects for 'grand bargain'

A month into the super committee's term, Senate Republicans are telling K Street that they don't believe the powerful deficit-cutting panel can reach a "grand bargain" agreement, sources familiar with the negotiations say. But the only way that a grand bargain could pass muster with the GOP, the Senate Republican aides say, is if it were tied to an overhaul of Social Security or the controversial proposal by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to turn Medicare into a voucher-based system for future recipients.

4 Oct 2011

Pakistan facing dengue outbreak, humanitarian aid shortages for flood victims

"More than 12,000 have been infected and 125 people have died over the past two months in Pakistan after coming down with dengue fever, a health department spokesman said Friday," CNN reports.

4 Oct 2011

India launches month-long campaign to promote awareness of public hygiene

India's minister of development is promoting a campaign on public hygiene, after a UNICEF report found "that India accounts for 58 percent of the world's population practicing open defecation," the Associated Press/Washington Post reports.

4 Oct 2011

Hospital Punta Pacifica receives official JCI accreditation

Hospital Punta Pacifica (HPP) in Panama City, Panama, has been awarded the official accreditation of Joint Commission International.

4 Oct 2011

New report details mental health care gaps in Indian Country

According to the Health and Human Services Inspector General's office, one in five hospitals and clinics in Indian Country provides no mental health services. Meanwhile, The Fiscal Times reports on the mental health toll being taken by the recession.

4 Oct 2011

Kenya national AIDS program considering mandatory HIV testing

VOA News examines how Kenya's National Aids Control Council and STI Control Program (NASCOP) is considering proposing mandatory HIV testing for adults and children who seek medical care for other conditions, noting that some AIDS organizations are expressing ethical concerns because of continuing stigma and discrimination. For now, "fears of mandatory testing in Kenya are premature, as Kenyan law currently bans such practices," the news service writes.

4 Oct 2011

Medicare home-health firms under scrutiny

An inquiry by the Senate Finance Committee has found that the nation's three largest home-health companies tailored the care they provided to Medicare patients to maximize their reimbursements from the federal program.

4 Oct 2011

Despite increase in health care spending in Angola, quality of care remains low

"Angola has tripled its spending on health care since 2006, but for the vast majority of Angolans who can't afford sparkling new private clinics -- or better yet, care abroad -- a trip to the hospital is still a nightmare," Agence France-Presse reports.

4 Oct 2011

Addressing high-risk groups, couples counseling in HIV prevention

In this post in the Center for Global Development's "Global Health Policy" blog, Mead Over, a senior fellow at the center, follows up on a post last week in which he wrote that a panel of senior economists commissioned by the Rush Foundation was to address the question of how to spend an additional, but hypothetical, $10 billion on HIV/AIDS programs in Africa over the next five years.

4 Oct 2011

Congress blocks funding meant for food aid, health care to Palestinian Authority

"Congress has ... blocked $200 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority [PA] since August, in a move a PA official described as 'collective punishment' for its United Nations bid" for statehood, GlobalPost reports.

4 Oct 2011

IPS examines the practice of breast ironing in Cameroon

Inter Press Service reports on the practice of breast ironing in Cameroon, a custom carried out by one-quarter of mothers in the country that is meant to reverse female sexual development in an effort "to avoid sexual contact between young girls and boys."

4 Oct 2011

Canada Supreme Court rules Vancouver's safe drug-injection site can stay open

"Vancouver's Insite clinic, the only such safe-injection site for people who use drugs in North America, can stay open, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Friday in a landmark defeat for the federal government," Reuters reports.

4 Oct 2011

Telestroke improves care and reduces costs

The use of long-distance video and data hookups to link remote community hospitals with stroke neurologists in large centres provides the same level of care as having everyone in the same room, according to a new study presented today at the Canadian Stroke Congress.

4 Oct 2011

Supreme Court opens new term, health law challenge tops agenda

The cases coming before the court "address some of the central issues facing the country," said former Solicitor General Walter Dellinger. The clashes over health care and immigration "are not mere lawyers' issues, but fundamental questions about how the country is governed."

4 Oct 2011

Columbian scientists tap global computer network in search of leishmaniasis drugs

"Colombian scientists are using a global network of personal and institutional computers to search for potential drugs against leishmaniasis, a disease that affects 12 million people worldwide," SciDev.Net reports. The researchers at the University of Antioquia "will harness the calculation potential of the almost two million computers that make up the World Community Grid, funded by the IBM Corporation," the news service writes.

4 Oct 2011

Central African Republic declares new cholera outbreak

Central African Republic Health Minister Jean-Michel Mandaba on Friday declared a new outbreak of cholera in the south of the country had already killed at least 10 people, Agence France-Presse reports.

4 Oct 2011

NIH Director to deliver keynote address at eighth SIO international conference

The Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) announced today that National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, MD, PhD, will deliver the keynote address at its eighth international conference, which is co‐sponsored by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

4 Oct 2011