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Food aid aystem 'needs an overhaul'

The cost of addressing the effects of drought and famine in the Horn of Africa "has soared to $2.5 billion, just to keep malnourished children alive, and the number of people requiring humanitarian aid has doubled" since "November last year, when it would have cost $500 million to prevent the situation from deteriorating," Jo Khinmaung, a food security policy adviser for Tearfund, writes in the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog."

23 Aug 2011

Medicare expands competitive bidding program

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says this approach, which is geared toward durable medical equipment, will save billions of dollars and could become a model for other efforts to cut costs.

23 Aug 2011

Nationwide Children's Hospital marks major milestone toward opening of new campus

Today, Nationwide Children's Hospital marked a major milestone toward the opening of its expanded downtown campus by unveiling concepts for new hospital interiors, outdoor green space as well as a refreshed identity and logo.

23 Aug 2011

GE launches new release of healthcare revenue cycle management solution

GE Healthcare, a leading provider of healthcare information technology, today launched Centricity Business 5.0, the next-generation revenue cycle management solution for hospital networks, academic medical centers, large practices and physician billing groups.

23 Aug 2011

Saint Mark's Cathedral on Capitol Hill to host Seattle AIDS Memorial event

Saint Mark's Cathedral on Capitol Hill will host the Seattle AIDS Memorial on Saturday, September 24, 2011, at 7:00 p.m. Subtitled "30 Years of Sorrow, Comfort and Hope," the memorial commemorates the 30th anniversary of the first HIV/AIDS diagnosis as well as the 25th anniversary of the first AIDS Walk in Seattle.

23 Aug 2011

Viewpoints: NY Times deconstructs health rulings; Issa on law & deficit; veterans' care needs boost

At a time when the nation's credit has been downgraded for the first time and our country is struggling to finance and reform existing entitlement programs, Obamacare's creation of new entitlements increases dependency on government and pushes our country deeper into a fiscal crisis of Greek proportion. As Congress and the president seek bipartisan ground to address the national debt, we must remember that the first step out of a hole is to stop digging.

23 Aug 2011

New open access journal on malaria

A post in the "Malaria Matters" blog announces "a new open access journal on malaria: Malaria Chemotherapy, Control and Elimination," which "has been recently launched by Ashdin Publishing."

22 Aug 2011

Nurse safety measures around highly toxic drugs needed

Nearly 17 percent of nurses who work in outpatient chemotherapy infusion centers reported being exposed on their skin or eyes to the toxic drugs they deliver, according to a new study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

22 Aug 2011

Online health records, medical devices face IT security risks

Meanwhile, iWatch News reports on how the health information sector seems especially fond of lobbying's "revolving door."

22 Aug 2011

New estimates predict trouble for social security disability payments

The trust fund that supports Social Security disability benefits will run out of money by 2017, leaving the program unable to pay full benefits unless Congress acts, according to new congressional estimates.

22 Aug 2011

HHS approves new round of waivers

The Obama administration granted another 106 waivers last month from part of the health care reform law - the first round of three-year waivers the Health and Human Services Department has approved. The new approvals bring the total number of waivers to 1,472, according to HHS. Those figures cover waivers granted through the end of July.

22 Aug 2011

The politics of health policies emerge in presidential contest

The AP reports that GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry has backed an approach to health reform that could be "as controversial as Obama's remake." Meanwhile, President Barack Obama faces discontent from his base over many of his policies.

22 Aug 2011

Feds challenge Ohio hospital merger

Obama administration officials have been roaming the country, talking up their vision of a future in which doctors and hospitals team up to provide better care at lower cost. But a starkly different picture is unfolding this summer in a courtroom here, where lawyers from the Federal Trade Commission have been challenging a hospital merger in Toledo, Ohio.

22 Aug 2011

Economic pressures trigger seniors' concerns about finances, assisted living housing

While The Wall Street Journal and Kaiser Health News report on the current dark side of aging in America, The Associated Press offers insights into how baby boomer interest in countering the effects of getting older could lead to billions of dollars in spending.

22 Aug 2011

Drug co. executive gives pharma a sunny forecast

Severin Schwan thinks the skeptics are wrong. Those who shun the pharmaceutical sector for its lack of prospects don't understand the potential created by a rapidly growing understanding of genetics and molecular biology, and the new drugs that will follow. ... the chief executive of Roche Holding AG, the world's seventh-largest drug firm by sales, is an informed optimist.

22 Aug 2011

Advocates worry over 'super committee's' consideration of Medicaid

Meanwhile, the health law's individual mandate could fall prey to deficit reduction efforts. And, in the background, congressional appropriators face especially unique challenges this year in trying to get their work done.

22 Aug 2011

Congress could reconsider FSA restrictions

Bills floating through Congress would lift some restrictions on flexible spending accounts and allow employees to set aside pre-tax earnings to pay for out-of-pocket health care expenses.

22 Aug 2011

First Edition: August 22, 2011

Reporting for Kaiser Health News, Harris Meyer writes: "In the fourth year of a depressed real estate market, experts say thousands of seniors remain unable to move into senior housing because they can't sell their homes quickly enough or for the price they need. The upshot: Greater pressure on families to pay for parents' and grandparents' placements, or to care for them themselves"

22 Aug 2011

CMA releases eleventh annual National Report Card on Health Care

The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) today released its eleventh annual National Report Card on Health Care in Canada. The research focuses on access to health care services and shows clear support for specific measures to make the system more accountable to patients.

22 Aug 2011

Disability benefits squeezing social security as politics dominates deficit talk

It's August, Congress and the president are on vacation. Nonetheless, talk on the Sunday morning programs looked ahead to the future deficit negotiations by the "super committee" and the president's upcoming economics speech.

22 Aug 2011