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Provider backlash to ACO rule continues

According to the American Hospital Association, the formation of accountable care organizations will cost millions more than Medicare projected. Meanwhile, PoliticoPro reports on how CMS might respond to the complaints.

18 May 2011

IOM workshops explore new digital technologies to improve health care

A series of workshops held by the Institute of Medicine explored what is necessary to enable health professionals and organizations to harness the full potential of new digital technologies such as tablets and electronic health records to increase efficiency and apply knowledge to real-time care decisions.

18 May 2011

Rural patients more likely than city dwellers to have common surgeries

A surprising study of nearly 46 million Medicare patients says older residents in rural areas are more likely to have any of nine common surgeries than people in cities.

18 May 2011

Bill Gates calls for greater immunization efforts in World Health Assembly address

Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, on Tuesday called for a "Decade of Vaccines" in a keynote address at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, saying strengthening immunization programs against infectious diseases worldwide could save 10 million lives by 2020, Reuters reports.

18 May 2011

Two drug makers will disclose prices they charge UNICEF for vaccines

The Telegraph reports that when "UNICEF began publishing prices agreed with suppliers for a range of vaccines over the past decade, ... some companies - including GSK, Novartis, Intervax and Crucell - did not initially allow disclosure."

18 May 2011

As Federal Gov't. hits debt limit, budget plans draw attention

Politico reports that a proposed cap on discretionary spending for labor, health and human services and education programs would be felt most acutely by poor people.

18 May 2011

U.S. envoy to visit North Korea to assess food shortages

Robert King, the U.S. special envoy on North Korean human rights issues, will lead an official visit to North Korea next week to assess food shortages in the country, according to a Yonhap news agency article quoting a South Korean government source, Agence France-Presse reports.

18 May 2011

Early rainy season brings cholera to Cameroon's capital

An early rainy season has caused cholera to sweep through Cameroon's capital Yaounde, "causing more than 250 deaths in two months alone, according to the government," AlertNet reports.

18 May 2011

African-American children have poor lung function at their initial visit to asthma specialist

African-American children are more likely to report previous emergency room visits, hospitalizations and need for intensive care unit management for asthma than Caucasian children on their first visit to an asthma specialist, according to a study conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University.

18 May 2011

WHO Director-General outlines vision for reform in World Health Assembly opening address

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan on Monday laid out her vision for reforming the international health agency in the opening address of the World Health Assembly in Geneva, saying she sees "a WHO that gives a bigger voice to the many partners working on health, but encourages them to speak with a coherent voice that responds, first and foremost, to the needs and priorities as defined by recipient countries," Intellectual Property Watch reports.

18 May 2011

Study finds three-month TB treatment regimen just as effective as standard longer course

"Health officials on Monday celebrated a faster treatment for people who have tuberculosis but aren't infectious, after investigators found a new combination of pills knocks out the disease in three months instead of nine," the Associated Press/Seattle Times reports.

18 May 2011

Mothers living in better social, economic status opt for caesarean section

During the last thirty years there has been an increase in the number of babies born by Caesarean section. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Public Health shows that there has also been a change in the social and economic status of the mothers involved and that advantaged mothers are more likely to have their babies by Caesarean section than mothers living in more difficult circumstances.

18 May 2011

Two GOP judges will be on health law's next review panel

After facing a favorable panel of judges during its first appeals-court defense of the federal health care law, the Obama administration will face two judges appointed by Republican presidents during the next major case on the law's constitutionality.

18 May 2011

Thirty years of AIDS

Thirty years ago next month, the CDC released the first report on a mysterious disease among gay men in Los Angeles. The AIDS epidemic had begun. It has since claimed the lives of an estimated 600,000 Americans and is currently ravaging Africa.

18 May 2011

State roundup: Gov. Brown offers revisions to health budget

A new state department would be formed to manage California's violence-plagued mental hospitals under a proposal in the governor's Monday budget revision. The push to create a Department of State Hospitals — and eventually do away with the Department of Mental Health, which now oversees the facilities — comes as lawmakers and employee unions press for changes to address increasing patient assaults on fellow patients and staff.

18 May 2011

Viewpoints: Gingrich fallout; Sebelius, Matsui on Medicare reform; physicians on their rights

The Republican Presidential campaign is off to a slow start, but judging by the last week not slow enough. First Mitt Romney defends his ObamaCare prototype in Massachusetts, and now Newt Gingrich has decided to run against House Republicans on Medicare. They must be loving this at the White House.

18 May 2011

Opinion: Innovative funding mechanisms needed for global development

"Innovation in development finance doesn't preclude innovation in other areas of development policy. In fact, they must go hand in hand," Jamie Drummond, executive director of ONE, writes in a post on the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog," noting findings from his group's annual report.

18 May 2011

Opinion: Study will unite HIV advocates, add funding pressure to Obama administration

In a post on Foreign Policy's "Passport" blog, assistant managing editor Elizabeth Dickinson looks at the potential ramifications of a recent study, which found that early antiretroviral treatment in HIV-positive people can prevent transmission by 96 percent.

18 May 2011

Fewer emergency rooms raises concern

According to a report released Tuesday this week, the number of emergency rooms has dropped by more than a quarter over the past two decades, while patient visits have kept rising. This has resulted in overcrowded ERs that can't provide optimal care for their patients, according to the new findings, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

17 May 2011

First Edition: May 17, 2011

Reporting for Kaiser Health News, in collaboration with The Washington Post, Guy Gugliotta writes: "Minnesota state Rep. Steve Gottwalt, a three-term Republican with 10 years experience in the health care industry, is no fan of last year's health care law -- or its requirement that states set up insurance exchanges. But as chairman of the Health and Human Services Reform Committee, he decided he needed to weigh in on the exchange.

17 May 2011