Becker News and Research

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State governments wrestle with Medicaid expenses, lawsuits

Officials reckon with health care costs in the context of budget dilemmas in Illinois, Kentucky, Connecticut, Alabama and Wisconsin.

4 May 2012

State roundup: Pittsburgh insurer, hospital extend contract despite ongoing fight

A restaurant workers' group and a Los Angeles community clinic have launched a unique cooperative to provide health coverage to a group of people excluded from federal health care reform -- illegal immigrants. The pilot program, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, offers preventive and primary care to low-wage, uninsured workers in the restaurant industry. Legal immigrants and other restaurant workers who don't meet the criteria or cannot afford coverage under the health care law are also eligible.

4 May 2012

State roundup: Mass. may vote on assisted suicide; Colo. to try medical homes

Heather Clish has become a leading advocate for affording terminally ill patients in Massachusetts the same choice her father had. Clish and other supporters are pushing a ballot initiative to legalize the practice they call Death with Dignity, more commonly known as physician-assisted suicide.

30 Apr 2012

Texas consumers top the medical-loss ratio rebate list -- receiving an estimated $186 million in insurer refunds

Media outlets from Texas, Minnesota, Florida, Connecticut and Georgia offer insights into what these rebates will mean on a more local level.

27 Apr 2012

Highlights: Cuomo's plan for out-of-network charges runs into trouble; Federal agents seize patient records in Houston mental hospital

Today's news on local health policy issues comes from New York, Connecticut, Mississippi, Colorado, Iowa, Texas, North Carolina and Kansas.

27 Apr 2012

Blog posts report on International Treatment as Prevention conference in Vancouver

Two separate posts in the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog report on the International Treatment as Prevention conference in Vancouver. The first post recaps an update from Stephen Becker of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Tuesday "about the Foundation's treatment optimization activities," writing, "According to Becker, the Foundation acknowledges that treatment will be at the center of HIV prevention efforts, but 'no amount of treatment will obviate the need for primary prevention modalities.'"

27 Apr 2012

International Microbicides Conference 2012 concludes

The conclusion of the 2012 International Microbicides Conference, a gathering of researchers, advocates and funders in the HIV prevention field, wrapped up three days of discussion focused on access to prevention technologies, adherence in clinical trials, innovative financing, dual prevention technologies and new methods of preventing rectal transmission of HIV.

26 Apr 2012

Collective bargaining agreements mean public employee benefit changes in Conn., Wis.

Collective bargaining agreements are changing health plans in Connecticut and Wisconsin for home care workers, teachers and a police union -- which, if it was not granted an injunction from a judge, would have had to pay new deductibles and copays in Milwaukee.

24 Apr 2012

Abbott, St. Jude Medical enter multi-year joint initiative for cardiovascular treatment technologies

Abbott and St. Jude Medical today announced Choice Alliance, a multi-year joint initiative that provides mutual U.S. customers access to a robust portfolio of interventional cardiology, cardiac rhythm management, electrophysiology and intravascular imaging and diagnostic technologies.

23 Apr 2012

PPMC achieves Magnet status from ANCC for superior patient care

Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC) has achieved Magnet- status - the highest institutional honor awarded for nursing excellence - from the American Nurses Credentialing Center's (ANCC) Magnet Recognition Program.

21 Apr 2012

States roundup: Calif. mental health system grapples with controversy, shortage; Texas issues new stem cell rules

In 2006, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state, alleging that it was violating patients' rights by heavily drugging and improperly restraining them and failing to provide appropriate treatment. The state settled, agreeing to an extensive court-supervised improvement plan at four hospitals with more than 4,000 patients. But a Times investigation found that the plan has failed to achieve the Justice Department's main objective: to raise the level of care so patients could control their violent tendencies and would not be institutionalized any longer than necessary.

17 Apr 2012

As fiscal years start to wind down, states confront Medicaid issues

Although their tax revenue has improved substantially since the worst of the recession, states continue to face severe fiscal challenges as they are called on to spend more because of the economic stress caused largely by continued high unemployment. Many states face increasing caseloads for Medicaid, the combined federal-state health program for the poor and disabled.

16 Apr 2012

Regulatory streamlining can improve access to treatments

Loren Becker, manager of the Global Health Technologies Coalition's (GHTC) Global Health Regulatory Team, discusses the new East African Community's (EAC) Medicines Regulatory Harmonization initiative, launched at the end of March in Arusha, Tanzania, in this post in GHTC's "Breakthroughs" blog.

12 Apr 2012

Health reform means ER use jumps in Colo.; Calif. insurance premiums rise; Ore. waits to see who wants in on coordinated care

Even people who just got health insurance use the emergency departments to access their care, according to a new study by University of Colorado School of Medicine researchers. It's not just people who lost insurance or people living long without it, the researchers note -- any change in health insurance status, whether positive or negative, tends to send people to the ER because they don't know where else to go.

3 Apr 2012

State-based health policies grab attention

With the federal law's fate uncertain, action taken so far by the states -- either to implement the national overhaul or to advance reforms of their own -- have claimed more significance and headlines.

2 Apr 2012

Voiding the mandate, or the entire law, would upend plans by insurers, employers

Popular provisions that have already gone into effect, such as letting children stay on their parents' insurance plans until they turn 26, would fall if the law is thrown out. If only the mandate is declared unconstitutional, however, the law would still affect millions.

30 Mar 2012

State roundup: Wash. state exchange bill now law

Gov. Chris Gregoire on Friday signed into law a bill setting rules for insurers preparing for the state's online-insurance exchange. ... The state exchanges for individual and small-group plans are set to go live on Jan. 1, 2014. ... State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler said that his office is committed to getting the exchange in place on schedule. "If we slowed down to be anxious, we'd be in trouble," Kreidler said. "It's the health law, and we're proceeding as quickly and as prudently as we can."

27 Mar 2012

State highlights: Mass. enforcing individual mandate; Improving kids' dental coverage; Health 'navigators'

Getting the word out is half the battle, and the state is well into a $3 million media campaign ... [E]very adult must have insurance by December. If they don't and if the state determines that insurance was affordable for them, they will be fined $219 next year. The penalty increases substantially in 2009.

23 Mar 2012

Six state Attorneys General to hear Supreme Court health law arguments, other state health law news

Attorneys general from six states will sit in the Supreme Court to hear the oral arguments over the health reform law. In the meantime, Pennsylvania lawmakers may offer a constitutional amendment to ban laws mandating people have health insurance.

21 Mar 2012

State roundup: Minnesota tort reform; Calif. prepares - or not - for newly insured; Reducing C-sections in Oregon

A roundup of health policy news from Minnesota, California, Kansas, Connecticut, Oregon, Missouri, Washington D.C. and Colorado.

17 Mar 2012

Becker News and Research

State governments wrestle with Medicaid expenses, lawsuits

State roundup: Pittsburgh insurer, hospital extend contract despite ongoing fight

State roundup: Mass. may vote on assisted suicide; Colo. to try medical homes

Texas consumers top the medical-loss ratio rebate list -- receiving an estimated $186 million in insurer refunds

Highlights: Cuomo's plan for out-of-network charges runs into trouble; Federal agents seize patient records in Houston mental hospital

Blog posts report on International Treatment as Prevention conference in Vancouver

International Microbicides Conference 2012 concludes

Collective bargaining agreements mean public employee benefit changes in Conn., Wis.

Abbott, St. Jude Medical enter multi-year joint initiative for cardiovascular treatment technologies

PPMC achieves Magnet status from ANCC for superior patient care

States roundup: Calif. mental health system grapples with controversy, shortage; Texas issues new stem cell rules

As fiscal years start to wind down, states confront Medicaid issues

Regulatory streamlining can improve access to treatments

Health reform means ER use jumps in Colo.; Calif. insurance premiums rise; Ore. waits to see who wants in on coordinated care

State-based health policies grab attention

Voiding the mandate, or the entire law, would upend plans by insurers, employers

State roundup: Wash. state exchange bill now law

State highlights: Mass. enforcing individual mandate; Improving kids' dental coverage; Health 'navigators'

Six state Attorneys General to hear Supreme Court health law arguments, other state health law news

State roundup: Minnesota tort reform; Calif. prepares - or not - for newly insured; Reducing C-sections in Oregon

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