Contraceptive News and Research

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Some nonprofits opposing contraceptive coverage appear unswayed by new rule

Catholic bishops and other conservative groups suggest the accommodations do not satisfy their concerns.

26 Aug 2014

First Edition: August 25, 2014

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations include reports on Medicare ratings of nursing homes, the growing demand for home-health aides and accounts of the Obama administration's new contraception coverage rules.

25 Aug 2014

Religious employers are offered fix on birth control coverage

News outlets report that the regulations, expected to be published later today, will allow religious nonprofits -- and perhaps later religious business owners -- to notify the government that they object to providing contraception coverage. Federal officials would then arrange for the workers' insurance.

25 Aug 2014

First Edition: August 22, 2014

Kaiser Health News consumer columnist Michelle Andrews writes: "How much leeway do employers and insurers have in deciding whether they'll cover contraceptives without charge and in determining which methods make the cut? Not much, as it turns out, but that hasn't stopped some from trying. Kaiser Health News readers still write in regularly describing battles they're waging to get the birth control coverage they're entitled to" (Andrews, 8/22).

22 Aug 2014

Standard Days Method: A highly effective fertility awareness-based family planning method

There is no guarantee that a successful pilot program introducing a health innovation can be expanded successfully to the national, regional, state or even metropolitan level because scaling up is typically complex and difficult.

20 Aug 2014

Women could benefit from Affordable Care Act's mandate for contraceptive coverage

Women could benefit greatly from the Affordable Care Act's mandate for contraceptive coverage, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers.

20 Aug 2014

Viewpoints: Va. GOP's 'Medicaid charade'; Paul Ryan's health Rx for poverty; giving the sick unapproved drugs

Virginia lawmakers will convene in a special session next month to address the question of expanding Medicaid and, more broadly, the fact that hundreds of thousands of poor and disabled people in the state have no health insurance coverage. Democrats and some moderate Republicans have advanced a variety of ideas to tackle that problem. Conservative Republicans, who control the legislature in Richmond, have rejected those solutions while proposing no alternative. Does the GOP intend for the special session to be anything more than a charade at taxpayers' expense? (8/15).

19 Aug 2014

State highlights: Aging inmate care outside prison; Colo.'s teen birth rate drop; Minn. rural doc shortage

Providing health care to an aging prison population is a large and growing cost for states. Not only do inmates develop debilitating conditions at a younger age than people who are not incarcerated, but caring for them in the harsh environment of prisons is far more expensive than it is on the outside.

13 Aug 2014

First Edition: August 12, 2014

Today's headlines include stories about how the federal government's experience with healthcare.gov has led to the creation of the U.S. Digital Service.

12 Aug 2014

Health law funds new search for health care improvements

News outlets report on aspects of the health law designed to foster and test innovation in the nation's health care delivery system.

11 Aug 2014

State highlights: Time of turmoil for Georgia hospitals; Oregon Medicaid takes aim at expensive heptatitis C drug

A selection of health policy stories from Gerogia, Wisconsin, Texas, Oregon, Florida, Michigan, Massachusetts, Connecticut and North Carolina.

4 Aug 2014

Birth control pills may increase risk for breast cancer

Women who recently used birth control pills containing high-dose estrogen and a few other formulations had an increased risk for breast cancer, whereas women using some other formulations did not, according to data published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

1 Aug 2014

State highlights: Maryland's top health official leaving for Johns Hopkins; Minnesota lawmakers to propose legislation to require contraception coverage

Maryland's top health official, Joshua M. Sharfstein, announced Wednesday that he will leave at the end of Gov. Martin O'Malley's term in January to become an associate dean at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (Johnson, 7/30).

1 Aug 2014

Contraception accommodation for religious groups to be broadened

The Obama administration said Tuesday it will create a new option for certain religious nonprofits that object to the health law's contraception mandate and which does not entail submitting a form that they say also violates their religious beliefs.

24 Jul 2014

First Edition: July 23, 2014

Today's headlines include coverage and analysis of yesterday's conflicting legal decisions regarding the health law.

23 Jul 2014

Viewpoints: 'Entitlement meltdown;' improving Medicare Advantage; 'sloppy work habits' at CDC

Each day, 10,000 baby boomers retire and begin receiving Medicare and Social Security benefits. And while five workers supported the benefits of each retiree in 1960, there will be only two workers funding each retiree by 2030. Those who dismiss long-term budget projections should re-read the last paragraph. The retirement of 77 million baby boomers into Social Security and Medicare is not a theoretical projection. Demography is destiny (Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, 7/21).

23 Jul 2014

Experts join MD Anderson to end cancer

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is pleased to announce that one of the world's preeminent experts in breast cancer research and treatment, V. Craig Jordan, Ph.D., will join the institution's efforts to end cancer. Jordan is considered the "Father of Tamoxifen," the groundbreaking therapeutic drug that has saved countless lives.

22 Jul 2014

New York officials take steps in response to Supreme Court contraceptive coverage decision

Officials make a change in the state's Medicaid program and legislation is proposed in the state Senate.

21 Jul 2014

Companies dropping birth control coverage must tell workers

Closely held companies that drop insurance coverage of birth control for religious reasons have 60 days to inform their employees, the administration said Thursday. The rule follows the Supreme Court's decision allowing some companies to opt out of the federal health law's mandate.