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Almost half of women on parole or probation experience mental illness

A new report released at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Advisory Committee for Women's Services meeting shows that women aged 18 to 49 on probation or parole are nearly twice as likely to experience mental illness as other women.

27 Mar 2012

NIH OBSSR creates Web-based interactive anthology

A Web-based interactive anthology will provide psychologists, economists, anthropologists, sociologists and other scientists with the latest research methods and tools to address emerging challenges in public health, such as the obesity epidemic and the rise of chronic diseases such as heart disease.

26 Mar 2012

Plouffe defends, Graham and Bachmann attack health law

As the Supreme Court takes up President Obama's health care law this week, the White House dispatched a top political aide to the Sunday talk shows to make the case for the law that will go far in defining Obama's legacy. "As it relates to the Supreme Court, we're confident that it's going to be upheld," senior Obama adviser David Plouffe said on ABC's This Week. ... In the meantime, Republican presidential candidates -- while hoping that the Supreme Court strikes down the law -- have vowed to repeal the law.

26 Mar 2012

New IVIG trial can reduce OCD symptoms in children with PANDAS

Criteria for a broadened syndrome of acute onset obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) have been proposed by a National Institutes of Health scientist and her colleagues. The syndrome, Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS), includes children and teens that suddenly develop on-again/off-again OCD symptoms or abnormal eating behaviors, along with other psychiatric symptoms - without any known cause.

26 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

Hutchison calls on Perry to work with feds on women's health funding

The fight in Texas over its Women's Health Program and the dual defundings of Planned Parenthood by the state and the entire program by the federal government gained a new wrinkle as Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, called on Gov. Rick Perry to work out the state's differences with the feds.

23 Mar 2012

The health law officially turns two -- now what?

Supporters are marking the health law's second birthday today even as questions swirl about whether it will get to celebrate a third. Meanwhile, media outlets examine where implementation stands and what is yet to come.

23 Mar 2012

High Court health law action already making political waves

As supporters and opponents of the law formulate strategies to take advantage of the buzz surrounding next week's oral arguments, a new report looks at how much has been spent in public opinion ads on the law.

23 Mar 2012

Administration chides two insurers for 'unreasonable' rate increases

Although the government cannot force the companies to walk back the hikes in nine states, it is seeking to draw attention to the issue and asking for a public justification for the increases.

23 Mar 2012

First Edition: March 23, 2012

Today's health policy headlines are full of previews of next week's health law action at the Supreme Court.

23 Mar 2012

Status checks on the health overhaul's implementation

A top Health and Human Services official told a congressional panel on Wednesday that his office is still figuring out how employers will be asked to determine their workers' health insurance status once the overhaul law goes into effect. The issue is important because beginning in 2014, companies with 50 or more full-time workers will be required to provide health insurance coverage or face paying a penalty.

23 Mar 2012

Viewpoints: Health law's threat to individual liberty; Conflicting opinions on the constitutionality of the individual mandate

On Monday, the Supreme Court will begin an extraordinary three-day hearing on the constitutionality of ObamaCare. At stake are the Constitution's structural guarantees of individual liberty, which limit governmental power and ensure political accountability by dividing that power between federal and state authorities. Upholding ObamaCare would destroy this dual-sovereignty system, the most distinctive feature of American constitutionalism.

23 Mar 2012

State roundup: Oregon's coordinated care program moves ahead

Ten thousand more employees at five city agencies have signed on to Mayor Rahm Emanuel's plan to raise monthly health insurance premiums by $50 for employees who fail to participate in a "wellness program" to manage chronic health problems. Emanuel hopes to save $20 million in 2012 -- and $240 million over four years -- by riding herd over costly, but controllable problems like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and asthma.

22 Mar 2012

Health law message machine, implementation rolls on

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was in Florida Tuesday pointing out the health law's accomplishments. Meanwhile, news outlets offer implementation reports from California and Arkansas.

22 Mar 2012

Scans reveal Williams syndrome-associated personality/temperament traits

A personality profile marked by overly gregarious yet anxious behavior is rooted in abnormal development of a circuit hub buried deep in the front center of the brain, say scientists at the National Institutes of Health. They used three different types of brain imaging to pinpoint the suspect brain area in people with Williams syndrome, a rare genetic disorder characterized by these behaviors.

21 Mar 2012

Marking the health law's second anniversary

News outlets report on what the future holds as the health law turns 2. Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services steps up its messaging related to the measure's benefits.

21 Mar 2012

Transforming biomedical research to develop TB vaccines

In the past decade, scientists have made significant progress building the critical knowledge and infrastructure needed to identify and develop novel tuberculosis (TB) vaccine candidates and move the most promising ones into human clinical trials. The results of those trials, coupled with advances from other TB studies, have paved the way for the next 10 years of research on TB vaccines, a critical component of TB control efforts, note scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

21 Mar 2012

Axial Exchange care transition products now available for cloud deployment

Axial Exchange, Inc. announced that its award-winning care transition products are now available for cloud deployment. The private cloud infrastructure scales to thousands of hospitals and clinics and millions of patients, and already has been validated by multi-hospital health systems as well as Emergency Medical Service (EMS) providers.

21 Mar 2012

Medicaid expansion rule focuses on enrollment process

The Obama administration released a rule Friday detailing the specifics of this coverage expansion and trying to simplify the enrollment process.

20 Mar 2012

New health care law helps 5.1M seniors and people with disabilities save $3.2B on prescription drugs

As the second anniversary of the Affordable Care Act approaches, new data shows that more than 5.1 million seniors and people with disabilities on Medicare saved over $3.2 billion on prescription drugs because of the new health care law, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced today while at the St. Louis Community College at Forest Park.

19 Mar 2012