Health and Human Services News and Research

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Sebelius: Employers should quickly offer coverage to workers' children up to age 26

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Thursday urged employers to extend health insurance to children of their employees up to age 26 before a provision in the new law requiring them to do so takes effect later this year, The New York Times reports. Many insurers have already made the change, but many employers have demurred.

29 May 2010

MU awarded $6.8M to help patients benefit from use of health information technology

Considered one the great advances of modern medicine, electronic health records can provide a patient's entire medical history and a wealth of other information at the click of a button. They also have the potential to save countless lives and billions of dollars. Now, the University of Missouri has a two-year, $6.8 million cooperative agreement to help patients throughout the state benefit from increased use of this health information technology.

29 May 2010

Republicans criticize CMS brochure on Medicare improvements

As the secretary of health and human services explains it, the government has an obligation to spread the word about the new health-care law. To that end, the department spent millions of dollars printing a glossy brochure and mailing it this week to 40 million Medicare beneficiaries detailing what Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called 'the facts.'

29 May 2010

Health law implementation deadlines missed, GOP offers repeal bill

Politico reports that the Obama administration has missed a health reform law deadline to set up a task force on breast cancer and another on health care in Alaska.

29 May 2010

Medicare 'doughnut hole' rebate checks are in mail, Obama adminstration announces

Senior citizens who hit the so-called doughnut hole in Medicare's drug benefit will begin getting $250 rebate checks in two weeks, the Obama administration announced Thursday — providing one of the first tangible benefits of the recently enacted healthcare law. The rebates, designed in part to bolster support for the controversial law, are the first steps in a decade-long phase-out of the unpopular gap in Medicare Part D drug coverage.

29 May 2010

Sebelius urges employers to quickly cover young adults

Kaiser Health News staff writer Mary Agnes Carey reports on a press conference yesterday in which Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius detailed how federal officials are working to get "self-insured employers — who provide health coverage for millions of Americans — to keep young adults up to age 26 on their parents' plans before the new law requires them to do so" (Carey, 5/28).

29 May 2010

First Edition: May 28, 2010

Today's health policy headlines focus on efforts by federal officials to get more insurance plans to move early on coverage for young adults as well as congressional Democrats' struggle to pass legislation to extend the COBRA benefit subsidy and to prevent a scheduled cut in Medicare payments to physicians.

28 May 2010

LCA commends Senator Snowe, Congresswoman Pingree for support of Lung Cancer Mortality Reduction Act

Today, Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA) commended Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-ME) for joining Congressman Michael Michaud (D-ME) as cosponsors of the Lung Cancer Mortality Reduction Act (LCMRA), a bi-partisan, bi-cameral bill that establishes the first ever multi-agency, comprehensive research program targeting all aspects of lung cancer.

28 May 2010

New report showing nation's progress toward eliminating HAIs released

Today, we are releasing a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which shows our nation is making progress toward eliminating healthcare-associated infections that kill almost 100,000 Americans each year. The report today focuses on central line-associated bloodstream infections, serious infections that can cause death in hospitalized patients and an estimated $2.7 billion in added cost to the U.S. healthcare system.

28 May 2010

Research finding may offer future alternative to antibiotics

A team of scientists from government, academia and private industry has developed a novel treatment that protects mice from infection with the bacterium that causes tularemia, a highly infectious disease of rodents, sometimes transmitted to people, and also known as rabbit fever. In additional experiments with human immune cells, the treatment also demonstrated protection against three other types of disease-causing bacteria that, like the tularemia bacteria, occur naturally, can be highly virulent, and are considered possible agents of bioterrorism.

28 May 2010

Medicare brochure mailing draws GOP ire

Republicans are criticizing a taxpayer-funded brochure sent to 40.2 million Medicare beneficiaries explaining changes to the program under the new health law.

28 May 2010

Benefits of new health insurance reform law for Medicare recipients discussed in news conference

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Barbara Kennelly of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, and Dr. Ben Williamowsky of Silver Spring, Md., a Medicare recipient, held a news conference today to discuss benefits of and misconceptions about the Affordable Care Act and Medicare.

27 May 2010

HHS, Institute of Medicine launch Community Health Data Initiative

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, and Institute of Medicine President, Harvey Fineberg, will launch the Community Health Data Initiative, a national effort to help communities harness the power of information to improve health.

27 May 2010

Traffic-related air pollution also increases risk of type 2 diabetes in women

Traffic-related air pollution, known to raise the risk for cardiovascular disease, may also increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in women. Low-grade inflammation may contribute to the higher incidence of type 2 diabetes in women exposed to air pollution, according to German researchers.

27 May 2010

State round up: Texas approves higher co-pays for retirees, California's next elected insurance commissioner to play critical health care role

The Illinois "House voted 71-44 to borrow up to $4 billion to cover next year's payments to the five state-funded pension systems." Lawmakers also rejected a proposal to have "retired state employees paying premiums for their health-care coverage. Rep. Karen May, D-Highland Park, said the state could save $100 million a year by having retirees pay premiums, noting that 92 percent of them pay nothing now."

27 May 2010

Researchers use new imaging technique to view microvessels in the brains of living mice

Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine have identified in mice a previously unknown protective mechanism by which the smallest blood vessels remove blood clots and other blockages from the brain. The findings provide insights into mechanisms that may be involved in age-related cognitive decline, Alzheimer's disease and recovery from stroke.

27 May 2010

Sen. McConnell blasts Medicare brochure touting health overhaul

Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, is blasting the Obama administration for using flyers to tout the new health law to seniors, The Hill reports. "McConnell took offense to the flyers for saying the new law will 'preserve and strengthen' Medicare. And he pointed out that the Department of Health and Human Services lambasted private Medicare Advantage plans when they used similar communications to their members to raise concerns with the health reform law before it was passed" (Pecquet, 5/25).

27 May 2010

SAMHSA awards Knowledge Dissemination Conference Grants to four organizations

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration announced the award of four Knowledge Dissemination Conference Grants totaling $100,000 to the organizations below. The grant awards will support conferences that highlight the latest evidence-based prevention strategies, practices, and polices. The conferences are designed to help integrate what is known about prevention into real-world community-based practice.

26 May 2010

SCID added to the core panel of 29 genetic disorders

On May 21, 2010, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services announced the addition of Severe Combined Immunodeficiency -- commonly known as bubble boy disease -- to the core panel of 29 genetic disorders -- as part of her recommendation to adopt the national Recommended Uniform Screening Panel.

26 May 2010

AHF urges Obama to address growing ADAP crisis

As many states across the nation face budget and funding shortfalls that are crippling their lifesaving AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs), AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, is urging President Barack Obama to redirect a portion of unspent stimulus funds in the Health and Human Services Department in order to address the growing ADAP crisis.

26 May 2010