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Roundup: States raise employee insurance contributions to save money; Minn. seeking $80M more for exchange; Selling insurance in malls

Financially strapped state and local governments are saving billions of dollars on health insurance by cutting back on free coverage for employees and raising worker contributions, a USA Today analysis finds. Government workers still enjoy more generous health benefits than privately employed workers but the advantage has narrowed from $1,523 in 2007 to $891 in 2012, adjusted for inflation, federal data show.

25 Oct 2012

Examining ethics surrounding Taliban's ban on polio vaccination in Pakistan

Writing in the Global Bioethics Blog, Stuart Rennie, a bioethics researcher and professor, notes another polio worker was killed in Pakistan last week and describes Taliban opposition to U.S.-supported polio vaccination efforts in Pakistan.

23 Oct 2012

Exercise is the first step to protect against negative impacts of stress

Any time life hands us a stressful situation, we have a decision to make: will we handle it with grace, or let it pile up on everything else? For women, stress sometimes feels like a never-ending occurrence, and University of Alabama at Birmingham experts say that, left unmanaged, stress can lead to health problems. But it can easily be curtailed.

20 Oct 2012

Concordia-France research collaboration appeals to emotions to heal the world

Einstein said that we can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking used when we created them. Wise words, except few people heed them when it comes to sustainable solutions for our ailing planet.

20 Oct 2012

Viewpoints: Medicare not exempt from sequestration's impact; Obama's plan to have board cut Medicare 'has little chance of success'

Fact: Congress must pass and the president must sign legislation by the end of this year that reduces federal spending by $109 billion -- or the first year of automatic across-the-board cuts in both domestic and defense programs will go into effect.

20 Oct 2012

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announces winners of 2012 Community Health Leaders Award

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is proud to announce today the recipients of its 2012 Community Health Leaders Award, honoring 10 individuals who have surmounted significant challenges to help improve health and health care in their communities.

17 Oct 2012

Study assesses ethnic disparities among construction workers with injuries

White non-Hispanic construction workers are awarded higher workers' compensation settlements in Illinois than Hispanic or black construction workers with similar injuries and disabilities, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health.

15 Oct 2012

Homeless Intermediate Care Pilot Project helps reduce hospital, ED admissions

A nurse outreach programme to treat people using a homeless shelter in London led to a fall of 77 per cent in hospital admissions from the shelter and a cut of 52 per cent in emergency department attendances.

12 Oct 2012

IntraHealth focuses on training for Kenyan health care workers

In this post on IntraHealth's "Global Health Blog," Pape Gaye, president and CEO of IntraHealth, discusses the organization's commitment to providing quality training to Kenyan health care workers made at this year's Clinton Global Initiative meeting.

11 Oct 2012

Some state officials grappling with health law's insurance exchanges

State leaders in Mississippi, Idaho and Minnesota pore over their options on establishing the health law's health insurance exchanges -- or allowing the federal government to do it.

11 Oct 2012

Viewpoints: Wis. Senate candidates Thompson, Baldwin offer competing views of health law; 'Disturbing lack' of oversight of compounding pharmacies

The meningitis outbreak that has sickened at least 119 people and killed 11 of them has laid bare a disturbing lack of regulatory oversight of pharmacies that mix drug compounds and ship them around the country. Unless Congress passes legislation to strengthen the hand of the Food and Drug Administration, the public will continue to be at risk from contaminated products.

11 Oct 2012

Study demonstrates efficacy of genotyping technology in identifying source of clinic infection outbreak

Researchers from East Carolina University used a new technique of genotyping to identify the source of a hematology clinic outbreak of Mycobacterium mucogenicum, a gram-positive, acid-fast bacteria found in tap water. This is the first outbreak of M. mucogenicum in an ambulatory care setting; five other outbreaks have been reported in hospital settings since 1995.

6 Oct 2012

Longer looks: The time is now for community health workers; Patients sharing in medical decisions; One doctor's plea for help

By the time Frederick Pegues Jr. was resting in bed at Temple University Hospital, the irony struck him hard. Here, he had just finished a month-long course in being a community health worker, sponsored by Temple University Hospital. He had learned how to help patients navigate a complicated health system. Yet he himself had not been able to get the help he needed.

5 Oct 2012

New insights on global fight to prevent cancers

New insights on the global fight to prevent cancers were presented during the ESMO 2012 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology in Vienna. The studies highlight the challenges of overcoming misunderstandings about how important lifestyle factors are in reducing cancer risk.

1 Oct 2012

Scaling up access to maternal, child health care would prevent most deaths during pregnancy, childbirth

"Every day, 800 women lose their lives giving birth -- 287,000 each year -- and the vast majority of these deaths occurs in developing countries. ... These deaths are unacceptable, particularly because they are preventable," the heads of the Health 4+ (UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNICEF, U.N. Women, the WHO, and the World Bank, known as H4+) write in the Huffington Post's "Global Motherhood" blog.

25 Sep 2012

New tools can help track healthcare-associated infections in nursing homes

The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have each released new tools and information to help track deadly healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in nursing homes and other long-term care settings.

19 Sep 2012

Roundup: Mont. settlement money to pay for uninsured's prescription drugs; Physician assistants' role in Mass.; Atlanta to cut worker premiums

The Montana attorney general's office says nearly $1 million collected in drug company settlements will be used to help pay for prescription medicine for people who are uninsured and underinsured. Attorney General Steve Bullock said in a statement Thursday the money came from settlements dating back to 2010 with four drug companies accused of inflating the wholesale prices of drugs paid by Medicare and Medicaid.

18 Sep 2012

Improve domestic health care worker recruiting, training in U.S. to improve economy, global health

"Today about 12 percent of the health work force [in the U.S.] is foreign-born and trained, including a quarter of all physicians," Kate Tulenko, senior director of health system innovation at IntraHealth International, writes in a New York Times opinion piece, adding, "That's bad for American workers, but even worse for the foreign workers' home countries, including some of the world's poorest and sickest, which could use these professionals at home."

17 Sep 2012

Drinking water fails to meet state quality standards at North Carolina migrant farmworker camps

The drinking water at one-third of migrant farmworker camps in eastern North Carolina failed to meet state quality standards, according to a new study from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

15 Sep 2012

Study assesses hand contamination of healthcare workers after disinfection procedures

New research demonstrates that daily cleaning of high-touch surfaces in isolation rooms of patients with Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) significantly reduces the rate of the pathogens on the hands of healthcare personnel.

15 Sep 2012

Worker News and Research

Roundup: States raise employee insurance contributions to save money; Minn. seeking $80M more for exchange; Selling insurance in malls

Examining ethics surrounding Taliban's ban on polio vaccination in Pakistan

Exercise is the first step to protect against negative impacts of stress

Concordia-France research collaboration appeals to emotions to heal the world

Viewpoints: Medicare not exempt from sequestration's impact; Obama's plan to have board cut Medicare 'has little chance of success'

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announces winners of 2012 Community Health Leaders Award

Study assesses ethnic disparities among construction workers with injuries

Homeless Intermediate Care Pilot Project helps reduce hospital, ED admissions

IntraHealth focuses on training for Kenyan health care workers

Some state officials grappling with health law's insurance exchanges

Viewpoints: Wis. Senate candidates Thompson, Baldwin offer competing views of health law; 'Disturbing lack' of oversight of compounding pharmacies

Study demonstrates efficacy of genotyping technology in identifying source of clinic infection outbreak

Longer looks: The time is now for community health workers; Patients sharing in medical decisions; One doctor's plea for help

New insights on global fight to prevent cancers

Scaling up access to maternal, child health care would prevent most deaths during pregnancy, childbirth

New tools can help track healthcare-associated infections in nursing homes

Roundup: Mont. settlement money to pay for uninsured's prescription drugs; Physician assistants' role in Mass.; Atlanta to cut worker premiums

Improve domestic health care worker recruiting, training in U.S. to improve economy, global health

Drinking water fails to meet state quality standards at North Carolina migrant farmworker camps

Study assesses hand contamination of healthcare workers after disinfection procedures

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