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WHO Press Release: World Health Statistics reports on global health goals for 194 countries

Progress in child survival worldwide is one of the greatest success stories of international development. Since 1990, child deaths have almost halved – falling from an estimated 90 deaths per 1000 live births to 46 deaths per 1000 live births in 2013...

13 May 2015

UCLA researchers find that 59% of California physicians support Patient Protection and ACA

UCLA researchers have found that 77 percent of California primary care and specialty physicians understand the basics of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and 59 percent support it. The survey, conducted by doctors from the UCLA department of family medicine, was published in the peer-reviewed journal Family Medicine.

16 Apr 2015

Tackling the nutrition challenge with personal trainers

The importance of nutrition as part of a healthy lifestyle is recognised by most personal trainers, however concerns have been raised about their competence to provide individualised nutrition advice...

13 Apr 2015

Class-action lawsuit filed against Health Net for misrepresenting physician and hospital networks

In advance of a California legislative hearing on health care "costs" not scheduled to include testimony from consumers, consumer advocates will discuss the real financial threat patients face in a class-action lawsuit against Health Net for misrepresenting their physician and hospital networks.

4 Feb 2015

HolaDoctor introduces new Toll Free Help Line to assist Hispanics in New Jersey

HolaDoctor, the leading health and wellness online destination for Hispanics, launched a new Toll Free Help Line to assist Hispanics in New Jersey with questions regarding Healthcare Reform, as well as to guide them in the application process for acquiring health insurance in the state and federal marketplace.

14 Dec 2014

State highlights: Calif. ballot measure updates; Va. prison health care budget shortfall

A selection of health policy stories from California, Arizona, Maine, South Dakota, Virginia, Maryland, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Texas, Washington state and Missouri.

21 Oct 2014

Viewpoints: Abortion and birth control issues in N.C. Senate race; replacing Obamacare; cancellations

But on Wednesday in Charlotte, Kay Hagan stood without hesitation next to Janet Colm, chief executive of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund of Central North Carolina, and proudly bashed her opponent, Thom Tillis, for reducing women's rights on abortion and birth control.

17 Oct 2014

State highlights: Blue Cross Blue Shield dominant in Texas

A selection of health policy stories from Texas, New Jersey, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri and New Mexico.

13 Oct 2014

Picwell to analyze potential impact of latest decision support systems on consumer health plan selection

Picwell, the most advanced predictive recommendation engine for health plan selection, today announced finalized agreements to conduct studies focused on the potential impact of latest generation decision support systems on consumer health plan selection.

8 Oct 2014

State highlights: States and drug prices; Ariz. limiting Sovaldi for patients; L.A. boosts uninsured care by $61 million

Because of its high cost, some state Medicaid programs and prison systems are refusing to provide Sovaldi to any but the sickest patients. Most recently, Oregon last month threatened to limit access to the drug unless it can get Sovaldi at a deeply discounted price. But Sovaldi is only the beginning. Expensive new treatments for certain cancers, rheumatoid arthritis and other conditions also have rattled Medicaid officials, patients and health care providers. What can states do to hold down drug costs? Drug pricing is a complicated and opaque process.

8 Oct 2014

Viewpoints: Another troubled website rollout; insurers fight consumer measures in Calif.

If the federal government's new Open Payments website were a consumer product, it would be returned to the manufacturer for a full refund. Open Payments is the government's site for publishing payments made to doctors and teaching hospitals by drug and medical device manufacturers. It includes 4.4 million payments, worth $3.5 billion, to more than half a million doctors and almost 1,360 teaching hospitals (Charles Ornstein, 10/1).

3 Oct 2014

Viewpoints: Mergers causing health costs to rise; reauthorize CHIP; Obamacare's influence on politics

Health care costs are going up, and there's a lot of debate about why. Is it the high cost of drugs or our aging population?

1 Oct 2014

Bigger challenges forecast for health law's second enrollment drive

Enrolling new customers will be more complicated this time around because potential enrollees may be harder to reach, reports The Wall Street Journal.

29 Sep 2014

Viewpoints: Surgery surprise: Out-of-network doctors' bills; consequences of making Medicaid enrollees pay premiums

The New York Times' Elisabeth Rosenthal offered an important lesson in healthcare economics over the weekend that's a must-read for anyone about to undergo a major medical procedure.

24 Sep 2014

New Medicaid enrollees pleased with coverage, but note they still face obstacles

Focus-group research finds that people who received Medicaid coverage under the health law's expansion are generally happy but find roadblocks to getting care, The Washington Post reports.

23 Sep 2014

Va. legislators return to bitter Medicaid expansion debate, kill plan without formal vote

State legislators united across party lines Thursday to plug a $2.4 billion hole in the state budget but quickly reverted to bitter partisanship as they debated Medicaid expansion, with House Republicans ultimately killing a bill to expand the health-care program without giving it a formal vote (Vozzella and Weiner, 9/18).

22 Sep 2014

States' efforts to customize their Medicaid expansion efforts could complicate reform

Some conservative states have won concessions from the administration in exchange for moving forward on expansion, and other states are carefully weighing those choices.

18 Sep 2014

State highlights: Report: Hospitals ill-prepared for Sandy; Iowa Supreme Court lets teleabortion go on while it decides

When Superstorm Sandy slammed into the Northeast nearly two years ago, hospitals found themselves dealing with surges in patients, lost power supplies and employees who couldn't get to work -- problems that a new federal report finds they were not prepared to handle (Mulvihill, 9/17).

18 Sep 2014

High impact health interventions reduce maternal and child mortality in poor countries

New studies have uncovered the specific interventions and advances that have led to the success with these at-risk populations in the poorest countries.

17 Sep 2014

Viewpoints: New uninsured numbers are outdated; chiropractors' unusual move into nutrition

The federal government released some very reliable estimates of how many people had health insurance in the first three months of 2014.

16 Sep 2014