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State roundup: Calif. report card shows improved care for kids

The latest developments in health policy from California, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon and Texas.

29 Mar 2013

How much will the health law cost? Depends on whom you ask

Some restaurant chains now say the health law may not cost them so much after all -- mostly because many employees either won't qualify for coverage or may decline it. Meanwhile, analysis continues of a Society of Actuaries projection of big increases in medical claims costs for insurers in the individual market. And the Associated Press examines President Barack Obama's promises regarding health care.

29 Mar 2013

How will immigration reform intersect with Medicare?

In this pair of stories, news outlets examine whether immigration reform will stress the Medicare program as well as what hospitals are doing to address the health law's Medicare Wage Index.

29 Mar 2013

Drug costs and pricing issues touch hospitals, independent pharmacies

NPR reports on how one hospital made what is termed an "unusual decision" -- it chose to not stock a new drug because it was very costly.

29 Mar 2013

Medicaid expansion in Pennsylvania can boost federal revenue, health care coverage

Expanding Medicaid in Pennsylvania under the Affordable Care Act would boost federal revenue to the state by more than $2 billion annually and provide 340,000 residents with health insurance, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

29 Mar 2013

Adding muscle to plans' push for value-based health care

A survey from Catalyst for Payment Reform, a nonprofit lobbying group comprising highly profitable Fortune 500 giants, found that many of its members do not feel like they are getting the value for which they are paying.

29 Mar 2013

Leadership at all levels' required for successful health systems

Jonathan Quick, president and CEO of Management Sciences for Health (MSH), writes in the group's "Global Health Impact" blog about Rwanda's success at implementing a "health system [that] has emerged from devastation as a model for others."

29 Mar 2013

DOMA's impact on same-sex couples' access to federal health programs, health insurance

The federal Defense of Marriage Act, under review by the high court this week, allows states to ignore gay marriages or unions sanctioned outside their borders, and it excludes legally married gay couples from the same protections offered to heterosexual couples under federal health programs, like Medicare, Medicaid and the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act.

28 Mar 2013

First Edition: March 28, 2013

Today's headlines include various stories about the health law's implementation at both the federal and state level.

28 Mar 2013

Viewpoints: Calif. insurers ignore Commissioner on premiums; Rick Perry says 'broken' Medicaid can't handle expansion; Doctor says NRA let him down

While most of us face uncertainty with the rollout of healthcare reform, some insurance companies in California have been feeling their oats lately. Here's how they're responding to Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones' warnings that their latest rate increases are unreasonable: Stuff it, Dave.

28 Mar 2013

Britain launches plan to fight use of rape as weapon of war in DRC

On a trip to Goma, "in the violent south-eastern corner of the Democratic Republic of the Congo [DRC]," British Foreign Secretary William Hague launched the U.K.'s plan to help tackle rape as a weapon of war, "announcing £180 million [$272 million] in new funding for the DRC health system, some of which will go to training medical staff to give proper care for rape victims," The Guardian reports.

28 Mar 2013

Pinnaclemed purchases Mazor Robotics' Renaissance system

Mazor Robotics Ltd., the developer of Renaissance, an innovative surgical guidance system and its complementary products, today announced that Pinnaclemed Co., Ltd., the Company's distribution partner in Taiwan, purchased its first Renaissance system.

28 Mar 2013

Blog reports on Annual World Water Day Congressional Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill

"On March 20, 2013, the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases participated in the 4th Annual World Water Day Congressional Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.," the organization's "End the Neglect" blog reports.

28 Mar 2013

SNSF-supported study on child development

On average, children take the first steps on their own at the age of 12 months. Many parents perceive this event as a decisive turning point. However, the timing is really of no consequence. Children who start walking early turn out later to be neither more intelligent nor more well-coordinated.

28 Mar 2013

Blog examines funding for MDR-TB versus drug-susceptible TB

In the Center for Global Development's "Global Health Policy" blog, Amanda Glassman, director of global health policy at CGD, and Kate McQueston, program coordinator at the center, examine spending on tuberculosis, including drugs to fight susceptible and multidrug-resistant strains of the bacteria.

28 Mar 2013

University of Maryland scientist selected as fellow of newly created AACR Academy

Angela H. Brodie, Ph.D., a University of Maryland scientist whose research paved the way for a new class of drugs widely used to treat breast cancer patients around the world, has been selected by the American Association for Cancer Research as a fellow of the newly created AACR Academy.

28 Mar 2013

Bill Gates tours Ghana's health system, discusses polio eradication

Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, "is currently in Ghana to assess the country's health systems," Ventures Africa reports. Gates "touched down in Accra March 25, 2013, and says he is in Ghana to get firsthand information on why the country's immunization system is working so well," the news service notes (3/26).

28 Mar 2013