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U.S. trails 16 other affluent countries in life expectancy, health status

It's no news that the U.S. has lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality than most high-income countries. But a magisterial new report says Americans are actually less healthy across their entire life spans than citizens of 16 other wealthy nations.

11 Jan 2013

Mass. abortion clinic 'buffer zone' law upheld by federal appeals court

In Massachusetts, a federal appeals court has upheld a 2007 state law that makes it a crime to loiter within 35 feet of an abortion clinic, despite First Amendment challenges from anti-abortion advocates.

11 Jan 2013

Fiscal cliff boosts clinical data registries, but cuts some health care payments

CQ HealthBeat reports on a provision of the fiscal cliff law intended to encourage physicians to submit data to registries that could be a tool to promote better quality care. The Medicare NewsGroup analyzes another provision that changes how payments are calculated for end stage renal disease drugs.

11 Jan 2013

Boston declares flu emergency as aggressive viruses spread across the nation

The country is in the grip of three emerging flu or flulike epidemics: an early start to the annual flu season with an unusually aggressive virus, a surge in a new type of norovirus, and the worst whooping cough outbreak in 60 years. And these are all developing amid the normal winter highs for the many viruses that cause symptoms on the "colds and flu" spectrum.

11 Jan 2013

CSIS talks with Malawi President Banda about women's health, empowerment

The Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) "wanted to learn more about how women leaders in Africa are bringing new attention to women's health and empowerment in their own countries, and to bring those voices into the discussion about U.S. policy priorities for women's global health," so a small CSIS team traveled to Malawi and Zambia in December 2012, Janet Fleischman and Julia Nagel of CSIS write in the group's Smart Global Health blog.

11 Jan 2013

Report: U.S. could save $2T over a decade by encouraging cost-effective care

A new report from the Commonwealth Fund says the federal government could save $2 trillion on health care costs over a decade it if accelerates provider adoption of more-effective care.

11 Jan 2013

More than 6% of Haitians have had cholera since outbreak began, new data show

"The death toll in Haiti's cholera epidemic is approaching 8,000, and more than six percent of Haitians have had the disease since it invaded the country in October 2010, according to reports released this week," CIDRAP reports.

11 Jan 2013

Anthem proposes double-digit rate hikes in Calif., prompting insurance commissioner outcry

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones is calling a recent double-digit rate hike proposal and reinsurance fee by Anthem Blue Cross in his state "unreasonable," though he doesn't have much power to change it.

11 Jan 2013

Blog posts call for policy action condemning intelligence community's use of health campaigns

"It remains to be seen if a new surge of efforts -- a letter of protest from leading public health experts, a petition -- asking the Obama Administration to prohibit spies from pretending to be overseas aid and health workers will force a change in policy," Tom Paulson and Tom Murphy write in the Humanosphere blog.

11 Jan 2013

U.N. SG meets with special envoys for AIDS, UNAIDS Executive Director to discuss future efforts

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday in New York met with his team of U.N. Special Envoys for AIDS to discuss progress in fighting the disease, U.N. Radio/Ghana Broadcasting Corporation reports.

11 Jan 2013

HHS inspector general: Still not many Medicare Advantage fraud probes despite big 2007 investigation

HHS says there aren't many investigations into fraud and abuse perpetrated by the nation's Medicare Advantage providers despite recent investigations that concluded four plans got nearly $600 million more in payment than they should have in 2007.

11 Jan 2013

Political cartoon: 'Boxed In?'

Kaiser Health News provides a fresh take on health policy developments with "Boxed In?" by Lisa Benson.

11 Jan 2013

Kaiser Family Foundation publishes report on donor funding for health in low- & middle-income countries

The Kaiser Family Foundation on Wednesday published a new report, titled "Donor Funding for Health in Low- & Middle-Income Countries, 2002-2010," that "tracks the most recently available data on funding from donor governments, including the United States, and from multilateral institutions for health in low- and middle-income countries," according to the report summary.

11 Jan 2013

Capitol Hill health policy news: Fact-checking Pelosi on Medicare; Senior GOP health adviser to leave House; Redefining rural doctor access

We are reluctant to re-litigate the rhetoric of the 2012 presidential campaign, but this comment by Rep. Nancy Pelosi about the House GOP budget jumped out at us. We had frequently written during the campaign about the misleading claim by Mitt Romney that President Obama had gutted more than $700 billion from Medicare to fund Obamacare.

11 Jan 2013

Roundup: Advocates watching Calif. budget for Medi-Cal cuts; Mich. AG to appeal same-sex health benefits ruling; Kansas city seeks to extend health care tax

Brown's proposed budget will outline his plans for expanding health coverage under the new federal health care law, which is set to require increased coverage beginning in January 2014. The law will put hundreds of thousands of new enrollees into California's public insurance program, but the governor has raised concerns about what that will cost.

11 Jan 2013

Longer looks: A key Hagel mission is to cut military health costs; Medical lessons from a mother's death; How they price - and how we pay for -a $300,000 medicine

As David Brooks and Paul Wolfowitz and many others have shown, it's easy to frame our messy fiscal conundrum in these simple terms of guns vs. butter, or rather, guns vs grandma's buttery-yellow, super-pricey heart medication.

11 Jan 2013

Viewpoints: Rove says GOP unlikely to make much 'structural change' to entitlements; Roe anniversary and fading public understanding; Fast food workers' health insurance

As a matter of policy, rather than politics, it is no more sensible to draw the line at $620 billion in additional revenue over the next decade than to insist, as have some Democrats, that Medicare and Social Security remain untouched. The country's structural deficit poses too large a threat to future prosperity, and there is no politically or fiscally realistic scenario under which entitlement cuts alone can solve the problem.

11 Jan 2013

New guidelines to help fast track radiation oncology drug development

Researchers from the translational research program of the National Cancer Institute and the Radiation Therapy Oncology Therapy Group have developed new guidelines to help fast track the clinical development of targeted cancer drugs in combination with radiation therapy.

11 Jan 2013

Medicaid cost estimates trigger Florida flap

Florida Gov. Rick Scott's concerns about the health law's Medicaid expansion during a meeting Monday with HHS Secretary Sebelius is continuing to draw criticism that he is exaggerating the potential cost.

11 Jan 2013

Mothers' online message board questions about parenting infants and toddlers

Parenting infants and toddlers can be challenging, and for generations, mothers have turned to other moms for advice. Now, with the availability of the Internet, mothers are consulting each other using modern venues: online message boards. Research from the University of Missouri indicates online discussion boards provide safe environments for mothers to anonymously express child-rearing concerns and receive support from other moms.

11 Jan 2013

Healthcare News

U.S. trails 16 other affluent countries in life expectancy, health status

Mass. abortion clinic 'buffer zone' law upheld by federal appeals court

Fiscal cliff boosts clinical data registries, but cuts some health care payments

Boston declares flu emergency as aggressive viruses spread across the nation

CSIS talks with Malawi President Banda about women's health, empowerment

Report: U.S. could save $2T over a decade by encouraging cost-effective care

More than 6% of Haitians have had cholera since outbreak began, new data show

Anthem proposes double-digit rate hikes in Calif., prompting insurance commissioner outcry

Blog posts call for policy action condemning intelligence community's use of health campaigns

U.N. SG meets with special envoys for AIDS, UNAIDS Executive Director to discuss future efforts

HHS inspector general: Still not many Medicare Advantage fraud probes despite big 2007 investigation

Political cartoon: 'Boxed In?'

Kaiser Family Foundation publishes report on donor funding for health in low- & middle-income countries

Capitol Hill health policy news: Fact-checking Pelosi on Medicare; Senior GOP health adviser to leave House; Redefining rural doctor access

Roundup: Advocates watching Calif. budget for Medi-Cal cuts; Mich. AG to appeal same-sex health benefits ruling; Kansas city seeks to extend health care tax

Longer looks: A key Hagel mission is to cut military health costs; Medical lessons from a mother's death; How they price - and how we pay for -a $300,000 medicine

Viewpoints: Rove says GOP unlikely to make much 'structural change' to entitlements; Roe anniversary and fading public understanding; Fast food workers' health insurance

New guidelines to help fast track radiation oncology drug development

Medicaid cost estimates trigger Florida flap

Mothers' online message board questions about parenting infants and toddlers

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Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

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