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HHS begins 'Innovation Advisors' program

The Health and Human Services Department on Monday launched a new component of its effort to make health care better and more efficient. HHS announced its "Innovation Advisors" program, through which it will select as many as 200 experts to work with doctors and other providers on ways to improve the health care delivery system.

19 Oct 2011

Donors need to look beyond emergency funding to long-term, strategic solutions

"Americans are among the most generous people in the world, giving more money to charities than citizens of any other nation in the world," but "much of our charity goes to disaster relief," entrepreneur and philanthropist Sheila Johnson writes in an opinion piece in the Huffington Post's "Black Voices."

19 Oct 2011

Confusion reigns after Obama administration suspends CLASS program

Even though the White House signaled that the long-term insurance program will not be implemented, President Barack Obama made clear yesterday that he is opposed to the measure's repeal. Meanwhile, the decision to suspend the plan from going forward has left many experts to ask what's next in the effort to address the nation's long-term care issues.

19 Oct 2011

African-Americans donate exclusively to family members for living kidney transplants

Family matters, especially when it comes to African-Americans and living kidney donation. In a study conducted at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, researchers found that African-Americans donate almost exclusively to family members for living kidney transplants, as compared to Caucasians.

19 Oct 2011

Aspen Institute panel speakers call for increased aid for women to help plan families

A panel hosted by the Aspen Institute's Global Leaders Council on Monday called for "a boost of aid for women in developing countries such as Somalia to help them control their fertility," Agence France-Presse reports. "Somalia has the eighth highest birth rate in the world, and the average family has seven children," and "one percent of married women in Somalia have access to modern contraception, ... according to data compiled by the Population Reference Bureau," the news agency notes.

19 Oct 2011

Mayo Clinic introduces heart health awareness campaign

Mayo Clinic today is launching a heart health awareness campaign featuring a parody of the 1982 hit song "867-5309/Jenny" at the third annual Social Media Summit, produced by Mayo Clinic in conjunction with Ragan Communications.

19 Oct 2011

Many overweight, obese patients do not believe their weight poses health risks

Many overweight and obese patients in hospital emergency departments don't believe their weight poses health risks, and many say doctors have never told them otherwise, according to a University of Florida study.

19 Oct 2011

Use of social media to fight malaria shows 'great promise'

As the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation hosts the second international Malaria Forum in Seattle this week, Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Gates Foundation, in this entry in the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog reflects on the advances made in the fight against malaria since the first Malaria Forum four years ago.

19 Oct 2011

Many hospital readmission risk prediction tools have poor discriminative ability

A review and analysis of 26 validated hospital readmission risk prediction models finds that most, whether for hospital comparison or clinical purposes, have poor predictive ability, according to an article in the October 19 issue of JAMA.

19 Oct 2011

Report estimates human impact of cuts to U.S. global health spending over next five years

"Thousands of lives and years of gains made against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria could be lost if proportional reductions are made to achieve the $1.2 trillion in spending reductions required by the Budget Control Act of 2011," according to a report issued on Monday by the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog reports.

19 Oct 2011

U.S. News ranks Meridian Health among 2011-2012 Best Hospitals

Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Ocean Medical Center and Riverview Medical Center, all members of Meridian Health, are included in the 2011-2012 Best Hospitals metro area rankings released by U.S. News & World Report.

19 Oct 2011

States juggling Medicaid requirements, costs, coverage

Medicaid managed-care plans in Florida's five Medicaid "reform" counties have been granted a 10.8 percent rate increase because of ever-increasing hospital costs, the president of Florida Association of Health Plans confirmed today. Meanwhile, said Michael Garner, the managed-care plans in most counties of the state were granted an average 1.3 percent rate increase.

19 Oct 2011

Canadian parents raise families with less money and time than Baby Boomer generation

Canadian parents today are raising families with less money and time than the Baby Boomer generation even though the country's economy has doubled in size since 1976, says a new study released at the University of Saskatchewan today by Paul Kershaw, a family policy expert from the University of British Columbia.

19 Oct 2011

World Bank speaks strongly but slow to act on issue of raising tobacco taxes to improve health

In this post in the Center for Global Development's "Global Health Policy" blog, William Savedoff, a senior fellow at the center, writes that while the World Bank has "spoken strongly" on the issue of raising tobacco taxes in an effort to "generate revenue, cut health costs and save lives," it "is moving forward cautiously if at all."

19 Oct 2011

Cholera outbreak in West, Central Africa accelerated by increased migration, UNICEF official says

"More than 85,000 cases of cholera in West and Central Africa are making this one of the region's most severe epidemics in recent memory," VOA News reports. "Grant Leaity, UNICEF's chief of emergency operations for West and Central Africa, says the epidemic is due, in part, to a greater movement of people across the region," VOA writes, noting, "Three simultaneous cross-border outbreaks are affecting people in two dozen countries along the coast from Guinea, and in the Lake Chad basin to the West Congo basin and around Lake Tanganyika."

19 Oct 2011

Nearly one-third of all countries affected by malaria on course to eliminate disease, WHO report says

"Nearly a third of all countries affected by malaria are on course to eliminate the mosquito-borne disease over the next 10 years, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday ... in a progress report published by the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) partnership at the start of an international Malaria Forum conference in Seattle," Reuters reports.

19 Oct 2011

Study finds 30% decline in heart failure hospitalization rate

Being hospitalized for heart failure (HF) was about 30 percent less likely in 2008 than in 1998, according to a study by Yale physicians in the Oct. 19 issue of JAMA. The team also found that the rate of hospitalization for black men dropped at a lower rate, and that one-year mortality rates declined slightly during this period, but remained high.

19 Oct 2011

Roundup: Mass. contemplates 'global payments'; rural hospitals struggling; Oregon liability cost studied

Although important details remain to be negotiated, the legislative leaders and Gov. Deval Patrick, all Democrats, are working toward a plan that would encourage flat "global payments" to networks of providers for keeping patients well, replacing the fee-for-service system that creates incentives for excessive care by paying for each visit and procedure.

19 Oct 2011

Viewpoints: CLASS decision ends fear of government bailout; the strengths and failings of U.S. health care

The problem, as numerous experts warned at the time, was whether the program could be run, as the law required, in a way that made it financially solvent for at least 75 years. The difficulty with the CLASS Act was ensuring that premiums could be set low enough to attract widespread participation but high enough to pay tbenefits. The risk was that the program would attract the sickest participants, who thought they might need its protections, and thereby drive premium prices ever higher in a spiral of dysfunctionhe promised.

19 Oct 2011

Heart-failure related hospitalizations has declined substantially among Medicare patients

Between 1998 and 2008, heart-failure related hospitalizations declined substantially among Medicare patients, but at a lower rate for black men, according to a study in the October 19 issue of JAMA. Also, 1-year mortality rates declined slightly during this period, but remain high.

19 Oct 2011

Healthcare News

HHS begins 'Innovation Advisors' program

Donors need to look beyond emergency funding to long-term, strategic solutions

Confusion reigns after Obama administration suspends CLASS program

African-Americans donate exclusively to family members for living kidney transplants

Aspen Institute panel speakers call for increased aid for women to help plan families

Mayo Clinic introduces heart health awareness campaign

Many overweight, obese patients do not believe their weight poses health risks

Use of social media to fight malaria shows 'great promise'

Many hospital readmission risk prediction tools have poor discriminative ability

Report estimates human impact of cuts to U.S. global health spending over next five years

U.S. News ranks Meridian Health among 2011-2012 Best Hospitals

States juggling Medicaid requirements, costs, coverage

Canadian parents raise families with less money and time than Baby Boomer generation

World Bank speaks strongly but slow to act on issue of raising tobacco taxes to improve health

Cholera outbreak in West, Central Africa accelerated by increased migration, UNICEF official says

Nearly one-third of all countries affected by malaria on course to eliminate disease, WHO report says

Study finds 30% decline in heart failure hospitalization rate

Roundup: Mass. contemplates 'global payments'; rural hospitals struggling; Oregon liability cost studied

Viewpoints: CLASS decision ends fear of government bailout; the strengths and failings of U.S. health care

Heart-failure related hospitalizations has declined substantially among Medicare patients

Achieving and maintaining ISO/IEC 27001 and BS 10012 certifications

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer

Examining how pain could play a direct protective role in the gut

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