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Super committee stuck: Dems spurn latest GOP deficit deal

News outlets covered the latest tension in super committee negotiations. The Republicans offered a much-smaller deal which they say would not cut Medicare or Medicaid.

21 Nov 2011

Super committee members trade barbs as deadline approaches

A full-scale blame game erupted into public view Sunday after nearly three months of secretive negotiations on the supercommittee that failed to resolve an impasse to cut at least $1.2 trillion in deficits over the next decade. Fanning out across the Sunday talk shows just hours before the supercommittee's deadline, Republicans insisted that Democrats wanted to institute a $1 trillion tax hike, while Democrats argued that the GOP wanted to gut popular entitlements and protect the rich.

20 Nov 2011

Three 'critical issues' for Global Fund to consider to ensure 'further success'

While the recent report from a High-Level Independent Review Panel of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, "and the corresponding decisions of the Board, mark an important step towards the necessary improvements the Global Fund must make to fulfill its vital mandate in the coming decade and beyond," "the report does not provide direction or solutions on certain critical issues that will define the further success and impact of the Global Fund," Richard Feachem, founding executive director of the Global Fund, writes in a Lancet commentary.

19 Nov 2011

Cuts to U.S. global health spending would mean 'stark future' for millions

Disregarding advances "that have the potential to significantly reduce the death toll from HIV/AIDS, malaria, malnutrition, and other insidious killers, ... both the House and the Senate are pushing significant cuts to the 2012 Obama request for global health funding," Matthew Spitzer, president of the U.S. section of Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres, writes in an opinion piece on the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog.

19 Nov 2011

Roger C. Lipitz Center to offer free Guided Care training and tools for ACOs

The Roger C. Lipitz Center for Integrated Health Care at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health will offer free training and technical assistance for organizations that seek to use the Guided Care model to participate in the Medicare Shared Savings Program.

19 Nov 2011

Insurers charging companies more if workers have unhealthy lifestyles

A Towers Watson survey found that the percentage of employer-sponsored policies that impose lifestyle-related financial penalities have doubled in the last two years.

19 Nov 2011

AMP announces Council's unanimous approval of strategic plan for personalized medicine

The Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) today announced the AMP Council's unanimous approval of a strategic plan intended to guide the organization over the next four years.

19 Nov 2011

Super committee still at loggerheads on deficit, agreement still elusive

With just days remaining to overcome the impasse, deficit panel members appear to be making no progress toward an agreement to reach the 10-year savings target. Still, meetings and discussions continued regarding possible tax increases and cuts in the growth of programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

19 Nov 2011

Colo. Gov. dismisses GOP call for Medicaid waivers; Fla. sanctions Medicaid docs

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper on Thursday rejected a Republican suggestion that he seek a federal waiver to rules governing Medicaid to balance the state budget. The Democratic governor's reaction comes amid a standoff with Republicans over suspending a property-tax break for seniors that costs the state $100 million a year.

19 Nov 2011

Millions of Afghans face hunger, disease after drought destroys crops

"Up to three million people in Afghanistan are facing hunger, malnutrition and disease after a severe drought wiped out their crops and extreme winter weather risks cutting off their access to vital food aid, a group of aid agencies warned Friday," Reuters reports.

19 Nov 2011

Recent scientific progress in developing new HIV/AIDS interventions

Kaitlin Christenson, coalition director for the Global Health Technologies Coalition, "reflects on recent progress made by the scientific community in developing new interventions to combat HIV/AIDS as a result of leadership from the U.S. government" in this ONE blog post.

19 Nov 2011

HHS, CCSC to recognize healthcare professionals with excellence in preventing HAIs

Teams of critical care professionals and healthcare institutions with a record of reducing or eliminating healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are encouraged to submit their best practices to a national awards program.

19 Nov 2011

States weigh health law's expected positive and negative impacts

Connecticut now has more health benefit mandates than nearly all other states, a consultant told a state board Thursday. And when federal health reform rolls out in just over two years, that could leave the state, not the insurers, with a bill to pay. ... Although it's not yet clear what benefits federal government will require, as many as three-quarters of the benefits that Connecticut mandates could exceed what the federal government requires.

19 Nov 2011

Experts to discuss new research at IOF Regionals - 1st Latin America Osteoporosis Meeting

Physicians across a broad range of medical fields, clinical researchers and bone experts from throughout Latin America will meet in S-o Paulo, Brazil from May 24-27, 2012 for the region's leading bone event - the IOF Regionals - 1st Latin America Osteoporosis Meeting.

19 Nov 2011

Roundup: Fla. Medicare HMO closed; Tufts and BCBS resume talks

Quality Health Plans, a Medicare HMO with 10,000 Florida members, has been ordered into liquidation after failing to come up with the cash reserves the state says were needed. Its members will be moved to another -- still unnamed -- plan by Dec. 1.

19 Nov 2011

U.S., U.N. food agencies downgrade three Somalia famine zones to emergency status

U.S. and U.N. food agencies on Friday said three famine zones in Somalia had been downgraded to emergency status, as aid had reduced death rates, but "three other areas -- including the refugee communities of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu -- remain in the famine zone," the Associated Press/CBSNews reports.

19 Nov 2011