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Firm hopes to save on health costs with concierge doctor

The (Milwaukee) Business Journal explores the story of Serigraph, a West Bend, Wis., company which gave up on "fine-tuning" insurance coverage for workers and turned to concierge medicine instead. "Industry experts said the move is one that other employers likely will begin considering as they grapple with increasing health care costs."

12 Apr 2010

Threats against lawmakers on the rise after health reform

Threats against lawmakers have risen threefold in recent months, The Washington Post reports. Lawmakers reported 42 threats in the first three months of this year, compared with 15 in last three months of 2009, said Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance W. Gainer, who had information about threats involving both chambers." Gainer said the threats ranged from "very vulgar to serious" and included death threats.

12 Apr 2010

Health insurance and new laws: Questions still abound

In Massachusetts, individuals and small businesses are in limbo about their future rates, The Boston Globe reports: "Hundreds of individuals and owners of small businesses seeking to buy health insurance this week were turned away from the state's Health Connector website as the standoff between insurers and Massachusetts regulators dragged" on.

12 Apr 2010

New York Attorney General: Some college health plans violate state regulations

An investigation by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office into health insurance plans offered to college students found that most plans "pay out far less in benefits than they collect in premiums," sometimes in violation of state regulations.

12 Apr 2010

Johns Hopkins Hospital launches Meatless Monday campaign to encourage healthier

The Johns Hopkins Hospital will launch a campaign on Monday, April 12 to encourage healthier eating among patients, visitors and staff — Meatless Monday.

12 Apr 2010

Wireless technology and data systems transforming health care

News outlets report on the way that health information technology is changing the practice of medicine.

12 Apr 2010

Study finds overall increase in developing country domestic health spending, some countries have reduced health budgets as donor funding increases

Researchers on Friday released a study in the Lancet that found while "[m]ost countries in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East doubled their health budgets," countries in sub-Saharan Africa appear to have trimmed their health spending as donors have boosted their health aid, the Associated Press/Washington Post reports.

12 Apr 2010

NHS chief execs paid seven times more than nurses reveals report

According to newly revealed figures the managers of NHS trusts have received a pay rise of 6.9% in 2008-09 compared to less than 3% among the nurses. This data came forth in an ‘Incomes Data Services’ report that was based on data from more than 380 NHS trusts in England, including primary care, mental health and ambulance trusts. The report showed that the NHS Chief Executives earn seven times more than nurses. The top managers now make £147,500 according to the report which is £10,000 more than average workers. The NHS Confederation in reply said that these top managers were needed to bail them out from financial setbacks.

12 Apr 2010

Medicare Supplement changes with introduction of Modernized Medicare Supplement Plans

Medicare Supplement, the insurance millions of seniors buy to help cover their out-of-pocket medical expenses, is undergoing dramatic changes with the introduction of Modernized Medicare Supplement Plans, which become effective June 1, 2010.

12 Apr 2010

Pfizer discloses payments to doctors

In Pennsylvania, the payments suggested that "[p]harmaceutical company money continued flowing to University of Pittsburgh Medical Center doctors last year, despite a restrictive two-year-old policy designed to limit drug company influence, and reflecting the struggle academic medical centers face in distancing doctors from drug companies," the Pittsburgh Business Times reports

12 Apr 2010

Mental health respite center for women and children to close next month

New Zealand - Newell House (opened in 1995) is a small five bed unit that cares for mentally ill women and children. However due to shortage of funds, the Trustees from Oxford Terrace Baptist Church have announced that the unit may close down permanently by the end of May this year.

12 Apr 2010

Elmendorf: Health reform will reduce deficit, warns of fiscal crisis

In remarks to reporters Thursday, Congressional Budget Office director Doug Elmendorf warned of a looming budget crisis that "cannot be solved through minor tinkering." The nation's "unsustainable" spending could increase the national debt from $7.5 trillion at the end of 2009 to 20.3 trillion in 2020, when the debt would total 90 percent of gross domestic product, Elmendorf noted (Allen, 4/8).

12 Apr 2010

IHME researchers advocate greater transparency in financial reporting

The commitment to health by country governments in the developing world has grown dramatically over the last two decades, according to a new study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington and Harvard Medical School.

12 Apr 2010

Aetna faces Medicare sanctions

Health insurer Aetna announced Friday it will suspend "marketing to and enrollment of new members to its Medicare plans for the elderly because of sanctions imposed by the U.S. government," Reuters reports.

12 Apr 2010

Health reform effects on Tricare still being discussed

"Defense officials insist that the new national health care reform law has no direct effect on Tricare — but some analysts say indirect effects eventually may surface. ... military advocacy groups say the law's potential interaction with the complex family of Tricare plans over the longer term is vague, and could lead to future cost or coverage encroachment on the valuable benefit that serves 9.6 million beneficiaries."

9 Apr 2010

One in ten primary care physicians in the U.S. experience conflict with religiously-affiliated hospital: Report

Nearly one in ten primary care physicians in the United States has experienced a conflict with a religiously-affiliated hospital or practice over religious policies for patient care, researchers from the University of Chicago report in a paper published early online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

9 Apr 2010

Top state health officials confused over national reform's effects on states

Stateline.org reports on confusion over health care reform at a quarterly meeting with top state health officials in Washington, D.C.: "The session exemplifies the overwhelming sense of confusion among state lawmakers and health care officials around the country as they scramble to figure out what exactly health care reform means for their governments, their citizens and, not least of all, their budgets.

9 Apr 2010