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True or false: Seven concerns about the new health law

Kaiser Health News staff fact check some of the concerns swirling about in regard to the recently enacted health reform law.

2 Apr 2010

Capital Region Orthopaedics to implement Allscripts EHR and Practice Management solution

Allscripts today announced that Capital Region Orthopaedics has selected the Allscripts Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Practice Management solution to automate and connect 27 physicians in six locations across the Albany area.

2 Apr 2010

Extending breast cancer screening to younger women will benefit in terms of economic efficiency and equity

Screening younger women for breast cancer is fairer and makes sound economic sense, according to new research by the University of East Anglia (UEA).

2 Apr 2010

States examine how they may be impacted by reform, Medicaid expansion

Kaiser Health News: "Starting today, states can choose to take the first steps toward the massive expansion of insurance coverage that is the health overhaul's chief goal. And for some states, that move could have the benefit of reviving funding for state-run programs that insure low-income adults. As of April 1, states can apply for federal funding to expand their Medicaid programs to cover low-income people earning up to 133 percent of the poverty level, or $14,404 for an individual and $29,326.50 for a family of four.

2 Apr 2010

Reform promotes patient safety by creating payment incentives, making mistakes public

The Albany Times Union: "More than a million Americans are harmed each year as a result of their medical care — not their underlying condition — and an estimated 100,000 die. Another 100,000 people die from hospital-acquired infections. In addition to expanding coverage to the uninsured, the health reform law attacks the problem of medical errors on two fronts: It establishes new payment incentives for safer care, and makes some mistakes public."

2 Apr 2010

'Here & Now' audio: States must now make health care reform a reality

Kaiser Health News editor John Fairhall and Oregon Health Authority's Barney Speight discuss how states will implement health care reform, on WBUR's "Here & Now" radio show. Listen to the program.

2 Apr 2010

Opinion: Job development for Haiti; NTDs in Africa; U.S. investment in TB

"Even before the earthquake, the Haitian economy was already on shaky ground. There is 70 to 80 percent unemployment in the formal economy. ... U.S. policy helped build this disastrous economy," AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker writes in a Miami Herald opinion piece. Baker says previous employment efforts in Haiti resulted in "stop-gap jobs," which do not provide "employment stability or social protections."

2 Apr 2010

Mayo Clinic introduces a reliable and easy-to-understand resource on alternative medicine

Want to find ways that may help prevent illness naturally, for a fraction of the cost of a trip to the doctor? Interested in taking control of your health with evidence-based practices that complement conventional medicine?

2 Apr 2010

AHR panel calls for greater research to establish connection between creative engagement and cardiac health

The Foundation for Art & Healing today releases the proceedings from its groundbreaking Arts and the Heart Roundtable (AHR), a gathering of luminaries from the medical, arts and public health sectors regarding the connection between creative engagement and cardiac health.

2 Apr 2010

States hope new funding from health law will bolster unique programs

Kaiser Health News staff writer Christopher Weaver writes about new funding available to cash-strapped states: "Starting today, states can choose to take the first steps toward the massive expansion of insurance coverage that is the health overhaul's chief goal.

2 Apr 2010

Pfizer discloses $35 million in payments to doctors, hospitals for research and promotion

Pfizer, the largest drug maker in the world, disclosed 35 million in payments during the second half of 2009 to doctors who consulted or spoke on behalf of drugs and to the medical centers that tested them, The New York Times reports. This is Pfizer's first disclosure of this nature. "While other pharmaceutical companies have disclosed payments to doctors, Pfizer is the first to disclose payments for the clinical trials. The disclosure does not include payments outside the United States" (Wilson, 3/31).

2 Apr 2010

More big companies report charges spurred by health law

News regarding the health law's early impact on large companies - millions of dollars in lost tax exemptions - is continuing to emerge.

2 Apr 2010

Democrats, Republicans vie to claim public opinion about health reform

USA Today: "A week after Congress passed President Obama's 10-year, $938 billion health care plan, lawmakers from both parties are spending their spring break trying to turn the historic legislation to their political advantage. At stake are the large majorities Democrats have built up over the past two elections, including a 76-vote margin in the House and an 18-vote cushion in the Senate."

2 Apr 2010

Implementation outreach aims to educate the public on health care changes

USA Today reports on "Enroll America" a private campaign aimed at "making it easy for Americans who qualify for Medicaid or private insurance subsidies to sign up" in the wake of health care reform changes. The effort has been prompted by difficulties and confusion that occurred four years ago after a Medicare prescription law encountered major glitches in implementation.

2 Apr 2010

Short of cash before Easter? Error in payment of Queensland Healthcare staff

In one of the largest pay hitches of its kind in the recent years, the Queensland government has been forced to apologize for shortchanging thousands of doctors and nurses. Due to a recent new system of pay there has been an error in payment with several complaints from the injured parties. With the Easter break round the corner many are frazzled with the error.

1 Apr 2010

Seniors worry about Medicare reforms, especially changes to Medicare Advantage

The Associated Press: "While Democrats hail the sweeping legislation as the greatest expansion of the social safety net since Medicare, they also fear that seniors won't see it that way for this fall's elections. Indeed, Republicans have portrayed the overhaul as a raid on Medicare — a bedrock of retirement security — to provide money to pay for covering younger, uninsured workers and their families.

1 Apr 2010

Law enforcement officials seek, find Medicare fraud

The Palm Beach Post: To pay for the health reform bill, Medicare fraud is "ripe for plucking, top South Florida prosecutors say."

1 Apr 2010

Health law includes $250 million for abstinence education

The new health care law contains "a renewal of $50 million per year for five years for abstinence-focused education," CNN reports. "Programs that receive this funding must 'teach that abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and other associated health problems,' according to the Department of Health and Human Services. To qualify, they must also teach that sex before marriage is "likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects'..."

1 Apr 2010

Democratic, Republican Attorneys General continue health reform lawsuit battle

Politico: Some of the Democratic attorneys general who have refused to join Republican counterparts in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the new health law, now "have become reluctant combatants, dragged into the fray by GOP governors and legislators who insist that their reluctance to join the case is a clear attempt to protect their national party's interests."

1 Apr 2010

Florida AIDS Walk 2010: Thousands help raise over $460,000

Thousands of dedicated individuals from across the state helped raise nearly half a million dollars for crucial lifesaving HIV/AIDS services in South Florida on Sunday March 28th by joining together to participate in the lively Florida AIDS Walk 2010. The Walk, which started and ended at Huizenga Plaza in Ft. Lauderdale, was a 10k walk (optional 5k) fundraiser to raise awareness about and help reverse the continuing epidemic of HIV/AIDS in South Florida.

1 Apr 2010