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Opinions: Clean water; oversight of U.N. bookkeeping; Obama's global health goals; maternal mortality

"Long before the earthquake, Haiti was mired in a crisis that only a few experts noticed - a severe lack of clean drinking water," writes Joseph Treaster, editor of the University of Miami's Internet magazine on global water issues and the environment, in a Miami Herald opinion piece that examines the interconnectedness between water and health problems in Haiti, as well as other countries around the world.

29 Jan 2010

Benefit Advocates provides healthcare benefits advocacy services for InterFlex Group

Benefit Advocates Inc. is providing comprehensive healthcare benefits advocacy services for InterFlex Group, a flexible packaging company with facilities in North America, the United Kingdom and Brazil.

29 Jan 2010

Pelosi says House could pass Senate bill under two-track approach

"Laying out a possible path to approving healthcare legislation, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said Wednesday that the House should pass the Senate's version and then use a process known as 'budget reconciliation' to make the changes some lawmakers are demanding," The Los Angeles Times reports.

29 Jan 2010

WellPoint's profits are up; CEO says premiums would rise under health overhaul

WellPoint's profits are up in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, CEO Angela Braly says premiums would rise under the Democrats' plans to require insurers to cover all Americans.

29 Jan 2010

DPW announces closure of Allentown State Hospital to improve mental health service delivery system

Acting Secretary of Public Welfare Harriet Dichter today announced plans to close Allentown State Hospital in Lehigh County by Dec. 31.

29 Jan 2010

Groups - including Catholic Bishops - press Democrats to finish health reform

CQ Politics: "Proponents of a comprehensive health care overhaul are pressing congressional Democrats to finish the measure ... Leaders of several interest groups said at a news conference Wednesday that the House should clear the Senate-passed health care bill for President Obama's signature" (1/27).

29 Jan 2010

Pelosi discusses plan to move ahead with reform

The Boston Globe: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "told reporters this morning that the House is working on two tracks to pursue health reform. She said she hopes to announce soon a series of smaller health care bills, such as removing the antitrust exemption for insurance companies, that could pass relatively quickly." Pelosi described the current thinking as being that both chambers "would pass a series of agreed-upon changes to the Senate bill under reconciliation, and then the House would pass the Senate bill itself."

29 Jan 2010

One in five nursing homes receive poor quality ratings, analysis finds

USA Today: "One in five of the nation's 15,700 nursing homes have consistently received poor ratings for overall quality, a USA Today analysis of new government data finds. More than a quarter-million patients live in homes given another set of low scores within the past year, according to data released today by Medicare, which first released the star ratings of the nation's nursing homes in late 2008.

29 Jan 2010

State budget news from Kansas, Massachusetts and Idaho

Kansas Health Institute reports that the recession is crippling Kansas' safety-net system. "The Kansas unemployment insurance system is virtually broke at a time when Department of Labor officials say they need about $15 million a week to pay benefits to out-of-work Kansans.

29 Jan 2010

Study shows doctors cut back their workload for fear of malpractice lawsuits

A new study shows that the number of hours physicians spend on the job each week is influenced by the fear of malpractice lawsuits.

29 Jan 2010

Obama appeals for health reform despite recent setbacks

The New York Times reports that "after spending 2009 emphasizing that a health care overhaul was his top domestic priority, Mr. Obama gave it much less prominence in his [State of the Union] address. He did not mention it until more than half an hour in — a sign of how imperiled the bill has become."

29 Jan 2010

Increased cost sharing may hurt seniors' health care

Cost sharing and increased co-pays, even if it's just a few dollars, can lead seniors to put off visits to the doctor and result in increased hospital admissions and longer hospital stays, according to a new study.

28 Jan 2010

Mcdonnell says Democratic agenda, including health care effort, is too expensive

In his response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said the nation cannot afford the Democratic agenda, including health care, The Associated Press/Wall Street Journal reports.

28 Jan 2010

Lawmakers prod White House to release health reform deal documents

A group of Republicans and Rep. Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who chairs the Energy and Commerce committee, are prodding the White House to release documents detailing agreements cut with industry groups in exchange for their support for health reform, The Christian Science Monitor reports. "Those agreements - never released in any detail - set markers for Congress's work on healthcare, which many lawmakers felt bound to respect." Michael Burgess, R-Texas, one of the committee members seeking the documents, speculates, "Was this a payoff to the insurance industry?"

28 Jan 2010

Federal panel awards almost $500 million to La. to replace New Orleans Charity Hospital

Ending one of the longest-running disputes left by Hurricane Katrina, a federal arbitration panel ruled Wednesday that Louisiana would receive $474.8 million — nearly all it had requested — to pay for the replacement of Charity Hospital in New Orleans, which has been closed since the storm.

28 Jan 2010

Texas Tribune: Will local docs overcome obstacles to go paperless?

American hospitals have lots of reasons to go digital, as well as a handful of motives to stick with paper.

28 Jan 2010

AAOS, SOMOS, and OTA host EWI symposium on improving patient care for wounded warriors

Since the beginning of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, there have been nearly 36,000 battle- injured warriors, of which approximately 82 percent suffer extremity trauma. Many of these injuries are complicated by the effects of improvised explosive devices which cause injury patterns distinct from civilian trauma. Traditional wound-management guidelines simply fall short.

28 Jan 2010

Zero LWOT metric appeared on the hospital dashboard at United Hospital Center

The week of Christmas left no one turned away from the Emergency Department at United Hospital Center in Clarksburg, West Virginia. For the first time in years, a zero LWOT (Left Without Treatment) metric appeared on the hospital dashboard.

28 Jan 2010

Christiana Care Health System introduces COPE technology for common diagnoses

Christiana Care Health System is taking a giant leap forward toward a comprehensive Electronic Health Record with the launch of Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE), technology that makes it easier, more efficient and safer for doctors to order tests and medications.

28 Jan 2010