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British First Lady highlights maternal mortality worldwide

Sarah Brown, wife of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and head of the Maternal Mortality Campaign, highlighted global maternal mortality at the Royal College of Midwives annual conference on Friday, the U.K. Press Association reports.

30 Nov 2009

AP examines implementation of China's plan to rebuild health system

The Associated Press tracks the progress in rebuilding the health system in China, eight months after the government launched a three-year $124-billion health care program.

30 Nov 2009

Economists have mixed views on Senate health bill's cost controls

With the public fretting about rising health costs and deepening federal budget deficits, White House officials, including budget director Peter Orszag, were quick last week to trumpet the optimism of some economists who said the Senate's version of health reform would help control costs, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

30 Nov 2009

Also in Global Health news: 'Positive deviance' approach to health; child malnutrition in Madagascar; Somalia's health system; weak harvests in West Africa; improving health equity

The Boston Globe examines "'positive deviance,' an approach to behavioral and social change. Instead of imposing solutions from without, the method identifies outliers in a community who, despite having no special advantages, are doing exceptionally well. By respecting local ingenuity, proponents say, the approach galvanizes community members and is often more effective and sustainable than imported blueprints."

30 Nov 2009

South Florida Medicare fraud offers lesson for national health care reform

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that leaders in Washington are studying South Florida and its highest-in-the-nation rate of Medicare fraud for "lessons on how to stem Medicare fraud to help pay for a health care overhaul."

30 Nov 2009

Senate Democrats face rocky road on the way to the health reform finish line

"The 60 votes aren't there any more," The Associated Press reports: "With the Senate set to begin debate Monday on health care overhaul, the all-hands-on-deck Democratic coalition that allowed the bill to advance is fracturing already. Yet majority Democrats will need 60 votes again to finish."

30 Nov 2009

Massachusetts may require colleges to insure students; Hawaii plans to opt out of health overhaul

News outlets report on a proposal in Massachusetts to require colleges and universities to insure students, an insurer in Massachusetts that is expected to try to alter the "fee for service" model and a plan in Hawaii to opt out of the national health care overhaul.

30 Nov 2009

The Senate health bill: Seven things you didn't know were in it

Kaiser Health News staff writers Mary Agnes Carey, Phil Galewitz and Laurie McGinley team up to look inside the Senate's pending health overhaul legislation. "Pay attention: The "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" -- better known as the Senate health care overhaul bill - is chock full of interesting but little publicized provisions affecting consumers.

30 Nov 2009

Details of the policies inside the Senate's health overhaul bill

Hot-button provisions in the Senate health Bill, such as the public option, cost controls and subsidies to expand coverage continue to get a lot of attention, while some interesting details have gone with little notice.

30 Nov 2009

Medical identity theft is on the rise

"Medical identity theft is on the rise and expected to worsen," The Wall Street Journal reports. "The problem has grown during the recession as more uninsured people use the coverage of a friend, relative or even a stranger to get care. Of particular concern is the fact that most of the fraud is committed by people who pay medical workers for patients' information."

30 Nov 2009

Today's selection of opinions and editorials

As things stand, it's a wonder that so many people are fighting so much over something so toothless (11/30).

30 Nov 2009

Europe may offer lessons for health care rationing debate

Fears about rationing are a hot-button issue in the health care debate, but some health experts argue that the U.S. system already faces rationing. Others point out that the U.S. may look to Europe for examples of how private-market systems can cost less without raising concerns of rationing care.

30 Nov 2009

Pharmacists could play important role in reform

Pharmacists may play an important role in the health care system by filling in health care gaps and advising patients, according to a series of articles in The Los Angeles Times, which reports on one clinical pharmacist Steven Chen and the "Patient Safety and Clinical Pharmacy Services Collaborative, a national project under the Health Resources and Services Administration that is working to integrate clinical pharmacy services into the care of patients with chronic diseases.

30 Nov 2009

Medicare prescription drug plan premiums to average 11 percent rise in 2010

Premiums for Medicare Part D plans will rise an average of 11 percent next year, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. The cost for all Medicare prescription plans has increased 50 percent nationally since 2006.

30 Nov 2009

Law seeks to improve female veterans' health care

The [Tacoma, Wash.] News-Tribune reports that "elected officials worry that women face barriers to veterans benefits, especially health care. 'Once they get in, they see progress,' Sen. Patty Murray told The News Tribune in a phone interview last week. 'But the barriers they face now mean they don't always get the care they need.'

30 Nov 2009

Primers on health reform and the legislative process

Some news outlets offer primers on the proposed health care overhaul.

30 Nov 2009

Exclusion of illegal immigrants will leave many Californians out of health insurance system

"No matter what health care bill emerges from Congress, roughly one in six uninsured Californians will be excluded because they are not legal residents," Mercury News/California News Service reports.

30 Nov 2009

Top Maryland hospitals worry about effects of health reform

Leaders at Maryland's top hospitals worry about efforts to cut hospital costs in the health care reform proposals.

30 Nov 2009

COBRA subsidy for many ends today, laid-off workers face bigger bills

As part of February's economic stimulus package, the federal government began subsidizing insurance premiums for millions of recently unemployed workers - such as Paul and Kate Carroll, whose story is highlighted in the Sacramento Bee. But for many people, the subsidies end Monday, leaving the laid-off workers to pay the full cost of insurance plans offered by their former employers if they wish to keep the coverage, the Bee reports.

30 Nov 2009

Acsys Interactive's recommendations to the FDA on social media in the healthcare industry

At the invitation of the Food and Drug Administration, Stan Valencis, President of Acsys Interactive, recently presented a series of recommendations to help shape the government's policy towards the promotion of prescription drugs, biologics and medical devices using the Internet and social media tools. As a leader in providing digital marketing and interactive strategies to healthcare systems, hospitals, device manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies, Acsys Interactive was selected by the FDA to provide its uniquely qualified perspective and experience.

30 Nov 2009