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Boston Globe examines influence religious conservatives might have on USAID

The Boston Globe as part of a series examined the amount of influence religious conservatives might have on grants administered by USAID, including HIV prevention grants for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

16 Oct 2006

HIV prevalence in Kenya has declined

HIV prevalence in Kenya has declined to 5.9% this year from 6.1% last year, and HIV prevalence among women in the country is 7.7%, compared with 4% among men, according to statistics released Wednesday by Kenya's National Aids Control Council, the East African Standard/AllAfrica.com reports.

16 Oct 2006

Solutions to fight spread of HIV in Vietnam

Members of a World Health Organization mission to Vietnam on Tuesday highlighted potential measures to fight the spread of HIV in the country, Xinhua/People's Daily reports (Xinhua/People's Daily, 10/11).

16 Oct 2006

270,000 low-income Medicare beneficiaries in California will be assigned new prescription drug plans

About 270,000 low-income elderly and disabled Californians will automatically be assigned to new Medicare prescription drug plans Jan. 1, 2007, because four plans will no longer be available next year, the Los Angeles Times reports.

16 Oct 2006

Guaranteeing insurance for all kids should be a national priority

...with a national solution and a broad funding source," columnist Ronald Brownstein writes in a Los Angeles Times opinion piece.

16 Oct 2006

Group Health will reduce premiums for Washington State-subsidized health plan for low-income residents

Group Health Cooperative recently announced it would lower its monthly premiums for Washington's state-subsidized health plan for low-income working residents by as much as 80% beginning Jan. 1, 2007, the Seattle Times reports.

16 Oct 2006

Many health care organizations have employee retention issues

Sixty-nine percent of health care organizations report having moderate to great trouble retaining employees with critical skills, compared with 43% of organizations across all industries, according to a report released last Wednesday by Watson Wyatt Worldwide and the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration, the AP/Arizona Republic reports.

16 Oct 2006

Outpatient surgery centers 'poised to outnumber' general hospitals

The AP/Philadelphia Inquirer on Thursday examined how outpatient surgery centers are "poised to outnumber general hospitals, if they do not already."

16 Oct 2006

Chronic diseases largely ignored by policy makers

Chronic diseases are being overlooked worldwide even though they kill more people than any other type of illness, according to a panel on Thursday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, CQ HealthBeat reports.

16 Oct 2006

Increased oversight, other efforts have reduced improper Medicare payment claims by $1.3B

Improved oversight and other efforts by CMS have helped reduce the rate of improper Medicare reimbursements for fee-for-service claims from 5.2% in 2005 to 4.4% in 2006 for a savings of $1.3 billion, according to agency Administrator Mark McClellan, CQ HealthBeat reports.

16 Oct 2006

Few doctors have implemented, effectively use electronic health records

About one in four physicians use some type of electronic health records, while fewer than one in 10 use a comprehensive EHR system, according to a study that suggests "a technology frequently billed as a way to improve the quality and efficiency of care has yet to win widespread acceptance," the Washington Post reports.

16 Oct 2006

Virginia Supreme Court launches State mental health law review

Virginia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leroy Hassell last Thursday launched the Commission on Mental Health Reform, "the broadest review of the state's mental health laws in three decades" intended to produce an "omnibus mental health reform package" to present to the 2008 General Assembly, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.

16 Oct 2006

U.S. consumers' health care concerns

USA Today on Monday published three articles addressing U.S. consumers' health care concerns as part of a week-long series titled "Prescription for Change," which examines possible improvements to the U.S. health care system.

16 Oct 2006

Few candidates discuss health care in detail as part of campaigns

Health care "almost always gets mentioned in campaigns, but often not in detail," and it "is always somewhere on the list of serious voter concerns" but "almost never at the top," in part because of the complexity of the issue, the Baltimore Sun reports.

16 Oct 2006

Missouri tobacco tax proposal to appear on November ballot

The Missouri Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled unanimously that a proposed constitutional amendment to raise tobacco taxes should be placed on the Nov. 7 ballot, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

16 Oct 2006

McClellan touts lower projected cost of Medicare prescription drug benefit

Mark McClellan, who left his position as CMS administrator this weekend, said he believes his greatest accomplishment during his tenure was improving quality of care in Medicare, CQ HealthBeat reports (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 10/13).

16 Oct 2006

One-fourth of U.S. adults would purchase generic medications

About one-fourth of U.S. adults would purchase generic medications, rather than brand-name treatments, in all cases, according to a Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive poll released on last week, the Wall Street Journal reports.

16 Oct 2006

Cocaine addicts have an altered perception of reward

People addicted to cocaine have an impaired ability to perceive rewards and exercise control due to disruptions in the brain's reward and control circuits, according to a series of brain-mapping studies and neuropsychological tests conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory.

16 Oct 2006

Ohio wild bird samples undergo additional bird flu testing

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Department of the Interior (DOI) has announced a detection of H5 and N1 avian influenza subtypes in samples from apparently healthy wild Northern pintails in Ottawa County, Ohio, that were killed by a hunter.

16 Oct 2006

Updates on pandemic flu vaccine trials to be presented at 44th Annual IDSA meeting

Preliminary results from clinical trials testing two different pandemic flu vaccine approaches - one a prime-boost strategy using different subtypes of H5N1 vaccines, the other an H5N1 vaccine delivered into the skin (intradermal) rather than the muscle - will be presented at the 44th Annual Meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

16 Oct 2006