Health News E-Clips

An electronic healthcare news link service provided by UHA,

Utah Hospitals and Health Systems Association

 

 

Friday, February 19, 2010

 

Utah Healthcare Headlines

Better revenues, legal snag could save Medicaid coverage for Utah kids, women (Salt Lake Tribune, February 17, 2010) A legal hiccup could derail a legislative proposal to scale back Medicaid, sparing health coverage for up to 4,000 seriously ill and injured children and pregnant women in Utah.

·         Advocates: Save Medicaid coverage for women, kids (Salt Lake Tribune, February 18, 2010) Advocates for the poor hope better-than-feared state revenue projections will free lawmakers to spare Medicaid coverage for up to 4,000 seriously ill and injured children and pregnant women in Utah.

·         Utah Legislature: Medicaid advocates speaking up (Deseret News, February 18, 2010) A mom who said her son would have literally never been put back together without Medicaid called on lawmakers Wednesday not to impose pending cuts in the state/federal insurance plan.

 

Morgan County is Utah's healthiest; Carbon is worst (Salt Lake Tribune, February 17, 2010) According to a new report, Utah's healthiest counties are places where residents take responsibility for their health -- they smoke less and exercise more. They are also places where more people are employed, insured and educated.

 

State-based health reform wins House approval (Salt Lake Tribune, February 17, 2010) State health reform got a boost Tuesday with House passage of a fix-it bill to improve the Utah Health Exchange, an online tool for purchasing health insurance.

 

Utah House panel advances bill targeting federal health care reform (Salt Lake Tribune, February 17, 2010) Another states' rights bill targeting federal health reform won committee approval Tuesday en-route to the full Senate.

 

Lawmakers reject bill loosening child booster seat rules (Salt Lake Tribune, February 18, 2010) Utah lawmakers on Wednesday rejected a proposal to loosen the requirements for using safety seats for children riding in vehicles.

 

Kids need second H1N1 dose (Salt Lake Tribune, February 18, 2010) The Salt Lake Valley Health Department is starting to call parents to remind them to get their young children a second dose of the H1N1 vaccine.

 

Fewer women in Utah getting mammograms (Deseret News, February 19, 2010) Last fall's widely-publicized recommendation that women postpone mammograms until age 50, combined with a bad economy, are likely behind a marked drop in the number of Utah women who are being screened.

 

 

National Healthcare Headlines

Just Say No to the Health-Care Summit  (Opinion, Wall Street Journal, February 17, 2010) Republicans are dithering over whether to accept President Obama's invitation to a Feb. 25 health-care summit.

·         Obama’s health care challenge (Op Ed, Boston Globe, February 17, 2010) If politics were the Olympics, next Thursday’s bipartisan health care summit would be the can’t-miss prime-time event. (Registration required)

·         Do We Really Want the Status Quo on Health Care? (Op Ed, New York Times, February 18, 2010) If you found a suspicious lump in your neck, you’d never put off dealing with it with the excuse: This is the loveliest neck in the world, and I don’t want to tinker with it. (Registration required)

·         Realign health care system (Op Ed, Boston Globe, February 18, 2010) With the president and Congress still searching for ways to forge a health care reform bill, here’s hoping that a broader conversation can begin on realigning the system to focus on improved clinical outcomes and greater efficiencies. (Registration required)

·         Obama to Offer Health Bill to Ease Impasse as Bipartisan Meeting Approaches (New York Times, February 19, 2010) President Obama will put forward comprehensive health care legislation intended to bridge differences between Senate and House Democrats ahead of a summit meeting with Republicans next week, senior administration officials and Congressional aides said Thursday. (Registration required)

·         Reviving the Health-Care Debate (Opinion, Wall Street Journal, February 19, 2010) With the health-reform juggernaut slowed to a crawl in Congress, and Democrats and Republicans meeting to search for common ground, this is an opportune time to re-examine the cause of dysfunction in our system.

 

The WellPoint Mugging (Wall Street Journal, February 18, 2010) Democrats and their media allies have found a new insurance piñata: WellPoint and its recent health-premium price increases in California. This spat deserves more attention, because its real lesson is what will happen to health insurance costs around the country if ObamaCare passes.

·         California Death Spiral (Op Ed, New York Times, February 19, 2010) Health insurance premiums are surging — and conservatives fear that the spectacle will reinvigorate the push for reform. (Registration required)

·         The Lesson of Anthem Blue Cross (Editorial New York Times, February 19, 2010) Clients were understandably furious when Anthem Blue Cross, the largest for-profit health insurer in California, announced huge rate increases for people who buy their own insurance: an average increase of 25 percent, and a 35 percent to 39 percent rise for a quarter of the purchasers. (Registration required)

 

HHS warns of double-digit spike in health premiums (Deseret News, February 18, 2010) Eye-popping health insurance premium increases of up to 39 percent are not an exception but a worrisome sign of the times, the Obama administration said in a report Thursday.

·         Report Takes Aim at Rising Health-Insurance Premiums (Wall Street Journal, February 18, 2010) The Department of Health and Human Services took aim Thursday at health insurers for what it characterized as "massive increases" in insurance premiums, highlighting one company's 39% premium increase for an individual plan in California.

·         Fight Over Health-Care Premiums Heats Up (Wall Street Journal, February 19, 2010) A firestorm between the Obama administration and health insurers escalated Thursday, as the Department of Health and Human Services pointed to double-digit price increases or attempted increases in six states to make the case for overhauling the health-care system.

·         Our view on medical insurance: Soaring premiums reflect unsustainable health system (Editorial, USA Today, February 19, 2010) It feels so right to be angry at health insurance companies. Insurers deny coverage to people who need it, cancel policies for flimsy reasons when people get sick, and now they've enraged customers in California and other states by proposing to jack up some premiums by almost 40%. Are they kidding?

 

Medicaid enrollment rises nationwide, analysis finds (Washington Post, February 19, 2010) The recession has fueled the greatest influx of Americans onto Medicaid since the earliest days of the public insurance program for the poor, according to new findings that show caseloads have surged in every state. (Registration required)

·         States Consider Medicaid Cuts as Use Grows (New York Times, February 19, 2010) Facing relentless fiscal pressure and exploding demand for government health care, virtually every state is making or considering substantial cuts in Medicaid, even as Democrats push to add 15 million people to the rolls. (Registration required)

 

Health Care Experts Must Face What Politicians Won’t (New York Times, February 19, 2010) Austan Goolsbee, a wiry and droll economic adviser to President Obama, was addressing a private Chicago dinner last week when he entered the Death Valley of American politics: health care. (Registration required)

 

Health industry's political giving rose 14% in '09 (USA Today, February 17, 2010) Pharmacists, optometrists and groups representing an array of medical specialists boosted their political giving in 2009, as Congress worked on health care legislation that would dramatically reshape their industry, a review of new campaign-finance reports shows.

 

Report compares health county-by-county (USA Today, February 17, 2010) For the first time, a new report reveals how counties across America stack up when it comes to health.

 

Technology, medical tests 'changing the face of health care' (USA Today, February 18, 2010) A boom in medical technology over the past decade or two has led to a surge in certain medical tests and increased prescription drug use, say authors of a report that provides a snapshot of Americans' health today.

 

More children have chronic diseases; study cites obesity (USA Today, February 17, 2010) The rate of chronic disease among children has doubled in the past two decades: More than half of children ages 8 to 14 have had a long-term health problem at some point, such as obesity, asthma, a learning disability or other ailment, a study shows.

 

H1N1 flu has hit kids with neuromuscular disorders especially hard (USA Today, February 18, 2010) Despite his cerebral palsy, Derek Collette never lagged very far behind.

·         When swine flu pandemic hits home (USA Today, February 18, 2010) Joan Bishop's thoughts trend toward disaster. Earthquakes, hurricanes, "dirty bombs," weapons of mass destruction, killer pandemics — she has studied them all.

·         Marketing used to push vaccine, fight swine flu 'fatigue' (USA Today, February 19, 2010) Marco Torres stood on a busy road and waved an oversized yellow arrow with an unconventional message for a street marketing campaign: "FREE TODAY: H1N1 Flu Shots for All."

 

Aspirin may help prevent return of breast cancer (USA Today, February 17, 2010) Breast cancer survivors who took aspirin after completing treatment were half as likely to die or have their tumors spread around the body compared with survivors who didn't take aspirin, a long-running study of 4,164 nurses showed.

·         Aspirin Found to Aid Cancer Patients (Wall Street Journal, February 17, 2010) Breast-cancer patients who take aspirin daily may cut their risk of dying of the disease by 50%, according to a study published Tuesday.

 

Studies Show Gardasil Could Help Older Women, Gay Men, Merck Says (Wall Street Journal, February 17, 2010) Merck & Co. said two recent studies of its cervical-cancer vaccine Gardasil showed it could help older women and gay men.

 

Antibody for MS shows promise (Salt Lake Tribune, February 17, 2010) Multiple sclerosis patients who combine standard treatment with doses of the antibody daclizumab might develop fewer new or enlarged brain lesions than if they use the standard treatment alone, according to a new study.

 

Technology, medical tests 'changing the face of health care' (USA Today, February 19, 2010) A boom in medical technology over the past decade or two has led to a surge in certain medical tests and increased prescription drug use, say authors of a report that provides a snapshot of Americans' health today.

 

Wider testing curbs some genetic diseases (Salt Lake Tribune, February 17, 2010) Some of mankind's most devastating inherited diseases appear to be declining, and a few have nearly disappeared, because more people are using genetic testing to decide whether to have children.

 

New Test Genetically Fingerprints Tumors (Wall Street Journal, February 19, 2010) In a fresh advance for the burgeoning field of personalized medicine, researchers have developed a blood test based on the DNA of tumors that could help tailor treatment for individual cancer patients.

 

FDA issues warning on 4 widely-used asthma drugs (Deseret News, February 18, 2010) The government is taking steps to curb use of some long-acting asthma drugs used by millions, issuing safety restrictions Thursday to lower a life-threatening risk that asthma could worsen suddenly. Also found in USA Today, February 19, 2010.

 

Novartis to Clear Up Maalox Confusion (Wall Street Journal, February 18, 2010) Novartis AG said it will stop selling medicines with different active ingredients under the same Maalox brand name after the Food and Drug Administration warned about potentially harmful consumer confusion.

 

Stay out of the bathroom (Washington Post, February 18, 2010) For nosy guests, a medicine cabinet is the holy grail of snooping. But some experts advise not storing medicine there. (Registration required)

 

Hospice care: A new American way of death? (Deseret News, February 19, 2010) The elderly man, when he was young and strong, had been a photographer. He told Jerry Peay about it.