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Fight erupts over health insurance rates for businesses employing more women

Kaiser Health News staff writer Jenny Gold reports on issues related to using gender to set rates for large businesses.

27 Oct 2009

Mobile Aspects to supply RFID inventory management systems for health care organizations

Mobile Aspects, a leader in RFID enabled clinical process improvement systems, announced today that Novation, the health care contracting services company for VHA Inc., the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC), and Provista, has awarded Mobile Aspects a three-year contract to supply radio frequency identification (RFID) inventory management systems to its member organizations.

27 Oct 2009

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center receives a $500,000 grant to construct cancer clinic in Africa

Building on the strengths of two institutions separated by nearly 9,000 miles over two continents - both renowned in their work in the fight against cancer - the United States Agency for International Development has awarded a $500,000 grant to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to aid in the construction of the first American cancer clinic and medical-training facility in Africa.

27 Oct 2009

Reid: Public option with 'opt-out' provision is the 'best way to move forward'

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said this afternoon that he supports a public plan with a provision that would allow states to "opt-out." Reid's announcement represents a major reversal from his previous hesitation about this mechanism and ensures that some form of a public option will be included in health-care legislation headed to the Senate floor. Recent debate has focused on the best way to devise the approach and which lawmakers might support it.

27 Oct 2009

Small businesses face higher premiums, push for access to 'exchanges'

"As Congress nears votes on legislation that would overhaul the health care system, many small businesses say they are facing the steepest rise in insurance premiums they have seen in recent years," the New York Times reports.

27 Oct 2009

Lack of optimal pain care delivery system costs more than $100 billion each year

A new Pain Medicine Position Paper published by leaders of the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM), reveals businesses lose $61 billion annually due to ineffective pain care and the lack of optimal pain care delivery.

27 Oct 2009

Humana Medicare Advantage plans for Senior Citizens Bureau members

Humana and The Senior Citizens Bureau (SCB) are collaborating to offer Humana Medicare Advantage plans to more than 500,000 SCB members.

27 Oct 2009

Unions worry about 'Cadillac' tax on expensive health insurance

"Unions representing thousands of teachers and state and local government workers are bracing for the worst if Congress adopts a proposed 'Cadillac' tax on health insurance," Newsday reports.

27 Oct 2009

Workers face touch insurance choices amid rising premiums

It's open-enrollment season, meaning large companies are offering workers a chance to change their health plans, but the choices are grim: The cost of premiums is rising even as benefits packages shrink, the Associated Press reports

27 Oct 2009

Reid to announce his support for public plan

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to announce at a 3:15 press conference today his support for inclusion of a public option in health care reform legislation.

27 Oct 2009

New discount prescription program for Wyoming residents

Officials have confirmed that a new statewide prescription assistance program, called Wyoming Rx Card, is being launched tomorrow. The program will provide free discount prescription drug cards to Wyoming residents.

27 Oct 2009

Opinions: Africa Food Aid; International Violence Against Women Act; brain drain

While the drought and starvation in the Horn of Africa are "ghastly to be sure," when "you see children on TV with distended bellies keening over their dying parents ... do them a favour. Sit on your hands," Sam Kiley, a former Africa bureau chief with the London Times, writes in a newspaper opinion piece.

27 Oct 2009

Romer sees health care reform as critical to ease deficit

Top White House advisor Christina Romer said that health reform would help to ease the deficit at a speech today. Reuters reports: "While some critics say Democrats' efforts to regulate the insurance sector should wait until the deficit is under control, they should instead see it 'as the most significant act we could take to tackle the deficit,' Romer said in speech to the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based think-tank" (Heavey, 10/26).

27 Oct 2009

Post-storm conditions in Philippines continue to threaten health

Filipinos are "struggling to live in flooded suburbs or crowded shelters one month after devastating rains began pounding the Philippines, and officials warn no quick fix is in sight," Agence France-Presse reports. According to the WHO, 1.43 million people, "mostly in and around Manila, continue to endure a dangerous existence living in flooded districts" (Morella, 10/26).

26 Oct 2009

Medicare fraud: One of the most profitable crimes in U.S.

Medicare "provides a rich and steady income stream for criminals who are constantly finding new ways to steal a sizable chunk of the half trillion dollars that are paid out each year in Medicare benefits," 60 Minutes reports. "In fact, Medicare fraud - estimated now to total about $60 billion a year - has become one of, if not the most profitable, crimes in America." Medicare fraud leaves little evidence: an FBI agent in South Florida said "the only visible evidence of the crimes are the thousands of tiny clinics and pharmacies that dot the low-rent strip malls.

26 Oct 2009

Cantor Fitzgerald teams up with Healthcare Interactive to introduce new healthcare software management tool

Cantor Insurance Group, a unit of Cantor Fitzgerald LP, has joined with Healthcare Interactive to introduce Cantor Health Interactive, a new healthcare software management tool to help businesses monitor and reduce their healthcare costs.

26 Oct 2009

Congressional hearing addresses International Violence Against Women Act

VOA News reports on the recent appeals by human rights advocates for the U.S. Congress to pass the International Violence Against Women Act, a bill that would fund "a five-year program to reduce violence in countries where the problem is most serious." Then Senator Joe Biden (D-Del.) first introduced the legislation in 2007.

26 Oct 2009

Observer examines calls for reworking health spending focus in Africa

The Observer examines the recent appeal by some health experts for an "overhaul of health spending in Africa," which, they say, focuses on HIV/AIDS and overlooks other deadly diseases, such as diarrhea.

26 Oct 2009

Report finds hundreds of billions of dollars of waste in U.S. healthcare system

The U.S. health care system wastes between $505 billion and $850 billion every year, according to a new report from Thomson Reuters, the parent company of the Reuters news service.

26 Oct 2009

Also in Global Health News: Ghana, Nigeria Global Fund grants; CDC Director on global health role; African Peacekeepers and HIV/AIDS

Stabroek News reports on the recent news that Guyana received a $10 million grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The "six-year programme aims at strengthening critical areas in the system such as Mental Health; the Nursing Programme; Management and Development Programme; Surveillance and Monitoring Programme and Management and Information systems," the newspaper writes (10/23).

26 Oct 2009