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CalRHIO's statewide HIE system implemented in Orange County

The first site in CalRHIO's statewide health information exchange (HIE) system is live in Orange County at Coastal Communities Hospital. As a result of collaboration between CalRHIO and the local HIE effort, the Orange County Partnership Regional Health Information Organization (OCPRHIO), 23 hospital emergency departments over the next five months will have secure electronic access to critical medical information.

15 Oct 2009

Hoag Memorial Hospital implements PCTS' Amelior EDTracker software

Patient Care Technology Systems (PCTS), a subsidiary of Consulier Engineering, Inc., today announced that Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian has implemented the company's Amelior EDTracker® solution to automatically track patients in its 66,000-census emergency department.

15 Oct 2009

Required flu vaccines for New York health workers draws criticism

The New York Civil Liberties Union is criticizing a regulation that requires hundreds of thousands of state health workers to get both seasonal and swine flu vaccinations. Critics say it violates workers' right to decide their own medical treatment.

15 Oct 2009

Senate Finance bill protects some Medicare advantage patients

An amendment to the Senate Finance Committee bill, sponsored by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., would allow most Medicare Advantage patients in southern Florida to keep their current benefits.

15 Oct 2009

Opinions: Pragmatic vs. moral approach to health care access; Pres. Bush's PEPFAR

"[T]he global campaign to equalise access to healthcare has had a surprising result: it has made global healthcare more unequal," William Easterly, a professor of economics at New York University and co-director of its Development Research Institute, writes in a Financial Times opinion piece.

15 Oct 2009

Unions run newspaper ad to critizice Finance Committee bill

Unions largely oppose the bill approved by the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday.

15 Oct 2009

Orthopedic device industry rattled by proposed tax

Kaiser Health News staff writer Julie Appleby, in partnership with USA Today, explores the impact health reform proposals could have on one part of the orthopedic device industry.

15 Oct 2009

Federal money for COBRA has helped many but may soon end

Keeping health care after being laid off from a job is a serious concern for many people. COBRA is a health insurance program that allows people to temporarily continue their coverage, although the worker must pick up the cost of the plan. "That price, however, is one that all but a fraction of laid-off workers find much too high.

15 Oct 2009

Press Ganey Associates collaborates with HMA to improve patient care

Press Ganey Associates, Inc. today announced a broad partnership with Health Management Associates, Inc. to help measure and improve satisfaction and engagement among patients, employees, and physicians. The company started working with HMA on October 1, 2009.

15 Oct 2009

Insurers' report backlash: Unified Dems, angry White House, dissenting experts

The insurance industry's study on the effects of health reform has incensed Democrats, given reformers a rallying point and inspired a wave of zippy one-liners in news reports.

15 Oct 2009

Medicaid enrollments jump but states are trying to cut costs

Several states are noting significant increases in Medicaid enrollment, even as they look to find ways to create savings in the programs.

15 Oct 2009

AAPA welcomes Senate Finance Committee's vote to approve the America's Healthy Future Act

The American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA), representing 75,000 clinically practicing physician assistants (PAs) in the United States, applauds the Senate Finance Committee's vote to approve the America's Healthy Future Act. AAPA is committed to seeking health care reform legislation that provides the American people with access to quality, affordable, cost-effective health care.

15 Oct 2009

Reid: Repeal "damaging" antitrust exemptions for insurers

Leading Senate Democrats moved today to repeal a law protecting insurers from antitrust taboos in the wake of an industry-sponsored report that condemned a key reform proposal, the New York Times reports. Testifying before the Judiciary Committee as a witness, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said, "Providing an exemption for insurance companies to antitrust laws has been anticompetitive and damaging to the American economy."

15 Oct 2009

Interest groups campaign against proposed health taxes

"Insurance companies, unions, medical device makers and others in the health care industry are furiously lobbying lawmakers to shift burdens onto someone else — anyone else — before they find themselves saddled with billions of dollars in taxes under new health care legislation," The Associated Press reports.

15 Oct 2009

Institute of Medicine elects two new members from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Michael Kastan, M.D., Ph.D., and Mary Relling, Pharm.D., of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, have been elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), a prestigious branch of the National Academy of Sciences.

15 Oct 2009

New food reports highlight growing global hunger

Reforms are required to curb global hunger, which was already "growing" before the worldwide financial downturn, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) said in a report, released in Rome, ahead of World Food Day on Friday, the BBC reports (10/14).

15 Oct 2009

House bill would extend parents' coverage for young adults

In a new development in the House health bill, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has agreed to insert language allowing young adults to stay on their parents' insurance plan through the age of 26.

15 Oct 2009

News outlets examine efforts to control TB in South Africa

Agence France-Presse examines the ongoing fight to control the spread of tuberculosis in South Africa. "The World Health Organisation estimates almost one percent or 461,000 South Africans develop TB annually, with government figures showing that the disease was the country's leading natural cause of death in 2006," the news service writes.

15 Oct 2009

Also in Global Health News: 'Delivering as one'; syringe vending machine; hospital preparedness

Rwanda will host a three-day U.N. meeting next week to discuss ways to improve the U.N.'s ability to "provide development assistance in a more coordinated way," the New Times/allAfrica.com reports. "Rwanda is one of the 8 pilot countries implementing the U.N. 'Delivering as One' initiative, as part of the body's reform process," the publication writes. Participants in the meeting will share their experiences and lessons learned from the program since its implementation in 2007 (Gathoni, 10/14).

15 Oct 2009

UCLA to establish a new Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Center

The UCLA School of Public Health has received a major grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to establish a center that will facilitate research to strengthen the ability of federal, state and local public health agencies to prepare for, respond to and recover from natural and human-induced disasters, including terrorism.

15 Oct 2009