Healthcare News

RSS

Intracacies of doctors' fees difficult to unravel

"For the most part, doctor fees are a mystery. If people see a doctor who is part of their insurance network, they are responsible only for deductibles and co-payments, and the price the health insurer pays is often a secret," The New York Times reports. "And if people see a doctor outside their network, they usually have no idea what the charge will be - even though they are responsible for most of it - until the bill comes."

19 Aug 2009

Mullti-million dollar ad campaigns supporting health overhaul launched

Various advertising campaigns take to the airwaves. Among their messages are the moral imperative of reform and the importance of cooperation.

19 Aug 2009

Kaiser workers launch informational pickets at hospitals and clinics across California

Hundreds of SEIU-UHW health care workers will rally in front of Kaiser Permanente's Oakland Regional Office at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, August 20 before delivering a 10-day notice of informational pickets at hospitals and clinics across California to protest Kaiser's layoff plan.

19 Aug 2009

Polls: Americans less confident about their future health care, skeptical about reform proposals

"A monthly survey of consumer sentiment on health care issues shows that Americans' confidence in insurance coverage, affordability and access dropped more than 5 points in July, after having risen slightly in June," The Associated Press/CBS News reports.

19 Aug 2009

News outlets continue to explain how end-of-life care counseling works

NPR talks with Dr. David Casarett, associate professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania who started the palliative care service at the VA hospital in Philadelphia, about "the rhetoric around the end-of-life issues addressed in some of the proposed health care legislation" (Block, 8/18).

19 Aug 2009

It may be August, but lawmakers aren't taking a break from health reform rhetoric

The New York Times: "An aide to the (Senate Finance) Committee said Monday that (the six senators trying to forge bipartisanship on a health care reform bill) would hold a teleconference call this week. Senators Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and the committee chairman, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican, have talked many times during the recess, the aide said. But the call will mark the entire group's first discussion since the recess began" (Seelye, 8/18).

19 Aug 2009

Canadian Nurses Association applauds new CMA head

The Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) welcomes the appointment of Anne Doig as president of the Canadian Medical Association and applauds her call for action on introducing change to Canada's health-care system.

19 Aug 2009

Facing roadblocks, The White House hones message on health care reform

White House officials say President Obama will shift the health care reform debate in September to include more talk of a moral imperative to provide health insurance to all, The Wall Street Journal reports.

19 Aug 2009

House Democrats request insurers' financial records

"Dozens of the nation's largest insurance firms must decide whether to honor a request from House Democrats for detailed financial records, part of an investigation into executive compensation and other business practices in an industry that opposes President Barack Obama's health care proposals," The Associated Press reports.

19 Aug 2009

Hospitals rebounding from the economic recession

The development could spare patients the higher fees hospitals may otherwise have had to charge to keep their books balanced, the Dallas Morning News reports.

19 Aug 2009

Veterans deserve better than the Department of Veterans Affairs current advance care planning tool

Paul Malley, President of the national non-profit organization Aging with Dignity, said the nation's 24 million veterans deserve better than the Department of Veterans Affairs current advance care planning tool, "Your Life, Your Choices."

19 Aug 2009

70 percent of specialty doctors oppose health-care reform proposals

Chairman of the ASMD, Alfred O. Bonati, M.D., said that, "As a physician, the results of this poll are not surprising to me. Any doctor who has ever dealt with Medicare knows that government coverage severely limits our abilities to deliver care that best fits the needs of the patient and the patient's family. We know that government coverage does not allow for flexibility, creativity, or, sometimes, even compassion."

19 Aug 2009

Battle over proposal to disclose drug price deals

"Some Democratic lawmakers looking for ways to overhaul the nation's health-care system are targeting the companies that handle drug benefits for more than 210 million Americans, setting off a lobbying battle over how much pricing information the companies should disclose," The Wall Street Journal reports.

19 Aug 2009

Baucus: Finance negotiators 'on track' toward bipartisan health bill

MSNBC's First Read reports that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus released a statement earlier today saying that his panel "is still working on a bipartisan bill." According to MSNBC, Baucus said: "Bipartisan progress continues.

19 Aug 2009

U.S. Food and Drug Administration launches new Center for Tobacco Products

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today launched its new Center for Tobacco Products in an historic effort to curb the hundreds of thousands of deaths caused by those products each year.

19 Aug 2009

Canada's doctors send strong message to New Brunswick Government

At their General Council Meeting in Saskatoon today, Canada's doctors strongly supported the New Brunswick Medical Society's struggle against their government's violation of a duly ratified contract agreement.

19 Aug 2009

Cutting Medicare Advantage costs may be politically difficult

The Los Angeles Times reports: "President Obama, struggling to discredit bogus charges that his healthcare overhaul would create 'death panels,' soon could face another emotionally charged obstacle -- a plan to trim the federal subsidy for a program used by nearly a quarter of Medicare beneficiaries.

19 Aug 2009

Health care - what a mess!

With the pundits scaring the living crap out of Americans on both sides of the issue, it is understandable that we are confused, frustrated, concerned and scared of this new health care program being proposed by the Obama Administration.

19 Aug 2009

Obama misleads on abortion funding in health reform

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins released the following statement after President Obama said that it's a "fabrication" and "distraction" to say abortion funding is included in the health care reform plans.

19 Aug 2009

Newly appointed NIH director includes global health on priority list

Francis Collins, the newly appointed director of the NIH on Monday outlined his top five priorities for the U.S. research agency during a town hall meeting with NIH staff, Science's blog "Science Insider" reports. Collins emphasized the agency's commitment to "high-throughput technologies," "translational research," "health care reform," "global health" and "empower[ing] the biomedical research community," the blog writes (Kaiser, 8/17).

19 Aug 2009