Swine Flu Shots May Be Too Little, Too Late to Halt Outbreaks
from Bloomberg
 Swine flu vaccines under development by drugmakers may not provide immunity until the last week of November, too late to hold off outbreaks triggered by infected students returning to schools in the U.S. and Europe. Just 45 million of 195 million doses ordered for the U.S. will be delivered by mid-October, said health officials who lowered their estimates.
More 
Backlash Grows on Obama's Health Reform
from Financial Times
In a letter to Kathleen Sibelius, the secretary for health and human services, 60 Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives warned that they would vote against healthcare reform if it excluded a public insurance option that would provide a state-run alternative to private insurance plans for low-income people. That would leave Obama needing 22 Republican votes in the lower chamber – a very tall order.
More
Illegal Immigration Enters the Health-Care Debate
from The Wall Street Journal
A health clinic in this blue-collar city north of Oakland, Calif., partly funded by the county, is saving local hospitals thousands of dollars in emergency-room visits by treating uninsured patients who suffer only non-urgent ailments. A watchdog group is now calling on county officials to cut funding for clinic patients who can't prove they are in the U.S. legally, a debate certain to surface in the national health-care overhaul.
More
Public Option Out, Co-op In?
from HFMA News
The White House has signaled that it may willing to drop the public option from its healthcare reform agenda, according to news reports from The New York Times and The Washington Post. The public option has been described as a government-backed plan available to consumers through a health exchange where people could buy insurance, public or private, that best fits their needs. Advocates envision it as a way to provide affordable insurance to the uninsured and drive down the cost of private insurance through competition. Critics contend it would be akin to a government takeover of healthcare and would undercut the private insurance market.
More
Interactive Asthma Education Program Reduces Need for Emergency Care and Steroid Use in Children
from Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News
Education on asthma management in children delivered in small, interactive groups improved asthma outcomes and the overall care of children with asthma, found researchers in a study in CMAJ. Children who participated in the interactive education program were 38 percent less likely to require emergency care and required fewer courses of oral corticosteroids compared with the children who did not participate in the program.
More
Seniors Defend Medicare Plan Obama Calls “Wasteful”
from USAToday
One of the largest spending cuts Congress could rely on to pay for an overhaul of the nation's healthcare system comes from a Medicare program President Obama has called a "wasteful" subsidy for the health insurance industry.
More
Join us for our next webinar!
Critical Access Hospitals: Past, Present and Future
August 20, 2009 at 2:00 PM EDT, 1:00 PM CDT, 12:00 PM MDT, 11:00 AM PDT
This presentation will include a discussion of the characteristics of Critical Access Hospitals and how they contribute to rural America's Emergency Medicine system. More information & register.
|
Ibuprofen is Best for Kids with Broken Arms
from The Associated Press
Kids with a broken arm do better on a simple over-the-counter painkiller than on a more powerful prescription combination that includes a narcotic, a surprising study finds. It tested ibuprofen, sold as Advil, Motrin and other brands, against acetaminophen plus codeine — a combo called Tylenol No. 3 that is also sold in generic form.
More
Making the Business Case for Electronic Swipe Cards
from HealthLeadersMedia
Dr. Leonard Wilkerson of United Health Care estimates electronic swipe cards could save providers more than $1 billion a year.
More
|
|
