|
|
Archive of Health Care on Monday June 29, 2009
GA: Georgia to overhaul health and social service agencies
For years, Georgia's health and social service agencies have lurched from crisis to crisis. People wait months, if not years, for something as simple as a copy of their birth certificate. Read More
KY: Ky. schools' healthy example could shape a national policy
As Congress moves to reauthorize childhood nutrition programs this summer, it is again taking up the issue of whether sugary sodas, chips and candy should be allowed in schools. Read More
Tracking the recession: Budget deadline looms
Unlike the federal government, states have to balance their budgets. But several states still have not completed spending plans for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Read More
FL: New state laws take effect July 1
On July 1, a yearly ritual takes place in Florida: a crop of new laws passed by legislators and signed by the governor takes effect. Read More
IA: Several Iowa hospitals accused of irregularities
Several Iowa hospitals, including one at the center of a controversy involving the shooting death of Parkersburg football coach Ed Thomas, have been accused in recent years of discharging psychiatric patients before they were stabilized. Read More
IL: $3.5 million cut could cost $2 billion
It's hard to get attention for your planning agency's budget problems when services for the poor are in trouble. Someone in a wheelchair in need of nursing help is a more sympathetic figure than an urban planner with a blueprint. Read More
LA: Medicaid under review
Private health-care providers who treat Louisiana's poor are facing a $180 million cut in the government health insurance program that pays them. Read More
MA: Gov. Deval Patrick sides with dental benefits, immigrant coverage
Gov. Deval Patrick will agree to the Legislature's plan to preserve $100 million worth of dental benefits for enrollees in MassHealth and Commonwealth Care, heavily subsidized programs that serve largely lower income residents, according to a person briefed on the governor's plans for dealing with the $27.4 billion state budget on this desk. Read More
MA: Gov. Deval Patrick eyes pricey solution to counterfeit cigarette tax stamps
Bay State consumers, already hard-pressed by a slumping economy, will be slapped with a 25 percent sales tax hike and nearly $1 billion in total tax increases Aug. 1, Gov. Deval Patrick said yesterday after signing a massive transportation reform bill. Read More
MA: Patrick set to keep healthcare for poor
Governor Deval Patrick plans to announce a spending proposal tomorrow that retains medical coverage for some 30,000 legal immigrants who are at risk of losing it, and will also agree to ensure dental coverage for another 700,000 of the state's poorest residents, administration officials said yesterday. Read More
MA: Local health inspectors feel strain
Massachusetts is recognized as a pioneer in public health. It was here, in 1799 in Boston, that the nation's first local board of health was created. But now the state's network of community health departments is stretched so thin that some are unable to provide important services, public health officials said. Read More
MO: Missouri governor signs health care taxes measure
Gov. Jay Nixon has signed legislation that levies a tax on several health care businesses. The new revenue will bring more federal Medicaid money to Missouri. Read More
MS: Budget session yielding progress
State lawmakers, trying to approve a budget before the new fiscal year begins Wednesday, advanced legislation Sunday that would head off increases in Mississippians' car-tag costs, hike taxes on cheaper cigarettes and set budgets for certain state agencies. Read More
MS: Miss. lawmakers engage in last-minute budget blitz
Mississippi lawmakers are playing a frantic game of beat the clock as they try to pass a nearly $6 billion state budget before the new fiscal year begins Wednesday. Read More
MT: Tribes keep eye on health care reform
Gordon Belcourt's grandfather used to say that when the United States slipped into the Great Depression, people living on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation didn't notice. Read More
NJ: Few expected to immediately use paid leave
Heralded as a victory for workers' rights and criticized as a potential drain on businesses, a law making New Jersey the second state in the nation to provide paid leave to care for new children or ailing relatives takes effect Wednesday. But the measure is not expected to dramatically alter the workplace right away, its champions and opponents agree. Read More
NV: Hospitals' losses rise
Clark County acute-care hospitals had their worst year on record in 2008, and the state's shaky economy and rising unemployment are expected to create more problems for uninsured people and the health community in the near future. Read More
NY: State to pay up to $10,000 for eggs used in research
As far as medical researchers know, no state ever has allowed taxpayer funds to pay women for donating their eggs for embryonic stem cell research. Read More
NY: State official under Pataki pleads guilty
Antonia C. Novello, the former United States surgeon general, pleaded guilty on Friday to a felony charge as part of a plea deal, admitting that she forced state employees to handle personal chores when she was the health commissioner of New York State. Read More
OK: Military funds to promote prosthetics in Oklahoma
Eight million dollars of a $10 million request was approved to create an Oklahoma City prosthetics technology center. Read More
OK: Oklahoma grant comes to rural ambulances' aid
Rural ambulance districts struggling with financial problems have a better shot at getting new first-time state money early next year. Read More
OR: Session marked a close call for human services
Human-services advocates scored a big win with the expansion of state health coverage to an additional 80,000 children. Read More
OR: House votes to require drug company gift disclosures
Drug companies would have to disclose their contributions to doctors and hospitals under a bill approved by the House this afternoon. Read More
RI: Consumers falling victim to bogus health-care cards
When the flier promising "affordable health care" was faxed to the Westerly nursing home where she worked, Joan Albright thought of her ex-husband, who had no insurance and hadn't seen a doctor in years. So she gave him the phone number to call. Read More
RI: Health care still free for R.I. lawmakers
State lawmakers spared their own free health-care packages — costing up to $17,986 apiece — from last week's round of budget cuts across state government and the municipal aid landscape. Read More
TX: Session will hit some where it hurts
Folks who watch their pennies when choosing smokeless tobacco, callers who like prepaid wireless plans and lobbyists and others who've found Capitol-area parking fines a bargain: Texas lawmakers left a bill for you the last time they left town. Read More
TX: Schieffer says he has vision to be Texas governor
FORT WORTH, Texas — He's the former Texas Rangers baseball team president who later was appointed as a U.S. ambassador. Now Tom Schieffer is traveling across the state, introducing himself to Texans as a Democratic candidate for governor. Read More
TX: Many want Gov. Perry to add to special session's agenda
The special work session for legislators beginning Wednesday is likely to be short, but not necessarily sweet. Advocates for unfinished business, ranging from expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program to lowering homeowners insurance, are disappointed the governor won't tackle what they see as pressing needs. Read More
UT: Medicaid changes Alzheimer's meds for new Utah patients
A popular drug to treat Alzheimer's will not be available to new Medicaid patients as of July 1. Read More
UT: Nearly 90 major medical mistakes logged at Utah hospitals in 2008
One full-term infant died. Four healthy patients passed away unexpectedly after surgery. Another patient committed suicide. And dozens more left hospitals sick not from their illness but from their stay: They fell down, were given the wrong drug, became infected from surgical equipment left inside their bodies. Read More
VT: Vermont drug law gains national attention
Among all the laws the Vermont Legislature passed this year, one that has attracted almost as much national attention as the state's gay marriage bill is a new drug marketing disclosure measure. Read More
WA: Medical pot a challenge for law enforcement
A thief kicked in his door, ransacked his kitchen and stole his eight-ounce marijuana stash. So the victim called police. Read More
WA: State to decide hospital row
Olympia's two hospitals are locked in a dispute over whether Capital Medical Center should be able to perform a costly elective heart procedure. Read More
Ga. hotline aims to cut mental health costs
Read More
New section follows stimulus spending
Read More
Recession ushers in more tobacco taxes
In a double-whammy for smokers, the federal government and seven states raised taxes on cigarettes this year. But the new taxes plus President Obama's vow to sign a bill imposing sweeping regulation of the tobacco industry threaten to shrink cigarette sales — and revenues for state coffers. Read More |
Powered by