public health officials
Massachusetts opens door--a little--to retail clinic expansion
Seems like the Massachusetts Medical Society--or the AMA--has someone's ear. While state public health officials have opened the door to the emergence of retail clinics, their plans will also slow... Read more...
ALSO NOTED: Humana spends $360M for benefits provider; WellSpot plans 100 retail clinics; and much more...
> Humana acquired an Atlanta-based dental and vision benefits company for $360 million. The company, CompBenefits Corp., serves about 14,000 employer groups in 22 states. Read more...
Doctors protest low Gardasil reimbursements
While many public health officials are excited about the Gardasil's potential to prevent cervical cancer, doctors are increasingly refusing to offer it to patients--including the pediatricians and gynecologists who are its most likely prescribers. These doctors say that reimbursements for the expensive vaccine are not high enough to justify the stocking and administrative costs of carrying it. For example, some insurance companies are reimbursing doctors $122 per shot, or just $2 more …
... Read more...Prison hepatitis C poised to infect U.S.
According to public health experts, hepatitis C-positive convicts leaving prison could pose a huge threat to the general population over the next several years, making it one of the biggest upcoming health threats the system will face. Right now, only 2 percent of the general population is estimated to carry hep C, but roughly 40 percent of the 2.2 million U.S. prison population is project to be infected. This happens, largely, because disease is spread by high-risk behavior common in …
... Read more...OH infections top 1,000 per month
A new report by the Ohio Department of Health has given public health officials a new target to consider. The report, which focused on the state's 210 hospitals and 966 nursing homes, concluded that there were about 14,300 cases of Clostridium difficile infections last year in the state's healthcare facilities. Tracking this bug has become particularly important as the mortality rate from such infections has climbed. C. diff.-related deaths in Ohio have shot up 325 percent between the …
... Read more...MA seeks hospital infection disclosure
After studying the problem at length, officials with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) are planning to ask the state's hospitals to publicly disclose their inpatient infection rates. To kick off the effort, the state is spending $1 million researching the scope of the problem, hiring a panel of 50 experts to survey the state's hospitals as to their current infection rates and prevention strategies. By June the team, which has surveyed 73 hospitals so far, expects to …
... Read more...ALSO NOTED: UK doctor salaries boosted by P4P; NJ may expand MH benefits; and much more...
> U.K. general practitioners got a 30 percent annual salary boost this year, spurred by pay for performance incentives. Article
> A bill traveling through the New Jersey legislature would expand the mental health and substance abuse benefits state insurers must provide. Article
> A family has sued the …
... Read more...CDC focuses vaccination study on teens
The federal Centers for Disease Control is drawing fire for its decision to focus a $3 million immunization study on teenagers rather than children. Officials had planned to gather data on whether children in 22 large metros with historically low immunization rates had been getting all of the immunizations recommended by pediatricians. Instead, they have decided to focus on teens, who are being targeted by pharma companies for a number of new vaccines. Vaccines targeting adolescents …
... Read more...Vaccine makers predict no shortage next year
It looks as though there will be no repeat of the flu vaccine shortages of the past few years. Vaccine makers say they are on track to produce at least 100 million doses of flu vaccine in time for next year's flu season. That's far better than the 86 million doses that producers managed for the 2005-2006 season. The estimates came as vaccine manufacturers, public health officials and influenza experts met in Chicago for the National Influenza Vaccine Summit. Officials say they want to …
... Read more...Day likely to get Mass. Connector post
An official at Harvard University is likely to get a key post running day-to-day operations of the Massachusetts Health Insurance Connector Authority. Rosemarie Day, currently the chief of staff for the dean of the Kennedy School of Government, is "very likely" to be named to the post, according to sources. The Connector is charged with implementing Gov. Mitt Romney's ambitious plan to transform the state's insurance industry by mandating individual coverage. That may make the position …
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