Americans' opinion of the healthcare proposals now before Congress is similar to public sentiment about the Clinton health reform initiatives in 1994, according to an analysis published online in the New England Journal of Medicine. Americans believe the healthcare system needs to be fixed and they like many of the ideas Democrats are proposing, the report found. But they believe the specific proposals taking shape would not benefit them personally, and they fear they could result in more expensive and lower-quality care.
Two state and city public health officials briefing Congress said they don't expect to have enough pandemic-flu vaccine to meet the needs of their high-priority population groups until well into December, and possibly not until January. The officials said that their predictions are a result of vaccine shortages throughout the fall but that they amount to little more than guesses. Federal health officials at the briefing refused to endorse the timetable, although they acknowledged that the current wave of H1N1 influenza may be mostly over by the time the vaccine is abundant, the Washington Post reports.
Chicago-based Rush University Medical Center is declaring the end of the first phase of a $1 billion campus renovation with the opening this month of its orthopedic building. The $75 million, 220,000-square-foot building is one of the largest orthopedics facilities in the Midwest and is a key component of the renovation project, according to the hospital. The five-story structure, slated to open Nov. 16, will offer comprehensive outpatient care.
Texas House members are mounting an effort to delay new limits on physician-owned hospitals. The House's healthcare legislation would ban new physician-owned hospitals and prevent existing ones from growing. But Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, is pushing two amendments to soften the restrictions, including a grandfather clause for more than 100 doctor-owned hospitals under development. The restriction is championed by Rep. Pete Stark, a California Democrat who says physician-owned hospitals cherry-pick wealthy patients to the detriment of nonprofit, acute care hospitals.
The American Academy of Family Physicians has prompted outcry and lost members over its new six-figure alliance with the Coca-Cola Co. The deal will fund educational materials about soft drinks for the academy's consumer health and wellness Web site. Academy CEO Dr. Douglas Henley said that the deal won't influence the group's public health messages, and that the company will have no control over editorial content. He said the new online information will include research linking soft drinks with obesity and will focus on sugar-free alternatives, the Associated Press reports.
AARP will endorse sweeping healthcare overhaul legislation headed for a vote, officials said. An endorsement from the seniors lobby was critical when then-President George W. Bush pushed the Medicare prescription drug benefit through a divided Congress in 2003. House Democratic leaders are hoping it will work the same political magic for them as they strive to deliver on the health reform issue, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
During the Web boom of the late '90s, Jeff Arnold created WebMD, a portal of health information for consumers and the medical community. Now Arnold has created Sharecare, a Web-based health information platform he hopes will be more intuitive and useful than WebMD. "This is like a next generation WebMD," Arnold told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "We want to answer literally hundreds of thousands of medical questions." While WebMD might provide only one answer to a particular medical question, Arnold said Sharecare hopes to access multiple sources to provide readers a variety of points of view.
Officials at Atlanta-based Grady Memorial Hospital have backed off from closing two of three neighborhood health centers while embarking on a multimillion-dollar plan to create four new community health "super centers," officials announced. Grady CEO Michael Young told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he wants to counter the reputation that neighborhood centers have as being "small, half-baked" clinics that hand out piecemeal care to the poor. He hopes the new centers will offer patients a wider array of services, draw more paying patients, and keep people from seeking everyday care in Grady's emergency room.
In an attempt to reduce the deaths and serious health problems caused by misuse of medication, the Food and Drug Administration is trying to identify the most serious threats and find ways to avoid them. About 1.5 million preventable "adverse drug events" occur in the United States every year, according to a 2007 study by the Institute of Medicine. The errors cost an estimated $4 billion a year, the study found. The FDA called on doctors, other healthcare professionals, and consumers to help identify drugs and circumstances that may be particular problems. The agency will also hold public hearings to gather information.
Although Massachusetts has salvaged health insurance for 28,000 legal immigrants, the company hired to cover this group has been late assigning doctors and sending enrollment information to many patients, health and immigrant advocates say. Even some patients who received the necessary information are facing significant hurdles connecting with the doctors CeltiCare Health Plan of Massachusetts assembled in its new network, which limits the community health centers and hospitals available to patients, the Boston Globe reports.
