Popular Articles

Reform Editorials Examine Rationed Care, Taxing Health Benefits
Wall Street Journal: A recent decision by CMS to end Medicare coverage of virtual colonoscopies is "a preview of how health care will be rationed when Democrats" create "a new "universal" health insurance entitlement for the middle class," a Journal editorial states. According to the editorial, the prospects of such a health system are "playing out in miniature in Medicare" where CMS has decided that offering an alternative to the traditional colonoscopy is "too pricey." The editorial states that the situation features "precisely the sort of complexity that the Democrats would prefer to ignore as they try to restructure health care" and use comparative effectiveness research to determine what works best for the majority of patients. According to the editorial, "The problem is that what "works best" isn"t the same for everyone." It continues that CMS "made the hard-and-fast choice that it was cheaper to cut [virtual colonoscopies] ... for all beneficiaries. If some patients are worse off, well, too bad." The editorial concludes that the situation is "merely a preview of the life-and-death decisions that will be determined by politics" if Democrats enact their ideal system (Wall Street Journal, 5/19).
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New American Medical Association AD Emphasizes Common Ground On Health Reform, Shares Vision To Fix Broken System
Underscoring the need for meaningful health system reform for America"s patients and physicians, the American Medical Association (AMA) is running an ad emphasizing common ground on health reform to remember what"s at stake - access to care for millions. The AMA ad runs nationally today in the Chicago Tribune, New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. Online advertising will run in various medical trade publications.
News of the day
Highmark Provides Pediatricians With Res To Combat Childhood Obesity
Childhood obesity causes lifelong illness, leads to serious health complications in young adults and can lead to premature death in adulthood due to medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and hypertension. In addition to its significant human toll, childhood obesity alone costs the nation"s health care system some $14 billion annually.
Medical Devices

10 Students Receive Scholarships For Outstanding Work In Public Health Systems Research

AcademyHealth and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have awarded ten scholarships to graduate students who demonstrate outstanding potential to contribute to the field of public health systems research (PHSR). Scholarship recipients each receive $1,000 for registration and travel to attend AcademyHealth"s Annual Research Meeting and the PHSR Interest Group Annual Meeting, June 28-July 1, 2009 in Chicago. Scholarship winners will present their research during a poster session at the PHSR Interest Group meeting. The following students received scholarships: Maya Babu, Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Business School; Nancy Baum, University of Michigan School of Public Health; LeConte Dill, University of California, Berkeley; Carl Foreman, Portland State University; Justin Hall, Queen"s University and the University of Waterloo; Melissa Higdon, The George Washington University; Tracy Marie Hilliard, University of Washington; Jonathan Keeling, Columbia University; Natalie Privett, Stanford University; and Joanna Zablotsky, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Scholarship recipients are masters and doctoral students engaged in research that shows potential to advance the understanding of public health systems by highlighting the diversity of research interests that broadly constitute the field. Applicants were required to submit an abstract of their work in addition to two letters of recommendation from faculty. PHSR is a field of inquiry examining the organization, financing, performance, and impact of health systems-defined as the constellation of governmental and non-governmental actors that influence population health, including health care providers, insurers, purchasers, public health agencies, community-based organizations, and entities that operate outside the traditional sphere of health care. Kristin Rosengren AcademyHealth


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