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Health Care Reform

  • 3 April 2012: Sidebar — Justices’ Cerebral Combativeness on Display in Health Law Hearings - While the health law hearings revealed justices’ intellectual side, they also showed their humor and confidence in taking on the most urgent issues of the day.
  • 3 April 2012: The ABC’s of the Health Care Law and Its Future - Q. and A. with an expert on health policy and management about President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
  • 3 April 2012: Obama Says He’s Confident Health Care Law Will Stand - President Obama declared he was confident the Supreme Court would uphold the legislation, saying it would be an “unprecedented, extraordinary” step to overturn it.
  • 4 April 2012: Republicans Examine Alternatives to Obama Health Plan - Optimistic about a possible Supreme Court ruling against the law, lawmakers are giving past proposals a second look, with lowering health costs a priority.
  • 4 April 2012: Men in Black - Shielded behind their white marble pillars, the black robes take a red brush to history.
  • 5 April 2012: Down the Insurance Rabbit Hole - My sister-in-law was healthy one day, but not the next.
  • 6 April 2012: The Early Word: In the Black - The Republican National Committee has collected large cash reserves that could be critical to Mitt Romney if he becomes the nominee.
  • 6 April 2012: Obama Concedes That Courts Can Review Acts of Congress - A federal appeals court had demanded that the administration explain the president’s remarks about judicial review of the health care overhaul.
  • 7 April 2012: The Strip-Search Decision - A reader comments on rulings on the insurance mandate and strip searches.
  • 8 April 2012: Talking With Paul Clement - A high-profile lawyer who likes soccer and Nirvana.
  • 9 April 2012: Grassley Assailed for Calling Obama 'Stupid' on Twitter - A spat erupted on Twitter between United States Senator Charles E. Grassley and David Axelrod, a top strategist for President Obama.
  • 10 April 2012: A Health Crisis Strikes. Then What? - Readers respond to an Op-Ed article, “Down the Insurance Rabbit Hole.”
  • 10 April 2012: Bring the Justices Back to Earth - The power to invalidate legislation is the ultimate political power, and those mortals who exercise it need constraint. So why not have term limits for the highest court in the land?
  • 10 April 2012: THE CAUCUS; On Twitter: Grassley Calls Obama 'Stupid' - Caucus column; Sen Charles E Grassley, Republican of Iowa, starts a Twitter argument about the health care law when he calls Pres Obama 'stupid,' prompting criticism from Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod. Photo
  • 13 May 2012: Slippery-Slope Logic vs. Health Care Law - Economic View - The court debate over the new health care law offers yet another example of worrying about imaginary risks.

 

 

Health

  • 20 April 2012: Health IT Standards Committee Discusses Standards & Certification NPRM - The Health IT Standards Committee held its monthly meeting this week.
  • 20 April 2012: CMS Publishes Corrections to Meaningful Use Stage 2 Proposed Rule - The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has published corrections to its Meaningful Use Stage 2 proposed rule in the Federal Register.
  • 20 April 2012: House Subcommittee Discusses FDA User Fee Reauthorization - The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health held a hearing on Wednesday, April 18, 2012 on the reauthorization of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) User Fee Act. 
  • 20 April 2012: HIMSS Members Visit Capitol Hill - While in the Washington, DC area to attend the Standards and Interoperability (S&I) Framework face-to-face meeting last week, HIMSS members Helen Hill, Dr. Thompson Boyd, and Dr. Ronald Jackson took time out this month to visit the Capitol Hill offices of U.S. Congressmen Sandy Levin (D-MI) and John Dingell (D-MI). 
  • 20 April 2012: HIMSS Webinar on Supreme Court and Healthcare Reform - The HIMSS webinar “Supreme Court ACA Case: Implications for Health IT,” presented by members of the HIMSS Legal Task Force, is now available in the HIMSS eLearning Academy, complimentary for HIMSS members (you must log-in first). 
  • 20 April 2012: Louisiana Makes First Meaningful Use Incentive Payment in U.S. - The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid has “confirmed that the Louisiana Department of Health Hospitals made the first Meaningful Use payment in the nation for the Electronic Health Records (EHR) Incentive Program
  • 27 April 2012: Senate HELP Committee Hearing on Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act - On April 25th, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) in executive session discussed proposed amendments to the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act.
  • 27 April 2012: House Considers Cyber Security Legislation - Under the leadership of Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Ranking Member Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (HR 3523) out of committee on April 17, 2012. 
  • 27 April 2012: AHRQ Announces looks for Input on its Offerings - The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has announced that it is conducting a study about its offerings and is interested in talking to high-level professionals who develop health IT tools for patients, or work for organizations that purchase those tools (e.g., hospitals, practices, health plans, government purchasers) and serve consumers with limited health literacy.
  • 27 April 2012: Arizona HIMSS Members Aide in Passage of Health IT Legislation - On April 4, 2012 Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona signed AZHB 2369 into law.
  • 4 May 2012: Health IT Policy Committee Updated on EHR Incentive Program - The Health IT Policy Committee held its May meeting this week.
  • 4 May 2012: HHS Submits 2012 National Quality Strategy Progress Report to Congress - Following a year filled with activities designed to improve healthcare quality and outcomes, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services submitted its 2012 Annual Progress Report on the National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Health Care to Congress.
  • 4 May 2012: New SSA and DOD Collaboration Will Consolidate Medical Record Requests for Veterans Applying for Disability Benefits - The Social Security Administration and the Department of Defense announced this week that they are “working together to improve access to disability benefits for the nation’s Wounded Warriors, service members, veterans, and their dependents.
  • 4 May 2012: AHRQ Seeking Evaluators on HIE Projects - The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has announced that it is seeking input from health information exchange (HIE) project evaluators to participate in studies to assess the usability and usefulness of a revised version of the AHRQ HIE Evaluation Toolkit. 
  • 4 May 2012: GAO Report Examines First Year of EHR Incentive Program - In a new report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) “(1) examined efforts by CMS and the states to verify whether providers qualify to receive EHR incentive payments and (2) examined information reported to CMS by providers to demonstrate meaningful use in the first year of the Medicare EHR program.”

 

Anxiety

  • 13 April 2012: Youth With Mood And Anxiety Disorders: Easy Access And Age-Specific Treatment Could Lead To Better Care - 74% of mental illnesses emerge by age 25. Mood and anxiety disorders are among the most common conditions, yet there is little support for youth in this age group. A new study from Lawson Health Research Institute shows that may no longer be the case. Dr...
  • 13 April 2012: Stress And How Breast Cancer Patients Manage It Can Affect Brain Function Even Before Chemotherapy Begins - Women undergoing treatment for breast cancer can experience cognitive declines, such as decreased verbal fluency or loss of memory and attention. Often experienced by patients undergoing chemotherapy, the declines have become known as "chemo brain." However, a health psychologist at the University of Missouri says "chemo brain" isn't always to blame...
  • 15 April 2012: Worrying Excessively, Usually Seen As Pathology, May Aid Survival Of The Species - Worrying may have evolved along with intelligence as a beneficial trait, according to a recent study by scientists at SUNY Downstate Medical Center and other institutions...
  • 16 April 2012: Epilepsy Type Signs Linked To Stress - A study, published online in the journal Seizure, reveals that over 33% of patients believed to have intractable seizures were actually presenting stress-triggered symptoms...
  • 18 April 2012: Deterioration In A Husband's Health Likely When Wife Suffers Breast Cancer - Caring for a wife with breast cancer can have a measurable negative effect on men's health, even years after the cancer diagnosis and completion of treatment, according to recent research. Men who reported the highest levels of stress in relation to their wives' cancer were at the highest risk for physical symptoms and weaker immune responses, the study showed...
  • 19 April 2012: Breast Cancer Stress May Affect Spouse's Health - A recent issue of the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity, reports that men who care for a wife with breast cancer suffer a measurable negative impact on their health up to years after their wife's cancer has been diagnosed and treatment has been completed...
  • 20 April 2012: Bringing Water Into Exams May Improve Grades - A new study presented at a psychology conference in London this week suggests students who bring water to drink while they sit exams may improve their grades, presumably by keeping themselves hydrated...
  • 25 April 2012: Emotional Resilience To Stress Boosted By Gatekeeper Of Brain Steroid Signals - A cellular protein called HDAC6, newly characterized as a gatekeeper of steroid biology in the brain, may provide a novel target for treating and preventing stress-linked disorders, such as (PTSD), according to research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Glucocorticoids are natural steroids secreted by the body during stress...
  • 26 April 2012: Key Events Can Trigger Eating Disorders - Eating disorders can be triggered by lack of support following traumatic events such as bereavement, relationship problems, abuse and sexual assault, according to research published in the May issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing. Even changing school or moving home can prove too much for some young people and lead to conditions such as anorexia or bulimia...
  • 26 April 2012: Women Suffering Mental Stress May At Greater Risk For Heart Disease - Coronary artery disease continues to be a major cause of death in the U.S., killing hundreds of thousands of people per year. However, this disease burden isn't evenly divided between the sexes; significantly more men than women are diagnosed with coronary artery disease each year. The reasons behind this difference aren't well defined...
  • 27 April 2012: Chronic Stress Found To Increase Cancer Severity In Mouse Model - Worrywarts, fidgety folk and the naturally nervy may have a real cause for concern: accelerated cancer. In a new study led by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, anxiety-prone mice developed more severe cancer then their calm counterparts...
  • 30 April 2012: Anxiety Or Depression Common Among Aging Adult Americans With Arthritis - Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that one-third of U.S. adults with arthritis, 45 years and older, report having anxiety or depression...
  • 30 April 2012: Arthritis - Anxiety Twice As Common As Depression - Approximately one third of adults with arthritis in the USA aged 45+ years suffer from anxiety or depression, researchers from the CDC reported in the journal Arthritis Care & Research. The authors added that the prevalence of anxiety in adults with arthritis is almost twice as high as depression, in spite of more studies focusing on the arthritis-depression link...
  • 1 May 2012: Maternal Stress During Pregnancy Can Affect Baby's Iron Status - Newborns whose mothers are under stress during the first trimester of pregnancy may be at risk for low iron status, which could lead to physical and mental delays down the road, according to a study presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Boston. Iron plays an important role in the development of organ systems, especially the brain...
  • 2 May 2012: PTSD Symptoms May Be Relieved By Some Blood Pressure Drugs - Traumatized people who take a class of common blood pressure medications tend to have less severe post-traumatic stress symptoms, researchers have found. The finding suggests that ACE (angiotensin converting enzyme) inhibitors or ARBs (angiotensin receptor blockers) could be valuable tools for treating or preventing post-traumatic stress disorder...