Health Bites

The Center for Health Value Innovation last week released new...

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 10:55:00 -0400

The Center for Health Value Innovation last week released new data showing that accountability for health outcomes is lacking across the U.S. health care system. Levels of participation are much lower than expected. Worse, employers and employees pay significant amounts for these unused services through premiums and per-employee costs.

According to a new brief by the Commonwealth Fund, an estimated...

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 13:52:36 -0400

According to a new brief by the Commonwealth Fund, an estimated 18.7 million U.S. women ages 19 to 64 were uninsured in 2010, up from 12.8 million in 2000. An additional 16.7 million women had health insurance but had such high out-of-pocket costs relative to their income that they were effectively underinsured in 2010.

Primary care doctors are probably more scarce than you think

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 16:02:00 -0400

According to Intellimed, a national company that provides statistical data and support to the health care industry, the national average of primary care doctors is one family doctor for every 2,112 people and one internal medicine doctor for every 3,166 people.

And as more people gain or are forced to buy health insurance under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, this shortage will continue to increase.

The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention has launched a...

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 17:24:00 -0400

The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention has launched a new campaign targeting portion control.

How much does health care cost for a typical American family in 2012?

Tue, 15 May 2012 15:43:00 -0400

The annual Milliman Medical Index measures the total cost of health care for a typical family of four covered by a preferred provider plan, or PPO. According to new data released today, the 2012 MMI cost is $20,728, an increase of $1,335, or 6.9% over 2011. The rate of increase is not as large as previous years, but the total dollar increase was still a record. This is the first year the average cost of health care for the typical American family of four has surpassed $20,000. More here.

Yikes. A good reminder to substitute sugary drinks with water.

Tue, 15 May 2012 14:59:46 -0400

Yikes. A good reminder to substitute sugary drinks with water.

Type 2 Diabetes Is Tougher to Treat in Kids and Teens

Mon, 14 May 2012 16:34:00 -0400

Type 2 Diabetes Is Tougher to Treat in Kids and Teens:

healthwellnessdisability:

Type 2 diabetes, the kind linked with obesity, progresses much faster and is harder to treat in children than in adults, according to the disappointing results of a new study.

One of four working-age U.S. adults experienced a gap in health...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:04:00 -0400

One of four working-age U.S. adults experienced a gap in health insurance coverage during 2011, often because they lost or changed jobs, according to a new Commonwealth Fund study released today.

About seven of 10 survey respondents who went through a period without health insurance lacked coverage for a year or longer. More than half were uninsured for two years or more, according to the 2011 Commonwealth Fund Health Insurance Tracking Survey of U.S. Adults.

Major provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that will go into effect starting in 2014 are expected to help bridge coverage gaps and make insurance more affordable, according to the study’s authors. These include an expansion in eligibility for Medicaid, subsidies for purchasing private plans through new health insurance exchanges, and rules preventing insurers from denying coverage or charging more based on gender or a preexisting condition.

PWC Study: Consumers getting comfortable with social media as a health resource

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 08:29:29 -0400

PWC Study: Consumers getting comfortable with social media as a health resource:

Around a third of US adults use social media as a health resource, according to a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers – whether seeking out medical info, sharing symptoms and experiences or rating drugs, devices, doctors, hospitals and health plans. The consulting giant surveyed 1,060 US adults and found that 42% have viewed health-related consumer reviews (more or less evenly split between reviews of treatments, doctors, hospitals and health insurers) through social networks like Twitter and Facebook. A third have read of friends’ or family members’ health experiences through social media, while 29% have read of other patients’ experience with a disease they have and 24% have viewed health-related videos and images posted by other patients. Not surprisingly, perhaps, those users skew young. Where more than four-fifths of 18-24-year olds said they’d share health information through social media, fewer than half (45%) of those 45-64 said the same. And across the board, users choose community sites over company-sponsored ones, which see hundreds of posts and comments per day where community sites see thousands. “In fact, community sites had 24 times more social media activity on average than any of the health industry companies” over the one-week timeframe studied, said the PwC report.

From new research released April 16 by the Centers for Disease...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 07:53:02 -0400

From new research released April 16 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

FDA: Some birth control pills may be associated with a higher risk for blood clots

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:24:00 -0400

In a communications bulletin released April 10, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it has completed its review of recent studies that looked at the risk of blood clots in women taking drospirenone-containing birth control pills.

Drospirenone is a synthetic version of the female hormone, progesterone, also referred to as a progestin. Based on this review, FDA has concluded that drospirenone-containing birth control pills may be associated with a higher risk for blood clots than other progestin-containing pills.

Approved oral contraceptives containing drospirenone include Beyaz, Loryna, Ocella, Safyral, Syeda, Yasmin, Yaz and Zarah.

The following chart shows the risk of developing a blood clot for women who are not pregnant and do not use birth control pills; for women who use birth control pills; for pregnant women; and for women in the postpartum period.

"This is America, where you can find a gun easier than mental health services."

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:58:48 -0400

““This is America, where you can find a gun easier than mental health services.””

- Said Oakland Mayor Jean Quan at the memorial service for victims of the Oikos University shooting. Read more: After Oikos University Shootings, Examining Mental Health and Stigma in Asian-American Community | Reporting on Health (via reportingonhealth)

Majority of conditions treated in ER are treatable by primary care docs

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 11:19:04 -0400

If patients treated at an emergency department for a condition treatable or preventable through care from an ambulatory care clinic were seen at a clinic instead, cost savings could reach 66 to 84 percent, according to a new research published in the April issue of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Research Activities.

The researchers looked at 2007 data from three primary care safety-net clinics and four emergency departments that were part of Carolinas HealthCare System. The study found that 59 percent of 191,622 outpatient ER visits in the Charlotte, N.C. area were for ambulatory-care-sensitive conditions – those that are potentially preventable – 11.2 percent were for necessary emergency care and 20.8 percent were related to injury.

Groups most likely to go to an emergency for an ambulatory-care-sensitive condition were blacks and Hispanics, people without health insurance or those insured by Medicare or Medicaid, females, children 2 years or younger, and children ages 3 to 18 years old.

Total hospital charges – not including physician charges – ambulatory-care-sensitive conditions to the ED were nearly $125 million – average per-visit charge of $1,099 – with emergency department costs 320 to 728 percent higher than for care at a primary care clinic.

npr: What’s inside a school lunch burger? This....

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:31:08 -0400

npr:

What’s inside a school lunch burger? This. http://n.pr/H8zTv7 #hamburger #food #school #health #nutrition (Taken with instagram)

reportingonhealth: No concensus among Americans about their...

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:21:21 -0400

reportingonhealth:

No concensus among Americans about their expected outcome of the Supreme Court’s discussion on healthcare reform.

(via Poll: 1 in 4 want Supreme Court to uphold health care law - Political Hotsheet - CBS News)

nationaljournal: The Supreme Court’s decision on the health...

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:17:00 -0400

nationaljournal:

The Supreme Court’s decision on the health care case is more than just a simple yes or no. View this handy chart for possible SCOTUS decisions.

The Health Care Case’s Legal Maze

It’s a big week for health care, and it’s sure to be interesting. Supreme Court justices today began hearing arguments regarding the constitutionality of some provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the controversial federal health care reform law signed by President Barack Obama in March 2010.

The above infographic shows the impact of market reforms without...

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:11:00 -0400

The above infographic shows the impact of market reforms without the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate provision, which requires individuals to purchase health insurance, if they are not already insured through their employer, or face a financial penalty.

Source: http://www.ahip.org/

A report by Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Safe Kids Worldwide...

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 14:15:00 -0400

A report by Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Safe Kids Worldwide found that medications are now the leading cause of accidental poisoning deaths among children.

While the death rate among children from poisoning has been cut in half since the late 1970s, the percentage of all child poisoning deaths due to medications has nearly doubled, from 36 percent to 64 percent.

Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner, a Democrat, explains a bill she...

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:34:22 -0400

Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner, a Democrat, explains a bill she introduced that would require men to see a sex therapist, get a cardiac stress test and obtain an affidavit from their sexual partner before receiving a prescription for Viagra.

(via Cervical cancer: New screening guidelines - CBS News) Once...

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 15:16:11 -0400

(via Cervical cancer: New screening guidelines - CBS News)

Once recommended every year, new screening guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Health Services Task Force now suggest women get fewer Pap smears to test for cervical cancer. Healthy women in their 20s should be screened every three years, and women 30 and older can either continue to be tested every three years with the Pap smear or test every five years with the Pap and a test for human papillomavirus, or HPV, the sexually transmitted infection that causes cervical cancer.