5/16/12 – National Women’s Health Week (May 13-19) is a time for women to prioritize their health! During this week, women are encouraged to do themselves a favor by scheduling preventive, live-saving checkups including breast cancer screenings, pelvic exams, and, if recommended, a Pap test.
5/10/12 – Today, a new report was released in Albany on the development and economic value of New York’s bioscience industry…Bioscience is a highly competitive industry, where states vie for the privilege of having companies operate within their borders. States know that bioscience development leads to new construction, increases in brain power, clinical trials, marketing, sales, legal and financial jobs as well as ancillary benefits such as boosting local economies through the demand for more services.
5/10/12 – According to the IOM report, two-thirds of adults and almost one-third of children in the U.S. are overweight or obese. This affects people living in all geographies and among majority and minority populations. Yet, obesity risks are disproportionately higher among minority, low-income, less educated and rural populations. Illnesses related to obesity are estimated to cost $190.2 billion ever year.
5/4/12 – New York State is home to the fourth largest number of people in the United States with Alzheimer’s disease. In 2010, an estimated 320,000 people age 65 and older in New York had Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia. By 2025, that figure is expected to reach 350,000.
5/3/12 – The World Health Organization and other organizations released a report yesterday on global premature births. The U.S. ranking matches that of developing countries. In fact, the U.S. rate has increased by 30% since 1981 and the reasons are unclear.
5/1/12 – Hepatitis is a hidden epidemic affecting 3.5-5.3 million people in the United States. And 65-75% of infected Americans are unaware of their infection because Hepatitis does not show symptons for decades. This makes it all the more important for baby boomers and at-risk populations to get tested immediately.
4/23/12 – Reducing the growth in Medicare and Medicaid spending is a key public policy priority. Achieving this objective requires a clear understanding of the drivers of rising health care spending. In the Medicaid program, 83 percent of total spending is associated with chronically ill patients.
4/13/12 – On Thursday, Governor Cuomo issued an Executive Order to create New York’s Health Benefit Exchange. Legislation establishing the Exchange had been included in the Governor’s Executive Budget proposal but had fallen off the table during budget negotiations.
4/12/12 – Under the Affordable Care Act, Medicare’s Shared Savings Program offers financial incentives for physicians, hospitals and other health care providers to join together to form accountable care organizations (ACOs). ACOs are designed to improve care for Medicare beneficiaries and contain increasing costs by changing payment incentives for doctors and hospitals.
4/4/12 – April is National STD Awareness Month, an annual occurrence to raise public awareness about the impact of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the importance of preventing, testing for and treating STDs.