Weekly Dose of Health News June 23 – July 2 2014 Governor Andrew Cuomo announces a plan to end AIDS in New York through identifying infected individuals, enhanced prevention and access to care. The New York State Department of Health’s June Medicaid Update is available. The New England Journal of Medicine reports on New York City’s changing tuberculosis epidemic. The new normal is a relatively stable number of cases, which means that there hasn’t been much progress on eliminating the disease. The New York Times ran this article on gated health plans used by employers, which push responsibility for well being on employees. There’s a new twist to Lyme Disease in the suburbs. It turns out that deer ticks can carry pathogens for other blood-borne diseases. City & State posted this video which features a panel discussion on the Future of Health Care in New York State. Panelists include Medicaid Director Jason Helgerson, Senate Health Chair Kemp Hannon and Assembly Health Chair Richard Gottfried. New York City’s Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) received $35.5 million from the Interim Access Assurance Fund, which is part of the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment Program (DSRIP)/$8 billion state Medicaid waiver. Interim Access funds are designed to help struggling safety net hospitals. HHC is the state’s largest provider of Medicaid services. NY State of Health has released new enrollment figures for the state exchange. Over 960,000 individuals have enrolled so far, 55% of which are in Medicaid. Check the report out here. This number includes 30,000 from the Capital District, according to the Times Union. The Public Policy and Education Fund, Make The Road NY and the Alliance for a Just Society have released this report on health disparities in New York’s health exchange, NY State of Health. Recommendations for reducing disparities include improved outreach and enrollment including targeted enrollment to various demographic groups; improved interpretation and translation services; development of health outcomes data by demographic group; improve Basic Health Plan cost sharing; and, coverage for undocumented immigrants not covered by health reform. The United Hospital Fund has released its latest Blueprint edition, which has articles on preventing hospital readmissions, shifts in New York’s insurance marketplace and on improving hospital discharges. This report looks at how consumers are obtaining information on health exchanges. Consumers get information from a variety of sources including exchange websites, direct and indirect assistance and through the media. There may be something to the old advice, “no pain, no gain”. The New York Times writes on more evidence that low dose aspirin may cut pancreatic cancer risk. Pancreatic cancer has a 93% fatality rate. Acting Health Commissioner Howard Zucker urges all New Yorkers to get tested for HIV in this press release for National HIV Testing Day. Some advice on living through heat waves. |