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The outcome of the presidential election could determine how states approach health care reform, and to what extent state disparities in uninsured rates and income eligibility for public programs narrow or widen, according to Lisa M. Duchon, PhD, a senior consultant at Health Management Associates in Washington, DC.
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The post-employment benefits of retired workers are in the spotlight, as a result of a law requiring government employers to measure and report the liabilities associated with post-employment.
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The Access Project's Medical Debt Resolution Program worked with 187 people in the state of Massachusetts between September 2006 and April 2008 with a combined medical debt of over $2 million. Medical debt was resolved in a variety of ways—by informing people about their insurance appeal rights, and eligibility standards for public programs, and also by negotiating payment arrangements with medical providers. While some of these cases are ongoing, over $1 million of the debt was retired.
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"Medical debt has been increasing over the past 15 years. In our state, that number has increased dramatically over this time," says Robert A. Crittenden, MD, MPH, a professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine and chief of the family medicine service at Harborview Medical Center, both in Seattle. "With the economic downturn, this is an even bigger issue. More families are facing unaffordable debt."
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It's the "perfect storm" for working families—soaring gas and food prices, declining home values, and skyrocketing health care costs.
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Glinert and colleagues from Israel report the use of photodynamic therapy to successfully ablate single feto-placental implantations in rats.
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Moll and colleagues from Amsterdam performed a subgroup analysis within their randomized clinical trial of women with polycystic ovary syndrome comparing metformin plus clomiphene treatment with clomiphene alone.
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The Joint Commission and the Urgent Care Association of America (UCAOA) have formed a partnership to provide quality oversight for urgent care clinics.
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The Joint Commission has released a statement that effective Jan. 1, 2009, there will be new simplified scoring and decision processes for all accreditation and certification programs that "better reflect an organization's performance regarding compliance with Joint Commission standards and elements of performance [EPs]."