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Obama Pushes Democrats, Attacks Republicans, Campaigns For Public Support
"President Obama is becoming more personally invested in rallying the public and Congress behind a healthcare overhaul, even as some Republicans raise the stakes in the debate by claiming that defeating his plan would undermine his presidency," the Los Angeles Times reports. Obama will defend his push for health reform in a series of public events this week, as he and senior aides press Democratic lawmakers to support the versions of pending legislation still circulating in congressional committees (Parsons and Levey, 7/21).
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Senate Fiscal Year 2010 Spending Bill Excludes Abstinence-Only Education Funding, Needle Exchange Language
The Senate Appropriations Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee on Tuesday approved by voice vote its fiscal year 2010 spending bill draft, which excludes funding for abstinence-only sex education programs and, unlike the House bill, does not include language lifting the ban on the use of federal funding for needle exchange programs, CQ Today reports. According to the article, Committee Chair Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) "confirmed that the bill will not contain funding for abstinence-only education programs when the full committee marks it up on Thursday. Instead, the draft will contain funding for more comprehensive sex education, which can include teaching abstinence." Harkin also said that the Senate bill does not contain language lifting the ban on the needle exchange funding because that is "a matter for conference" (Wolfe, 7/28).
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Infection Prevention Text Updated, Improved - The APIC Text Of Infection Control And Epidemiology
More than 300 infection prevention experts have completed a text that serves as one of the most valuable tools for infection preventionists throughout the world, the APIC Text of Infection Control and Epidemiology. The 1,700-page document, now in its 3rd edition, has been completely revised and is now available, offering a concise information re containing more than 120 expanded and enhanced chapters.
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New Medicare Data Compare Hospitals Based On Readmissions

New data regarding hospital readmission rates have emerged "amid a national debate over how to reduce" these numbers, "which cost the federal government billions of dollars a year in Medicare reimbursements," the New York Times reports. The data, posted on Medicare"s Hospital Compare Web site, examines the number of patients "readmitted to hospitals within a month of being discharged after treatment for heart attack, heart failure or pneumonia between July 2005 and June 2008." "Hospitals in New York State are significantly worse than those elsewhere in the nation at limiting patients from having to return shortly after being treated for a major illness, according to federal data released on Thursday," the Times reports. Local hospital spokespeople said the density of poverty in the urban area contributed to the disparity, but officials also noted that some hospital that seem many poor patients actually performed better than major academic centers (Hartocollis, 7/9). The Salt Lake Tribune reports, "[r]esearch shows that hospital readmissions are reducing the quality of health care while at the same time increasing costs, according to [the Medicare program]. On average, about one in five Medicare beneficiaries who is discharged from a hospital today will return within a month." In Utah, hospitals performed at about the national average, or better in some cases (Rosetta, 7/9). One Dallas hospital, Baylor Heart and Vascular Hospital, did the best in the quality measures, the Dallas Morning News reports. That hospital, and others like it, are now being offered as examples. "If that kind of savings [from low readmissions] were applied around the country, $1.8 billion would be saved each year," the hospital"s Chief Medical Officer said (Roberson, 7/10). This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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