Health plans promote quality, transparency, but need IT improvements
Today, health plans are working to provide data on hospital and physician prices to promote quality and transparency, but to do this, they need to continue to make strides in other IT areas, according to a report by the National Business Coalition on Health. Click here for the NBCH Cornerstone Report [417 kB PDF].
CDC reports false whooping cough cases
The Centers for Disease Control report that a regularly used test misdiagnosed thousands of cases of whooping cough, resulting in unneeded treatment and raising doubts on a reported boom in cases. CDC
Please note: Across My Desk had previously reported on a CDC effort to encourage parents to have their children receive the Tdap booster shot.
AMA launches campaign to assist the uninsured
The American Medical Association announced that they are launching a campaign to address the issue of the uninsured in the US. The campaign is titled “Voice for the Uninsured.” The campaign is geared to raise awareness of the problem as we move toward the 2008 Presidential campaign.
New tool for case managers to educate the uninsured
A new web site and toll-free hotline from the Foundation for Health Coverage Education provides personalized health insurance information for people in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The goal of the site is to inform people about insurance programs for which they didn’t know they were qualified.
Hypertension is under-diagnosed in children
It is estimated that about 1.5 million US children have hypertension, but are not diagnosed. Click here to learn about the long term effects.
