The United Health Foundation, a non-profit linked to UnitedHealth Group, offered its first report card Wednesday on the health status of the nation's senior citizens. The study ranked states based on 34 indicators grouped into “determinants” like smoking and obesity and “outcomes” like ICU usage and hip fractures.
The USA Today map of the state rankings offered few surprises.
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Critics of the American Medical Association argue that the organization's ranks have shrunk to the point where it can no longer claim to be the voice of the nation's doctors. Now new demographic information suggests that, not only might the AMA no longer represent doctors, but its membership and leadership may not be
representative of the U.S. physician population.
According to two newly released reports on the U.S. physician population and the AMA's leadership and membership demographics, the country's oldest and still-largest physician organization is doing OK in some respects at matching the changing gender demographics of the nation's physician workforce. But the age distribution of AMA members and leaders doesn't come close to mirroring the age range of physicians currently in practice.
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Sebelius
When Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, told HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that he worried Obamacare's implementation was headed for a “train wreck,” she publicly promised to bring him into the loop.
Turns out that Sebelius kept her word and has been giving Baucus one-on-one briefings on the law's implementation every other week since his very public April 17 complaint about a lack of information.
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Healthcare organizations seeking to maximize the number of patient records they can expose through a given security breach should consider contracting for professional help.
I'm only being partially facetious.
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The NEJM study out today analyzing Oregon's Medicaid program is drawing heated commentary across the web. The study suggested people added to the Medicaid rolls spend more on healthcare than other poor people, but don't necessarily wind up with better health with two major exceptions: they had less depression and they were financially more secure.
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New knees, a more active life, yet more weight gain? Counterintuitive, but a new study suggests a connection.
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