Top Stories

Top news stories from the past 14 days. Please visit the News Archive for earlier stories.

Congress to Start Farm Bill Debate Today
May 14, 2008 -- Watertown Daily Times, (SD) article reports that Congress is set to begin debate today on a $300 billion, five-year farm bill that expands some farm and food programs and shrinks payments to some of the wealthiest farmers — but that still drew a veto threat from President Bush on Tuesday.

New Studies of Bush Administration $770 Million SNF Medicare Cut Find Seniors' Care Jeopardized, Local Jobs Lost, National and State Economies Threatened
May 14, 2008 -- PRNewswire article via Bio-Medicine reports that in releasing a new Lewin Group analysis of the Bush administration's $770 million cut to Medicare-financed nursing home care, national and state long term care leaders warned the regulatory-driven cuts not only jeopardize seniors' access to quality nursing home care -- particularly in rural areas -- but also present a clear and present danger to the U.S. economy and the state and local caregiver jobs base.

Robert G. McSwain Sworn in as Indian Health Service Director
May 14, 2008 -- Robert G. McSwain, a member of the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians of California, was officially sworn in on May 7 as the eighth Indian Health Service (IHS) director.

CMS to Host Special Open Door Forum on Wage Index Reform
May 13, 2008 -- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced that it will hold a Special Open Door Forum on wage index reform from 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. (ET) on May 20, 2008.

It's Not too Late to be Counted in the 2007 Agriculture Census
May 13, 2008 -- Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer today reminded America's farmers and ranchers that they should still plan to respond to the 2007 Census of Agriculture either by Internet or postal mail.

New Nationwide Report Estimates One in Every 12 Adolescents Experienced Major Depression in the Past Year
May 13, 2008 -- About 2.1 million teens aged 12 to 17 experienced a major depressive episode in the past year, according to a new nationwide report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

New Plan Would Provide Health Insurance for Almost All Americans; Could Reduce Health Spending $1.6 Trillion Over 10 Years
May 13, 2008 -- In an article in today's Health Affairs and an accompanying issue brief, Commonwealth Fund researchers lay out a plan that would insure 44 million of the estimated 48 million uninsured Americans in 2008.

CMS Proposes New Protections for Medicare Beneficiaries in Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug Programs
May 12, 2008 -- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) last week proposed enhanced protections for beneficiaries who are enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) health plans and Medicare prescription drug plans.

Department of Housing and Urban Development; Notice of Fiscal Year 2008 SuperNOFA for HUD's Discretionary Programs     Federal Register 
May 12, 2008 -- Today's publication contains the 36 funding opportunities that constitute HUD's FY2008 SuperNOFA, and also provides a revised Appendix A that lists the programs contained in the FY2008 SuperNOFA and corrects two items contained in the General Section published on March 19, 2008.

HRSA Outreach Seeks to Raise Cancer Awareness Among People Who Lived Near Nuclear Sites or Mined Uranium
May 12, 2008 -- On May 8, HRSA 's Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program (RESEP) launched a nationwide outreach effort to raise awareness about the need for cancer screening among people who lived near nuclear weapons testing facilities in the mid-20th century.

MedlinePlus Now with Multilingual Enhancement
May 12, 2008 -- As of May 7, 2008, MedlinePlus® has a multilingual feature, providing access to high quality health information in languages other than English and Spanish.

Rural Personal Income Falls Behind the Cities
May 12, 2008 -- Daily Yonder article reports that the largest drops in personal income in rural counties between 2005 and '06 were clustered in farming counties in the Great Plains; the declines appear to have been caused, in part, by lower federal crop payments.

HUD Makes $1 Billion in Grants Available Through 35 Programs
May 9, 2008 -- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today published its Fiscal Year 2008 "SuperNOFA," an annual funding notice that makes available more than $1 billion in grants through 35 programs.

US FCC Votes to Cap Fund for Rural Phone Subsidies
May 9, 2008 -- The U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted on Thursday to impose a cap on fast-growing subsidies the government allots to providers of telephone service in rural America.

Cultural Smorgasbord in a Rural School
May 8, 2008 -- In Wausau, Nebraska, a unique situation where the school system was in danger of being phased out due to a lack of students. Superintendent Bob Marks came up with a plan to recruit foreign exchange students to fill the population needs of the school.

Ups and Downs of Rural Health Care
May 8, 2008 -- For rural residents, a medical clinic is a luxury not available to residents of other small towns. Patients in towns lucky enough to have a clinic tell similar stories: they enjoy the convenience of having a clinic in town and the comfort of knowing the people who work there, people who are friends and neighbors who take a personal interest in how their visitors are feeling.

Department of Veterans Affairs' new Travel Nurse Corps Hits the Road
May 7, 2008 -- To deal with a nationwide shortage of nurses and to improve the quality of care for veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has created the Travel Nurse Corps to enable VA nurses to travel and work throughout the department's medical system.

E.R.’s Are Busy, but Fewer Patients Are Uninsured
May 7, 2008 -- The number of uninsured people nationwide rose to 15.7 percent in 2004 from 15.4 percent in 1995, yet in the period, the proportion of uninsured people using emergency rooms declined. The 26 percent increase in the number of visits in the period was largely caused by an increase in the number of people with private doctors who sought emergency room care.

Workshop Calls Attention to Rural Health-Care Crisis
May 7, 2008 -- The talk about problems in our nation's health-care system keeps getting louder, but there are gaps in the conversation. One such rift exists for rural Americans, who like city dwellers struggle with rising costs and shrinking insurance coverage, but who also inhabit places where getting the health care they need is tougher. Jobs that provide health-care coverage are scarce in many small communities. Growing numbers of over-65 rural residents are covered by Medicare, but they're unlikely to live near a doctor or hospital. To make matters worse, alcohol abuse and smokeless tobacco use plant the seeds of future health problems in some rural locales. To get more people thinking about these issues, the Association of Health Care Journalists put on its first Rural Health Journalism Workshop at the University of Missouri-Columbia last weekend. More than 70 journalists from around the country attended.

Federal Government Walking Away from Rural America
May 6, 2008 -- The Center for Rural Affairs' Rural Brief April 2008 Issue takes a close look at Rural Development funding for FY09, pointing out that as with previous budgets, the FY09 budget recommends termination of numerous federal rural development and rural asset-building programs.

Nation’s Front Line Caregivers Say New CMS Rule Undermines Care Needs of America’s Oldest, Sickest Seniors
May 6, 2008 -- San Francisco Examiner, (CA) article reports that the Coalition to Protect Senior Care (CPSC) today expressed its strong opposition to a newly-issued rule promulgated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) which, by regulatory means, will cut Medicare-financed nursing home funding by $5 billion over five years.

CMS Announces Rate Year 2009 Payment and Policy Changes for Long-Term Care Hospitals
May 5, 2008 -- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) last week published the final regulation establishing rate year (RY) 2009 Federal payment rates and policies for long-term care hospitals (LTCHs).

Hunters Aim for Military Service
May 5, 2008 -- Daily Yonder article discusses how a disproportionate number of rural people join the U.S. military and that may be because a disproportionate number of rural kids grow up hunting.

Rising Gas Prices Squeeze Rural Fire Departments’ Budgets
May 5, 2008 -- Northwest Arkansas Times article tells how the high price of fuel is causing budget problems and most small town and rural fire chiefs don't see an end to the high costs in sight.

USDA, Ginnie Mae Announce Milestone in Guaranteed Rural Rental Housing Program
May 5, 2008 -- USDA Rural Development and Ginnie Mae announced today that they have reached a significant milestone by securing more than $100 million in loans to build or rehabilitate affordable rental housing in rural communities.

Wanted: Ph.D. Who'll Kiss a Cow
May 5, 2008 -- Daily Yonder article reports that presidents of rural community colleges typically must contend with geographic isolation, a static local economy, and meager funding, but a researcher says it's time to "ruralize" the job description and attract those people most likely to succeed.

Aid a Concern for Emergency Services
May 2, 2008 -- Press and Sun Bulletin article reports that the challenges facing volunteer fire and EMS are creating havoc throughout the Southern Tier of New York and newly announced state budget cuts are expected to cause additional hardships for departments seeking to recruit, train and retain new members.

CMS Proposes New Payment Rates for Medicare Skilled Nursing Facilities; Recalibration of Case-Mix Adjustment
May 2, 2008 -- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today announced its proposal for new, fiscal year (FY) 2009 payment rates for Medicare skilled nursing facilities that CMS says are more accurate and more closely reflect differences in patient care needs. Public comments on the proposal will be accepted until June 30, 2008.

Food Banks, Churches Feel Economy's Slump
May 2, 2008 -- Tennessean.com article relates that charities such as food banks and churches are struggling to make ends meet and provide needed assistance due to changes in the economy.

OHSU President Bemoans Lack of Rural Doctors
May 2, 2008 -- Baker City Herald article tells of comments made by Joseph Robertson, president of Oregon Health Science University regarding the challenges of producing rural doctors during a tour of rural Oregon communities.

US FCC Votes to Cap Fund for Rural Phone Subsidies
May 2, 2008 -- Reuters article reports that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted on Thursday to impose a cap on universal service subsidies to providers of telephone service in rural America.

Cell Phone Finds Use as Diagnostic Tool in Areas Without Ultrasound, X-Ray Machines
May 1, 2008 -- AHN, (CA) article reports that a professor of bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley and his colleagues have developed a portable medical scanner that can be plugged into a cellular phone, which transmits raw ultrasound or X-ray scanning data to a remote computer processor.

Finding Certified Health Care Organizations Near You
May 1, 2008 -- Patients looking for information about where to go for their health care needs can now find Joint Commission organizations certified in specialty areas of care on The Joint Commission’s Quality Check® website (www.qualitycheck.org).

Report Finds Food Safety System in Crisis
May 1, 2008 -- Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) released a new report today that identifies major gaps in the nation’s food safety system, including obsolete laws, misallocation of resources, and inconsistencies among major food safety agencies.

Bernardi Highlights Bush Administration's Solutions to Save Homeowners from Foreclosure
Apr 30, 2008 -- The Bush Administration has put in place responsible solutions to help American families stay in their homes and avoid foreclosure, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Deputy Secretary Roy A. Bernardi said today.

Medicare Program; Proposed Changes to the Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems and Fiscal Year 2009 Rates; Proposed Changes to Disclosure of Physician Ownership in Hospitals and Physician; Self-Referral Rules; Comment Request     Federal Register 
Apr 30, 2008 -- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are requesting comments on Proposed Changes to the Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems and Fiscal Year 2009 Rates; Proposed Changes to Disclosure of Physician Ownership in Hospitals and Physician Self-Referral Rules; Proposed Collection of Information Regarding Financial Relationships Between Hospitals and Physicians.

Pew Commission Says Industrial Scale Farm Animal Production Poses ‘Unacceptable’ Risks to Public Health, Environment
Apr 30, 2008 -- The current industrial farm animal production system often poses unacceptable risks to public health, the environment and the welfare of the animals themselves, according to an extensive 2½-year examination conducted by the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production (PCIFAP).

Rural Health Open Door Forum Recheduled for May 21, 2008
Apr 30, 2008 -- The next Rural Health Open Door Forum has been rescheduled for Wednesday, May 21, 2008 at 2:00 pm Eastern time.

Speak Your Piece: Throwaway Lives?
Apr 30, 2008 -- Daily Yonder opinion article discusses how in Central Appalachia, and of the Virginia coalfields in particular, the overwhelming majority of the chronic health problems are self-inflicted, the consequence of tobacco, drug abuse, fatty and sugar-laden foods, lack of exercise and a fatalistic outlook on life that relieves individuals of responsibility for their own health.

Study Projects Shortage of Generalist Physicians for Adults
Apr 30, 2008 -- AHA News reports that the U.S. faces an impending shortage of up to 44,000 generalist physicians to care for adults, according to a study published online today by Health Affairs.