BLOGGER VS. BLOGGER: Weighing the Cost of Obama’s Proposed Medicare Rule Change

Patient advocacy groups are “cheering” the Obama administration’s proposed settlement of a nationwide class-action lawsuit that would allow thousands of U.S. residents with chronic conditions or disabilities to qualify for Medicare coverage of home health care services.

INTERESTING READS: Medical Community Rejects Bachmann’s HPV Vaccine Claims; Computers Can Feel Your Pain

• “Bachmann claims HPV vaccine might cause ‘mental retardation,” WaPo‘s “The Fix”: Anything to remain relevant in this debate.

INTERESTING READS: How Health Reform Affects (Certain) Individuals

Today’s “Interesting Reads” features two articles that examine the effect of the new health reform law on blacks and patients at nursing homes.

• “Black Americans Look To Health Plan For New Hope“: In a “Morning Edition” report for NPR, Cheryl Corley notes that incidence rates of cancer and other diseases, as well the death rates for cancer, stroke and diabetes are higher among blacks than they are for whites. “So when some members of Congress called the new health care overhaul the Civil Rights Act of the 21st century, many African-Americans agreed,” Corley writes. However, there now is “a debate about whether the coming changes will actually ease the health disparities that black Americans face,” she adds. Corley recently visited two clinics in Chicago — which are a part of the Access Community Health Network, a group of 60 clinics that serve low-income or minority neighborhoods in the city’s South Side region called — to speak to physicians and patients about the new law (Corley, “Morning Edition,” NPR, 4/22).
• “Despite Federal Help, States Struggle To Move People Out Of Nursing Homes“: Kaiser Health News examines the “Money Follows the Person” initiative, a federally funded program in Georgia that Congress established in 2005. The pilot project sought to shift more people out of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities and provide them with assistance to live more independently. The project also aimed to reduce tens of millions of dollars in costs for Medicaid, which pays for two-thirds of nursing home bills (Galewitz, Kaiser Health News, 4/22).

by Santosh Rao, staff writer