Health Care

With a new study pointing the finger at high fructose corn syrup as a culprit in America’s explosive epidemic of obesity, it is important to remember just why we are consuming so much of this commodity as opposed to table sugar....

...update on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and healthcare transformation in Hawaii....

Hawai‘i secures conditional approval from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to operate a state-based health insurance exchange....

The mother claims that her daughters teacher and state administrators not only failed to investigate the abuse that occurred on and off school grounds, but conspired to cover it up, and then suspended her.

A growing number of hospital systems are moving to start their own insurance plans, aiming to broaden their roles and prepare for the changes coming under the federal health care overhaul, says the Wall Street Journal....

OHA is partnering with The Queen’s Medical Center, Waianae Coast Comprehensive Center, the Hawaii Department of Health, the Department of Native Hawaiian Health and Hawaii Medical Service Association....

The Healthcare Association of Hawaii (HAH) invites the public to participate in the Hawaii Community Feedback Survey.

10th annual Ready or Not? Protecting the Public from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism report, Hawaii scored 4 out of 10 ....

Experiment with cash or cash-like incentives to encourage people to adopt healthy behaviors in the form conditional cash transfers....

“We have emptied the nation's hospitals, gutted state and local mental health programs, and turned involuntary treatment into a debate point instead of using it as a viable option to prevent tragedy...."

Tomorrow is an important day for Obamacare. It’s the deadline for states to declare their intentions about setting up their own health insurance exchanges....

Your medical plan is facing an unexpected expense, so you probably are, too. It's a new, $63-per-head fee to cushion the cost of covering people with pre-existing conditions....

According to the 23rd Edition of United Health Foundation’s 2012 America’s Health Rankings, Hawaii is No. 2 this year, up from No. 3 in 2011, in a ranking of all 50 states’ health data....

Insurance premiums could increase by thousands of dollars because of a new tax in President Obama's health care law....

State-based health exchange selects IT contractor and names agency of record for research, communication strategy and public relations...

· DATE: Tuesday, December 11, 2012

· TIME: 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

· PLACE: Conference Room 229, State Capitol, 415 South Beretania Street

Hawaii this year will collect $186 million in revenue from the 1998 tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but will spend just 4.8 percent of it on tobacco prevention programs....

...every day now brings another business owner in the news talking about cutting workers’ hours or making other cost-cutting moves in anticipation of Obamacare’s impact in 2013....

The spending ranges from less than 8 percent in Hawaii, where nursing home use is low, to more than 60 percent in North Dakota....

Hawaii was the only state to show a significant increase in the number of uninsured children from 2009-2011....

Governor Linda Lingle signed, SB 665 SDI HD2 CD1 which prohibits "a person representing a health maintenance organization under chapter 4320, a mutual benefit society issuing individual and group hospital or medical service plans under chapter 432, or any other health care organization" from membership on the Council....

It took a Federal Freedom of Information Act request to find out, but that is the message Hawai`i Free Press received from federal officials.

In December of 1994, one month after Oregon voters passed Measure 16, "physician assisted death," into law, Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) responded.
Ethix Corp., an HMO, announced that they "welcomed broad coverage for assisted suicide in a medical economic system already burdened."

The University of Hawaii continues to publish groundbreaking discoveries from their mesothelioma research efforts. But does the precarious state of our American research universities put mesothelioma research in jeopardy?

As City Councilwoman, I will continue my work with stakeholders to expedite the process to reopen the former HMC location because nothing is more important than the health and safety of our community.

Abercrombie’s campaign platform portrays abandonment of the Prepaid Act as a step to “Develop a System of Universal Healthcare.”  It is exactly the opposite.  In the fine print, Abercrombie focuses squarely on managing the State’s finances so “costs are controlled so that we can collectively afford the system and pay for it in a way that is fair and sustainable. We need to create efficiencies out of the current incoherence in our system, create incentives and opportunities for cost-effective preventive healthcare….”

It’s all about the money.

“Here in Hawai'i, we already have our Prepaid Health Care Act, which enables a vast majority of our residents to be insured...."  (Then why is he trying to dismantle it?)

In Honolulu, the Planned Parenthood counselor “Rogue” tells the woman it is okay to have multiple abortions of girl pregnancies so long as the abortions are spaced far enough apart....

...the bill would help doctors who make money prescribing narcotic pain relievers ....

... imminent storm that is about to occur due to simultaneous implementation of multiple programs that will create extraordinary financial and administrative burden ....

“Forty years ago, Hawai'i’s groundbreaking Prepaid Health Care Act gave us an enduring advantage in health insurance coverage,” said Dr. Tsang. “However .... "

Word comes from state Sen. Josh Green, a doctor who had asked for the opinion from Attorney General David Louie....

This week’s closure of Hawaii Medical Center hospitals in Ewa and Liliha—with the loss of 1,000 jobs--will be the first of many unless the Abercrombie administration abandons its suicidal policy of dismantling the Hawaii Prepaid Health Care Act.

There will be a panel presentation on the current status of PAS in Hawaii at the Capitol auditorium on December 8th from 7:00 to 9:00 PM.

...states are already responding to Obamacare’s “maintenance of effort” clause and the anticipated 2014 expansion by cutting services....

...Scott O'Neal, the counselor named in the lawsuit, and his lawyer, Randall K. Schmidt, fired back with a request to enjoin Green from making further media statements to ensure a fair trial....

“the key driver of increasing state and local expenditures is health-care costs, especially Medicaid and subsidies for health-insurance exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009.”

The mother, Jane Doe, claims that the "defendants had actual or constructive knowledge of what was going on."

Neil Abercrombie says Hawaii can’t afford Micronesians.

All four members of Hawaii’s Congressional delegation say Micronesians are “unsustainable.”

Arkansas disagrees.

“Where we are required to do sampling and have found that of those in our sample who can be identified, roughly 7% to 10% of them are not eligible. In an additional large number of cases, we are unable to receive information to make a determination. So it could be much greater.”

Listen carefully to the nurses in this video. They are ready to dump the HGEA.

Big news release which can be condensed into one word: RATIONING.

The median annual rate in Hawaii for a private nursing home room is $122,640 per year, greater than the national rate of $77,745 per year.

Nationally, the median annual cost of long term care in an assisted living facility is $39,135, an increase of 6.0 percent annually over the past six years. In Hawaii, the annual cost of assisted living care is $45,900 ....

In 2012, Obamacare will create the “Value-Based Purchasing Program” in Medicare. Using a pay-for-performance scheme, the program will reimburse hospitals and other health care providers at different rates based on how they score on performance measures chosen by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

KITV reported that the accusations against Dr. Palafox may have been false and driven by two DOH employees he was about to lay off. Information I have confirms that the Federal Government does not view Dr. Palafox as one under any investigation.

"Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void."

Adding to its developing reputation for secrecy, the Abercrombie Administration has now clearly lied about at least one aspect of the sudden withdrawal of Dr Neal Palafox’s DoH nomination.

Governor Abercrombie’s nominee to head the State Department of Health, Dr Neal Palafox MD, has suddenly withdrawn his name from consideration. HNN and the Star-Advertiser report that Palafox may be “involved in a medical reimbursement investigation.”  Palafox was picked over Senator Josh Green MD of Kona.

The inevitable failure of DOTax to replicate CGI’s tax collection frenzy should cut revenues by about $27M per year. How many government union jobs will be lost or furloughed due to the bumbling HGEA leaders’ choice of targets?