Health Care

...In 2015, use of e-cigarettes may have resulted in an additional 18,000 long-term ex-smokers in England....

...Hawaii hospital readmissions fell 13.4% in 5 years....

WalletHub analysts recently compared all 50 states and the District of Columbia across 3 key dimension: health care costs, access, and outcomes....

The latest figures are from the Hawaiʻi Physician Workforce Assessment, released today....

The State of Obesity: Better Policies for a Healthier America, a report from the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation....

...Why are matters of life and death not taking precedence over every other issue facing the state at this time?....

At the very moment when they should be preparing for a possible hurricane, Maui is looking at cutting back health services....

...the government made a couple of interventions in the market that allowed the manufacturer to raise prices....

The impact of the bed closures will mean a decreased capacity with critical services such as Stroke, Heart, Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Trauma and other critical care needs requiring transport to Oahu....

With a new date of July 1, 2017, we will all avoid the perpetual raising and dashing of expectations as interim closing dates are repeatedly set and cancelled....

Paper Scripts! Hawaii is the lowest ranked state for electronic prescription of controlled substances ....

SB2077 could result in the ERS plan being disqualified by the Internal Revenue Service....

...frozen bay scallops produced on November 23-24, 2015 in the Philippines....

Obesity among Hawaii high schoolers declines, bucking national trend....

So what prompted them to address the issue nearly 2 months late? ....

Genki Sushi Restaurants on Oahu and Kauai will remain closed until the Department of Health can ensure their safe operation. All frozen scallop products from distributors Koha Oriental Foods and True World Foods are being restricted and will be destroyed....

...we are eliminating the Obamacare exchange; we are doing just fine with prepaid....

"...we have been searching house to house the areas where the cases live and visited on Maui. We are looking for additional human cases and looking for mosquitoes and breeding sites....”

The Maui Region hospitals will be transferred from Hawai‘i Health System Corporation management to Kaiser not earlier than November 6, 2016....

Hawaii has only 4.9 malpractice lawsuits per 100K residents per year....

... contributions would be included in the employees’ income and taxed as normal wages when contributed. Further, the employees would be subject to federal income taxes on the portion of their benefits funded by the employer at the time that the benefits vest ....

...what happens if a benefit plan does get disqualified? According to the IRS’ website, there are potentially severe consequences to the employer, the employees, and the plan itself....

...Ratings for 28 Hospitals in Hawaii....

...the 2016 Summer Olympic Games are set to begin at the end of this week in Rio de Janeiro....

...pay providers for achieving results in lieu of a traditional fee-for-service model....

...kabuki theater aimed at baffling and confusing union members to make it look like their union bosses are actually doing something for them when they’re not....

Rats’ blood vessels took at least three times longer to recover function after only a minute of breathing secondhand marijuana smoke....

You would think that posting care home inspections online would have been easy....

When politics start to affect public health and well being, there’s a major problem....

In essence, the legislature just handed the Hawaii taxpayers a bill, and even they don't know how high it's going to be....

"The bill jeopardizes the Employees Retirement System’s tax exempt status...."

... Grassroot Institute Exposes Flaws in Veto Override Regarding Maui Hospitals ....

The caregiver of an elderly Zika patient in Utah has been diagnosed with the virus, raising questions among health officials about how the virus was transmitted....

Hawaii's First Direct Primary Care Practice Opens in Kailua-Kona ....

Legislators will convene on Monday, July 18th for a special session to determine whether $25 million in severance pay will be paid to union employees transitioning to new employment in a private hospital system....

"The legislature must avoid establishing a costly disincentive that would hinder the saving of other neighbor islands' hospital systems through healthy public-private partnerships...."

“There’s plenty of resistance from insurance companies at the state level against direct primary care."

...In a Special Session, Legislators may amend the bill and take a vote - bill passes with a simple majority....

...The new hospital public-private partnership is estimated to save the state $260 million in costs over the next decade....these savings could disappear if the costs for the transition is too great....

...the costs can add up to as much as $57,772 per year in Hawaii....

...single-payer advocates are focusing on individual states....

Compact Impact: Why Pacific Islanders are Fleeing to Hawaii - Neil Mellen...

On July 12, any measure that has not been signed or vetoed by Gov. Ige will become law with or without his signature....

20 years ago, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that an agreement between the County of Hawaii and a private contractor for the operation of a county landfill violated civil service laws....

...according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2016 KIDS COUNT Data Book....

...negotiations continue and the order still prevents the parties from actually closing the transaction....

...Meet the Insurance Executive Behind Assisted Suicide in Hawaii....

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey is administered in odd-numbered years to Hawai‘i public school students in grades 6–12....

"All patients of all ages will be negatively impacted by service cuts, so please support privatization.”

Zika will not just disappear in Hawaii, it will take constant vigilance, and lots of pesticide spray, to keep it in check....