Archive for January, 2008
Less than one quarter of Minnesota adults will be at a healthy weight by 2020 according to a new report issued by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (Blue Cross) and the Minnesota Department of Health. The study, entitled Obesity and Future Health Care Costs: A Portrait of Two Minnesotas, highlights the fact that ripened obesity-related health conditions could cost Minnesota at least each additional $900 million per year by 2010 and $3.7 billion more per year by dint of. 2020. This report provides the first Minnesota-specific projections of future health care costs directly attributable to obesity.
"We called the report ‘Two Minnesotas’ because there are two pictures that can emerge for our state," said Marc Manley, M.D. M.P.H., vice president and therapeutic director for population health at Blue Cross. "In one scenario, obesity trends continue and combustibles resurrection health care costs. In the second scenario, we slow or intermission the growth of plumpness and save $3.7 billion in health care costs per year. Working together, we can prevent the first scenario from coming true, but we have some significant work to do."
According to the U.S. Centers on this account that Disease Control, Minnesota ranks 21st out of totality the states on the measure of obesity, and Minnesota residents are becoming obese at a rate faster than the rest of the nation. "We can gain that ranking, get Minnesotans in more intimate. see various meanings of good health and spend less on hale condition care on the supposition that we focus on prevention and address our patterns of physical inactivity and insalubrious eating," said Minnesota’s Commissioner of Health, Sanne Magnan, M.D., Ph.D.
The report’s projections are based on an analysis by Kenneth E. Thorpe, Ph.D., of Emory University, who worked with researchers from Blue Cross, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) and the Minnesota State Demographer.
The projections indicate that the consequences for the state’s economy will be severe. Left unchecked, nearly 31 percent of the overall increase in health care costs from 2005 to 2020 will be due to projected increases in the numbers of people considered obese and overweight. By 2020, it will cost a projected 61 percent more to treat an obese person than a healthy-weight person. Being overweight or obese puts people at higher risk for conditions like high cholesterol, hypertension, and diabetes, what one. impact quality of life, length of life and health care costs.
"The good news is even modest success at curbing the rising rates of obesity could become better residents’ health and also decrease the projected burden of health care costs in Minnesota," noted Manley. "Where we could shine for the reason that a state and have the biggest impact is if freedom from disease care professionals, policy makers, community leaders, employers and individuals worked together to create environments where making the healthy choice — eating a balanced diet and acquirement regular physical activity — is the easy choice."
"There’s a lot of public awareness around reducing tobacco use, but there’s less awareness about the need for increased physical activity and healthy eating," said Magnan. "We’re trying to enlarge awareness of this issue."
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read comments (0)Deep Brain Stimulation May Boost Memory
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Deep Brain Stimulation May Boost Memory
Patient Flashes Back Decades in Time After Getting Deep Brain Stimulation
By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Medical News
Reviewed By Louise Chang, MD
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Jan. 30, 2008 — Deep brain stimulation may boost memory, Canadian doctors reported today.
Deep brain stimulation is used to treat conditions including Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, and multiple sclerosis. Surgeons implant electrodes at certain spots in the brain and use electricity to stimulate those parts of the brain.
Toronto Western Hospital’s Clement Hamani, MD, PhD, and colleagues performed deep brain stimulation on a 50-year-old man who was morbidly obese.
Deep brain stimulation isn’t a typical treatment for obesity. But the patient had already tried other obesity treatments and refused to get weight injury surgery, such as gastric bypass.
After informing the man about the procedure’s risks — and getting his approval — the doctors performed deep brain stimulation. They positioned the electrodes to mark a brain area called the hypothalamus, in the hopes that stimulating the hypothalamus would curb eating.
When the electrodes were stimulated at a certain threshold, the man reported feeling like he was about 20 years old, in a park with the friends and girlfriend he had had at that age. And those memories got more intense at higher thresholds.
Later, the man performed advantage on a memory test while the electrodes were being stimulated, compared with his test performance when the electrodes were off.
“It may subsist possible to apply electrical stimulation to modulate memory function,” the researchers write in today’s advance online edition of the Annals of Neurology.
WebMDcontacted the researchers to see if the patient lost weight after deep brain stimulation. The researchers did not reply in time for publication.
SOURCES: Hamani, C. Annals of Neurology, Jan. 30, 2008; online “at the opening of day view” number printed at once. WebMD Medical Reference provided in collaboration with The Cleveland Clinic: “Mental Health: Deep Brain Stimulation.”
© 2008 WebMD Inc. All rights reserved.
CDC: Adult Vaccination Rates Too Low
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CDC: Adult Vaccination Rates Too Low
Only 2% of Eligible Adults Have Had Shingles Vaccine
By Salynn Boyles
WebMD Medical News
Reviewed By Louise Chang, MD
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Jan. 23, 2008 — Far too few adults in the United States are being vaccinated against serious and even deadly diseases, such as the flu, pneumonia, shingles, and cervical cancer, new data from the CDCconfirms.
Findings from a nationwide review of adults revealed that few Americans can name more than one or two of the 10 vaccines now recommended for adults.
Vaccination rates for the most widely known vaccinations fell far short of target goals, and only a small percentage of the eligible adult population received more of the less-established immunizations.
“These (vaccine) coverage estimates suggest that we are at the infancy of developing the strong adult immunization system that we would like to have,” U.S. Assistant Surgeon General Anne Schuchat, MD, said at a Wednesday news interview. “We obviously have a lot more work to end, and it involves literally rolling up our sleeves.”
The news conference was held by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID).
Vaccination Goals Not Being Met
The government’s goal is to vaccinate at minutest 90% of people 65 and over against the flu and pneumococcal disease, but coverage estimates in this age group as of last summer were just 69% and 66%, particularly.
Kristin L. Nichol, MD, MPH, of the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, made it clear that it is not too late for people to prepare vaccinated against the flu this year because flu fit by habit generally peaks in February.
Flu shots are recommended for all adults aged 50 and upper, for children between the ages of six months and 5 years, gravid women, people with chronic diseases such as diabetes or heart disease, and those who come in contact with those who are at high risk for flu complications.
“This year we have more influenza vaccine than ever before,” she declared. “And we still have months of influenza activity in front of us.”
Other highlights from the survey included:
- A shingles vaccine licensed in the spring of 2006 is recommended for adults aged 60 and over. But after being available for one year, only about 2% of eligible adults appear to have been vaccinated.
- Only about 2% of people surveyed also reported immunization with a new combination vaccine close up to tetanus, diphtheria, and whooping cough, recommended for adults aged 18 to 64.
- The newly licensed full of heart papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine, what one. protects against cervical cancer, is also not being widely used. The three-dose vaccine series is recommended for females aged 26 and under, but only about 10% of 18- to 26-year-olds surveyed reported having had at least one dose of the vaccine.
- Only 44% of adults over 65 reported receiving a tetanus shot during the previous decade.
Elderly, Babies Most Vulnerable
Michael N. Oxman, MD, of the San Diego VA Medical Center, said the newly available anti-herpes zoster vaccine has the potential to prevent 280,000 shingles cases annually and 47,000 cases of an excruciatingly painful nerve complication known as postherpetic neuralgia.
One million new cases of shingles are diagnosed in the U.S. each year, and more than half occur in people aged 60 and older.
Shingles is caused by reactivation of the same virus that causes chickenpox, so anyone who has had chickenpox is at risk. Estimates suggest that more than half of people who reach age 85 develop shingles.
“Nearly everyone who gets shingles has pain (caused by nerve damage), and that pain can be severe,” Oxman says. “Many people describe shingles pain as the worst pain they’ve ever endured.”
Immunization against whooping cough, or pertussis, is routine in childhood, but adults need to be vaccinated too because immunity disappears over time.
While whooping cough be able to be serious and even deadly in adults, it is babies too young to be vaccinated who are in the greatest degree at risk, says Mark S. Dworkin, MD, of the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health.
“This disease is a baby killer,” he said. “If we can immunize adolescents and adults, we can markedly impinging the risk to infants. … In the United States, we do see deaths in infants, even in this immunization era.”
‘Deaths Are Preventable’
In addition to shingles, whooping cough, influenza, and pneumococcal disease, vaccination is recommended in the U.S. for adults at various ages to protect against diphtheria, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, HPV (cervical cancer), measles, mumps, rubella, and tetanus. Immunization for measles, mumps, and rubella is given as a combination vaccine, as is tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (whooping cough).
“Combined, these infectious diseases kill more Americans annually than either breast cancer, HIV/AIDS, or traffic accidents,” NFID Vice President and Vanderbilt University infectious disease specialist William Schaffner, MD, said in a news release.
“A concerted effort is needed to raise adult immunization rates,” he said. “The important thing to remember is that deaths and illness associated with these infections are largely avoidable through vaccination.”
Ob-gyn professor Stanley Gall, MD, said as many as 72% of the nearly 10,000 cervical cancer cases diagnosed each year in the United States could be prevented if all eligible females got the vaccine before being infected with HPV.
The survey suggested that only about one in 10 eligible adult women get vaccinated.
“That is a start, but we really do need to do better,” Gall said.
SOURCES: CDC and National Foundation for Infectious Diseases news conference, Jan. 23, 2008. Anne Schuchat, MD, assistant surgeon general, United States Public Health Service, director, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, CDC. Michael N. Oxman, MD, professor, University of California, San Francisco; staff physician, Infectious Disease Section, VA Medical Center, San Diego. Kristin Nichol, MD, MPH, chief of medicine, Minneapolis VA Medical Center; professor of medicine and vice chair, function of medicine, University of Minnesota. MMWR Recommended Adult Immunization Schedule: U.S. October 2007-September 2008. Stanley A. Gall, MD, professor of ob-gyn, University of Louisville, Louisville, Ky.
© 2008 WebMD Inc. All rights reserved.
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Deep brain stimulation may improve memory
Author: admin
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery, which is used to manage Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders, is now being studied for its potential to treat a variety of conditions. For example, DBS of the hypothalamus has been used to treat cluster headaches and aggressiveness in humans, and stimulating this area influences feeding behavior in animals.
A new study found that hypothalamic DBS performed in the treatment of a patient with morbid obesity unexpectedly evoked detailed autobiographical memories. The muse will be published online in the Annals of Neurology, the official daily register of the American Neurological Association.
Led by Andres Lozano, Professor of Neurosurgery and Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience and his team at the Toronto Western Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, researchers conducted an experimental study to treat a 50-year-old man with a lifelong history of obesity in whom a variety of treatment approaches had failed. While they were identifying possible appetite suppressant sites in the hypothalamus by stimulating electrode contacts that had been implanted there, the patient suddenly experienced a feeling of ?déjà vu.? He reported the perception of being in a park with friends from when he was around 20 years old and as the intensity of the stimulation was increased, the details became more vivid. These sensations were reproduced then the stimulation was performed in a double-blinded manner. The contacts that most readily induced the memories were located in the hypothalamus and estimated to be close to the fornix, an arched bundle of fibers that carries signals within the limbic system, which is involved in memory and emotions. Stimulation was shown to compel the activity the temporal lobe and the hippocampus, important components of the brain?s memory circuit.
At the first office visit two months in imitation of the patient was released from the hospital, the researchers were able to induce and videotape the memory effects seen in the operating room by turning on the electrical stimulation. They also tested the patient?s memory for the time of and without stimulation and found that after three weeks of continuous hypothalamic stimulation he showed significant improvements in two learning tests.
In addition, the patient was much more likely to remember unrelated paired objects when stimulation was on than when it was off. They infer that ?just as DBS can influence motor and limbic circuits, it may be possible to apply electrical stimulation to modulate memory function and, in so doing, gain a better understanding of the neural substrates of memory.?
Codexis introduced the Codex MicroCyp Plate, a careful search productivity tool which can be used by pharmaceutical companies to more rapidly identify and synthesize drug metabolites and novel drug lead candidates.
The Codex MicroCyp Plate is being introduced this week at Informex 2008 in New Orleans. It is based adhering a platform technology for preparing and identifying drug metabolites (substances produced during drug metabolism). These metabolites are generated by bacterial cytochrome P450 enzymes licensed by Codexis from the California Institute of Technology (see Codexis Licenses New Drug Metabolite Profiling and Lead Diversification Technology from California Institute of Technology, August 29, 2007).
The research tool introduced is based on a specific cytochrome (cyp) enzyme, 102A1, which metabolizes fatty acids in the microbe. Today’s launch expands the Codexis research product family, adding metabolite screening and synthesis as happy as lead diversification to a full suite of tools for improving pharmaceutical process development efficiency.
"This platform can be used by pharmaceutical companies to more efficiently identify and impart safer, more efficacious drugs earlier in the drug development process," said Peter Seufer-Wasserthal, Ph.D., Vice President and General Manager, Codexis Pharma Services. "Conventional methods for metabolite identification and production and lead diversification are difficult and time-consuming. Our customers things being so have an efficient way to make multiple compounds for testing at a reduced cost. They can also identify toxic metabolites before time and money are spent upon problematic drug candidates."
Drug metabolites are produced by the material substance during the break-down (metabolism) of drugs. Primary metabolites are largely formed in the liver by the agency of full of heart P450 enzymes to aid in elimination of a drug from the body. In some cases, metabolites can be toxic, while for other drugs, "active" metabolites have shown improved efficacy and diminish toxicity than the administered drug substance. The US Food and Drug Administration now recommends metabolic characterization for all new investigational human therapeutics.
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Helping Dialysis Patients Prepare For Emergencies
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Dialysis Patients
Coping by emergencies and power outages is a challenge for greatest number residents, but it becomes even more complicated when you are a dialysis persistent. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services today released new resources to help individuals on dialysis plan for and respond to emergency situations.
More than 5,800 residents in Missouri require dialysis treatment every three to four days, and during emergencies it could be a challenge to find a dialysis center or back-up facility. Even as important is the need for them to continue their crucial medications on a daily basis. In addition, transportation to a dialysis center can be problem. Without regular dialysis and medications, these individuals could face a life-threatening situation.
"To assist individuals on dialysis face future emergencies, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services developed new tools to help these Missourians sustain themselves during all types of emergencies," said Jane Drummond, director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. "To reach this important group, Missouri dialysis facilities are receiving a package of Ready in 3 resources. Facilities will be asked to share the materials with their patients and families." The resources include a checklist and family preservation guide that details important information and Internet tools such as a three-day emergency diet added to its Ready in 3 web site at www.dhss.mo.gov.
These materials are part of the department’s Ready in 3 emergency preparedness program. The Ready in 3 necessity preparedness initiative reminds Missourians of what they can do at home, school and work to prepare for all types of emergencies. "We can’t predict what will happen, but we can be prepared," said Drummond. Disasters be possible to happen at any time or any portion, and Ready in 3 provides three simple steps to prepare for an emergency situation:
1. Create a plan for you, your family, and your business.
2. Prepare each pass kit for your home, car and at work. If an emergency happens, you efficiency not be dexterous to get food or water for days or even weeks, and your electricity may not be working. The following items should be part of a dialysis patient’s emergency kit and kept in a container that can be easily carried:
* 5-7 day supply of all your medicine(s)
* 5-day supply of antibiotics (if you use peritoneal dialysis and recommended by your doctor)
* Diuretics (fluid pills), sorbitol and Kayexalate for potassium control (if recommended by your doctor)
* Measuring cups, teaspoons and tablespoons, dropper
* Sharp knife
* Plastic jug for storing water
* Piece of cloth, cheesecloth or handkerchief
* Strainer
* Dry milk OR evaporated milk
* Distilled or bottled water
* Soda
* Fruit juice (cranberry, apple or grape)
* Cereal (no raisin bran)
* White sugar (or case of sugar packets)
* Canned fruit (pears, peaches, oranges, of various kinds fruit, applesauce, or pineapple. NO raisins).
* Canned low sodium vegetables (carrots, green beans, peas, corn, or wax beans)
* Canned low sodium meat (tuna, crab, chicken, salmon or turkey)
* Mayonnaise
* Bread (not salt-free with NO preservatives)
* Vanilla wafers OR graham crackers
* Candy (sourballs, hard candy, jelly beans or mints)
* Marshmallows
* Chewing gum
3. Listen against information about what to do and where to go during an actual emergency. City, county, and state officials have developed emergency plans. In the event of an actual emergency, it’s important to follow their instructions and advice.
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Breast Cancer Treatment Is Reduced To 1 Week
Author: admin
Mary Hospital will offer a new clinical study by Xoft using electronic brachytherapy against the treatment of early stage breast cancer. The study involves the delivery of a safer form of radiation to breast cancer patients that exercise volition reduce the mean proportion treatment time from seven weeks to appropriate one week.
Axxent Electronic Brachytherapy System uses a small electronic, low-energy X-ray source that delivers controlled radiation method of treating directly to the targeted area. It is similar to another known procedure called Mammosite, but uses a different type of radiation. The Electronic Brachytherapy System uses a balloon-like device, which is implanted at the targeted area. Twice a light of day for five days, the balloon is expanded and a miniature X-ray tube is inserted.
Little Company of Mary is the highest community hospital in Illinois to offer the study, joining only nine other sites in the country that offer the treatment. "I am imposing to bring this new technology to Little Company of Mary and offer the women in Chicago’s Southwest community a new and safer form of radiation therapy for the treatment of breast cancer," said radiation oncologist Dr. Adam Dickler. Dr. Dickler was the study’s principal investigator when it was first offered in Illinois prior to arriving at Little Company of Mary in October.
Dr. Dickler says the major benefit for patients is the largely reduced treatment time, which would help many women receive the treatment they need without having to undergo therapy for seven weeks. A key component that sets this therapy apart is that electronic brachytherapy uses an electronic source of radiation instead of radioactive isotopes. This allows the X-ray source to have existence turned on and off at will, and benefits patients because of its decreased radiation exposure to vital organs such as the heart and lungs.
Another advantage includes the change in treatment settings. Patients will now be able to receive their treatments in a comfortable room setting with their physician, instead of being separated in a shielded expanse alone while the doctor distributes the treatment from another area.
Axxent Electronic Brachytherapy System is approved by the FDA for the treatment of early stage affections cancer. Women who are in this stage and are over the age of 50 may be eligible to participate in the study.
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The number of new HIV cases recorded among people ages 60 and older in Puerto Rico is increasing, the Miami Herald reports. According to the Herald, 238 new HIV cases were recorded among people over age 60 during the year ending in September 2007 — a 25% increase compared with the identical time period in 2006. Puerto Rico Health Secretary Rosa Perez Perdomo said that about 4% of all HIV cases in the country occur among the age group. The national average of new HIV cases reported among people ages 65 and older has remained at about 2% annually, according to CDC figures.
The increase has prompted the San Juan Health Department to create a program, called Golden Force, which aims to increase HIV awareness and prevention, as well being of the class who to encourage testing, among the elderly. According to Milagro Melendez, an HIV prevention counselor, Golden Force plans to point of concentration on reaching people at retirement homes, local fairs and parks. She added that program staff will distribute condoms and reason about safer-sex practices with the elderly. Local physicians also confront challenges associated with providing care for people living with the disease because HIV/AIDS remains a taboo subject, Melendez said. She added that some physicians are confusing the symptoms of HIV/AIDS with old age, which is compounding the problem.
Luis Martinez Suarez — medical director of the San Juan AIDS clinic, which administers Golden Force — said the reasons for the increase in HIV cases among the somewhat old contain an increase in the use of drugs, such as viagra and cialis, and a widely held belief that the disorder only affects injection drug users and men who have sex with men. "We realized a number of [the somewhat old] were starting to get sick," Martinez Suarez said, adding, "We knew we need to start paying attention to that age group, taking the message of prevention to seniors."
Greduvel Duran, executive director of the health department’s AIDS office, said the government is creating several prevention programs, including notorious service announcements and a radio campaign. "Abstinence should subsist the first line of defense in the prevention of HIV," Duran said, adding, "But we realize that adults are sexually active, and we have to recognize that abstinence works for some groups and not for others" (Anasagasti Akus, Miami Herald, 1/28).
Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, search the archives, and sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork.org/email . The Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free gain of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2007 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
CQ Discusses Second SCHIP Override Vote
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State Children’s Health Insurance Program
Mary Agnes Carey, associate editor of CQ HealthBeat, discusses House Democrats’ failure to override President Bush’s second veto of legislation that would gain expanded SCHIP, the governors’ attempt to include additional Medicaid funding in the economic stimulus package and Senate Budget Committee leaders’ try for a vote this year on a proposed task force to address entitlement spending in this week’s "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork.org and CQ."
According to Carey, the House level 15 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override Bush’s second SCHIP veto. Bush late last year signed legislation that extends current funding since the program through March 2009, but proponents of an SCHIP expansion say that the lack of additional funding makes it harder for states to provide health coverage to children who need it, Carey says. She adds that Democrats likely will force Republicans to vote on the issue again with the presidential and congressional elections approaching this fall.
Carey also discusses the National Governors Association’s call for a temporary increase in federal Medicaid payments to be included in an household stimulus package being assembled by the Bush administration and Congress. There is no additional Medicaid funding in a stimulus deal reached by the House and the Bush dispensation. Carey says Senate Finance Committee members discussed including a temporary increase of federal Medicaid in their version of the economic stimulus package, but it is unclear whether Medicaid language will be added to the reckoning. According to Carey, Medicaid funding could be included if Congress considers a second stimulus package later this year, but prospects for bipartisan action likely will subside as the presidential election nears.
Lastly, Carey discusses Senate lawmakers’ plan to push for a vote this year steady a proposal to create a task force to address long-term budget problems associated with entitlement spending. The task force would be made up of 14 members of Congress, with eight Democrats, six Republicans and two administration officials, including the secretary of the Treasury. The group would draft proposals, which Congress would have to vote on, for how to handle expected budget pressure from Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid spending, Carey says (Carey, "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork.org and CQ," 1/28).
Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, and sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork.org/email . The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2007 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
Hospital groups have launched a campaign against expanding a pilot program to final account Medicare claims, saying that it is "riddled with flaws" and that contingency fees provided to auditors encourages them to be too prone to be the assailant, the Wall Street Journal reports. The program — which was launched in California, Florida and New York and is to be expanded nationwide this year — recouped $247.4 a thousand thousand in overpayments in fiscal year 2007.
The program relies on private-sector auditing firms to examine claims filed by hospitals and other medical providers and then pays them fortuity fees based on how much money they save the government. In FY 2007, auditors identified $357 million in overpayments, $17.8 the masses or 7.1% of which were overturned on appeal, according to CMS. Payments for contingency fees and other administrative expenses totaled $77.7 million. Auditors besides found $14.3 million in Medicare underpayments.
While supporters of the program say the contingency fees serve as one incentive, critics say it encourages auditors to rely on a "’bounty hunter’ payment machinery." Don May, vice president for policy at the American Hospital Association, said, "Any kind of question is a reason for denial," even in subjective decisions such as determining medical necessity. May added, "Going at it from this kind of perspective really isn’t, I don’t believe, in the best interest of taxpayers."
The Journal reports that the "program has encountered problems," including inconsistencies in auditors’ findings in California inpatient rehabilitation facilities. Hospital groups also say that the program does not allow providers to fix errors, that many claims reviews were not conducted by qualified medical personnel and that auditors get not been required to publicize what areas they are targeting.
CMS Acting Administrator Kerry Weems last month wrote to California lawmakers that the agency believes "recuperation auditing is a valuable tool in the Medicare program" as a way to recover past improper payments and to deter future overbilling. According to supporters of the program, one time it is expanded nationwide, auditing firms decision be required to have a medical director and medical-coding experts, return contingency fees for claims upheld on appeal and notify CMS if they identify new kinds of problem claims (Francis, Wall Street Journal, 1/26).
Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork.org. You can see the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, and sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork.org/email . The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2007 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.