As Mental Health Cuts Mount, Psychiatric Cases Fill Jails
By BRANDI GRISSOM
Dressed in an orange Harris County Jail-issued jumpsuit, Sterling Shepherd sat at a metal picnic table and described what got him into this situation — again.
“I’m extremely mentally ill and extremely intelligent,” said Mr. Shepherd, a 43-year-old with intense brown eyes and a big grin. During a 12-minute interview on Feb. 15, Mr. Shepherd veered in and out of reality, talking at times lucidly about taking medication for his severe bipolar disorder and at others describing how Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. spoke to him through the television and explaining that Pope Benedict XVIis his grandfather.
Change in Kidney Transplant Policy Would Favor Younger Patients
By GARDINER HARRIS
Younger patients would be more likely than older ones to get the best kidneys under a proposal being considered by the nation’s organ transplant network.
The new policy would replace the present first-come-first-served system and is intended to provide better matches between the life expectancies of recipients and the functional life of donated kidneys.
Medicaid chief: Single payer may be better than ‘devil-may-be’ market
“I like the market, but the more and more I stay in it, the more and more I think that maybe a single payer would be better,” said Terry Dougherty, director of MassHealth – the state-run Medicaid plan that insures nearly 1.3 million Massachusetts residents – when lawmakers asked for his “personal view” on a single payer system.
Dougherty’s comment, made during a budget hearing at the Boston Public Library, prompted his boss, Secretary of Health and Human Services JudyAnn Bigby, to interject: “That’s his personal opinion.”
http://news.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1318143&format=text
By Kyle Cheney / State House News Service | Sunday, February 20, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Politics
A senior Patrick administration health care official said Friday that a single payer system may work more effectively and efficiently than Massachusetts’s existing insurance market, a high-profile endorsement that raised eyebrows at a legislative hearing.“I like the market, but the more and more I stay in it, the more and more I think that maybe a single payer would be better,” said Terry Dougherty, director of MassHealth – the state-run Medicaid plan that insures nearly 1.3 million Massachusetts residents – when lawmakers asked for his “personal view” on a single payer system.
Dougherty’s comment, made during a budget hearing at the Boston Public Library, prompted his boss, Secretary of Health and Human Services JudyAnn Bigby, to interject: “That’s his personal opinion.”
http://news.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1318143&format=text
LePage seeks to pull the plug on Dirigo; supporters urge restraint
Posted Feb. 24, 2011, at 2:08 p.m.
The LePage administration has the Dirigo Health Agency in its cross hairs.
The agency is best known as the home of the controversial DirigoChoice subsidized health insurance program. It also administers several federally funded health coverage plans and a special section of MaineCare, and it houses the Maine Quality Forum, which gathers and analyzes health care quality data from Maine hospitals and medical practices.
Gov. Paul LePage was openly critical of the quasi-governmental Dirigo agency during his campaign for the Blaine House, and thehead of his transition team predicted that “Dirigo will be Diri-gone” after LePage took office.
Fort Kent hospital lays off 4, cuts back administrator salaries
Posted Feb. 24, 2011, at 9:39 p.m.
FORT KENT, Maine — A major health care facility in the St. John Valley has cut a number of administrative positions, reduced remaining administrators’ pay by 2 percent and restructured its operations in order to stabilize its finances.
Northern Maine Medical Center has eliminated four administrators and shifted job responsibilities at the 49-bed hospital, Martin Bernstein, NMMC’s chief executive officer, confirmed Thursday. The affected employees were notified last Friday.
Critics question source of LePage’s opposition to BPA restrictions — Maine Politics — Bangor Daily News
AUGUSTA, Maine — As Gov. Paul LePage continued to weather national fallout for recently saying women could develop “little beards” if exposed to bisphenol-A, or BPA, questions continue to mount about the motives behind the governor’s proposal to reverse a ban on the substance.
Questions also hover over the administration’s Wednesday dismissal of Dr. Dora Anne Mills, the medical director of MaineCare and formerly the head of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Last year, as head of the CDC, Mills testified that BPA should become a priority chemical banned under the state’s Kid-Safe Products Act.
Dan Demeritt, a spokesman for the governor, said Thursday that Mills’ dismissal “was not linked in any way” to Mills’ public support of the BPA ban.
But some Democrats aren’t convinced. Rep. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, hoped Mills wasn’t fired because of her stance on BPA, while Rep. Bob Duchesne, D-Hudson, was convinced that she was.
http://new.bangordailynews.com/2011/02/24/politics/critics-question-source-of-lepages-opposition-to-bpa-restrictions/
Questions also hover over the administration’s Wednesday dismissal of Dr. Dora Anne Mills, the medical director of MaineCare and formerly the head of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Last year, as head of the CDC, Mills testified that BPA should become a priority chemical banned under the state’s Kid-Safe Products Act.
Dan Demeritt, a spokesman for the governor, said Thursday that Mills’ dismissal “was not linked in any way” to Mills’ public support of the BPA ban.
But some Democrats aren’t convinced. Rep. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, hoped Mills wasn’t fired because of her stance on BPA, while Rep. Bob Duchesne, D-Hudson, was convinced that she was.
http://new.bangordailynews.com/2011/02/24/politics/critics-question-source-of-lepages-opposition-to-bpa-restrictions/
Health Care Reform, Stimulus Are 'Gonna Kill People By Denying Care'
Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) recently conjured the specter of death panels, claiming that "Obamacare" and the stimulus bill had effectively set up a "panel" that will eventually serve to kill people by denying them care.
Here's the transcript of what Broun said in a podcast recorded by the conservative Heartland Institute, via ThinkProgress:
Is The Media Covering Medicine Accurately?
The manner in which the news media covers medical innovations does an unintentional disservice to American health care by reinforcing the idea that newer approaches always represent real medical advances. The media lead the public to believe that amazing new cures for old disease are always on the horizon. This is done, understandably, to hook the readers' or listeners' attention but, in so doing, the news services perpetuate the erroneous belief that in medicine, "new" and "more" is always "better." Often, when the studies that are behind the headlines are closely analyzed, the coverage is misleading or just plain wrong.
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