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Swine Influenza Daily Update: 20 July 2009, Wales
The NPHS influenza surveillance scheme, which records reports of diagnoses of flu from more than 300 GP practices across Wales, shows low but increasing levels of influenza activity across Wales. Further detail can be found on the NPHS website: click here.
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Blue Dogs' Bargain Blasted As Centrists' Role Questioned
Kaiser Health News reports that an agreement by House Democrats with fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats has a cadre of detractors, including "state officials worried about increased Medicaid costs and liberal lawmakers upset about a proposed reduction in subsidies for low-income families to buy insurance."
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Obama Administration's Filings On Asylum For Abused Foreign Women Brings 'Overdue Dose Of Clarity,' Editorial Says
The Obama administration recently laid out "a clear but narrow pathway" toward asylum for foreign women who have experienced severe physical or sexual abuse, a New York Times editorial states, noting that the U.S. government has debated the issue for 15 years. According to the editorial, the "question is not the fact of persecution, but whether the women would qualify for protection under the law, which limits asylum to those who suffer due to their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or "membership in a particular social group."" It adds that attorneys general under former Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush "have gone both ways and in circles" in their decisions.Although "[n]ot all victims will qualify," the Obama administration "made it clear that some could," the editorial states. "A petitioner would have to demonstrate to a judge that domestic violence was widely tolerated by society and government in her country, that women were viewed as subordinate to men and that she had no place within its borders to find a safe haven," the editorial adds.Department of Homeland Security lawyers say the new definition could apply to a severely abused Mexican woman, identified only by her initials, whose asylum petition is before a San Francisco immigration court. The editorial notes that DHS "did not immediately recommend asylum" for the woman, but "it did urge that she be allowed to continue to gather evidence and to refine her case according to the standards it proposed." The editorial concludes, "Advocates who have fought for years to advance women"s rights are celebrating the department"s action, which brings reasoned compassion, and an overdue dose of clarity, to an issue of anguish and difficulty" (New York Times, 7/19).
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G.E. Offers Loans For E-Health Record Purchases

"General Electric Co. said its GE Capital division will make no-interest loans to hospitals and health-care providers that purchase GE"s health-care information technology," The Wall Street Journal reports. The company "expects to offer $100 million in interim financing to hospitals and health-care providers for projects that are expected to qualify for funds from the U.S. government"s economic-stimulus package" as part of a program called Stimulus Simplicity. "GE said the move offers doctors, community health clinics and hospitals a bridge to qualify for stimulus funds and faster access to electronic medical records." The federal stimulus package "allocates $19 billion to health-care information technology," but Vishal Wanchoo, "president and chief executive of GE Healthcare IT, said many hospitals are cash-strapped and unclear on when stimulus funds will start flowing." Vinchoo adds that Simply Stimulus will "take away a lot of the concerns hospitals have" and will help GE "increase our market share." Currently, "healthcare IT makes up only 10% of GE Healthcare"s $17 billion in annual revenue," but the company hopes to "expand its presence in the fragmented health-care IT market" (Glader, 6/16). The New York Times adds that the loans, which are to buy GE"s Centricity electronic health records, will "carry no interest until the institutions begin receiving government money." The plan "addresses one big worry for many doctors who are interested in taking advantage of the government incentives (up to $40,000 per physician over a few years) to make the move to digital patient records: a shortage of upfront capital." Details of the government"s new standards for electronic health records are still uncertain, so "G.E. is issuing a guarantee that its electronic health records will meet the government standards, regardless of the final details." GE is not the first company to offer health IT financing - "in April, I.B.M said it would make up to $2 billion in financing available as bridge-loans to jump-start high-technology infrastructure projects likely to qualify for federal stimulus spending" (Lohr, 6/15). The AP reports that "only about 20 percent of U.S. health providers" use electronic medical record technology "in part because of the relatively high start up costs." In the long run, electronic records are "supposed to make health care cheaper by cutting down on paperwork and more efficient by streamlining the way patient files are stored and shared" (6/15). This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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