Perhaps you’ve been wondering where things stand with Rhode Island’s efforts to build its own online health insurance marketplace?
Wonder no more! I joined our All Things Considered host Dave Fallon in the studio yesterday to give an update on the exchange. That’s because I got the chance to catch up with Christy Ferguson, who heads the group that’s planning and developing the exchange, and wanted to share what I learned.
A new study in the Annals of Family Medicine projects the country will need about 52,000 more primary care doctors by 2025. The study’s authors calculated that we currently have about 206,000.They based their projections on the number of patients primary care docs currently see in office visits per year, and how many might be expected based on how much our population is set to grow, how much more an aging population will need primary care, and how many people will have access to a primary care doctor for the first time as a result of the Affordable Care Act.
And that matters to you because….? Well, because if the bacterial infection you’re suffering from has evolved a resistance to available antibiotics, it will be harder to treat. There’s some new data about the spread of resistance, and new attention on it today.
There have been lots of great stories in the last day or so about what President Obama’s reelection means for health care reform under the Affordable Care Act – otherwise known as Obamacare. A few of my favorites are linked below.
Sure, it’s been a stressful few weeks – months, even. Debates, political ads, campaigning, flyers, you name it, we’re all tired of it, right? It might even be taking a toll on our mental health. And according to one study by some Israeli researchers, there’s a bit more stress in store just before you cast your vote:
Superstorm Sandy took out power, down trees, canceled classes and meetings and flights galore. But she also sent some unexpected disruptions. The Red Cross says the storm forced it to cancel about 300 blood drives. And it’s not sure yet what might be the long term impacts of those lost donations and power outages. Here’s what Red Cross chief medical officer Dr. Richard Benjamin said on their web site about what is known:
My friend Sacha Pfeiffer at WBUR filed this story for NPR about a ballot question Massachusetts voters will be asked to answer this November. If voters approve the measure, that would make it the third state to legalize a lethal prescription for terminally ill patients who wish to end their lives.
UPDATE:The first lecture in this series has been rescheduled for Thursday, Nov. 1 at 5 pm.
The Rhode Island Medical Society is marking its 200th anniversary with a series of neuroscience-related lectures, all free and open to the public. The lectures are co-sponsored by Brown’s Institute for Brain Science and the Norman Prince Neurosciences Institute.
Prime Healthcare Services, the latest suitor to try to buy Woonsocket’s struggling Landmark Medical Center, is “on a buying spree,” says Modern Healthcare magazine. Prime has closed deals on six financially troubled hospitals and announced its intent to buy Landmark in the past year. The story mention’s Prime’s public relations problems, including a tussle with the Service Employees International Union and an investigation over its billing practices in California, where the firm is based.
