HEALTH
By Scott Dance, The Baltimore Sun | April 22, 2013
A doctor might ask for a patient's family disease history, or exercise or smoking habits, but whether they have trouble getting food onto the table or paying energy bills is unlikely to appear on any clinic questionnaire. Those sorts of factors could have just as much, if not more, of an impact on a person's everyday health, argue the founders of a startup out of the Johns Hopkins University. Their company, Healthify, is giving clinics that serve largely low-income populations the means to gather and use that information.
HEALTH
By Scott Dance, The Baltimore Sun | March 31, 2013
State lawmakers put finishing touches last week on plans to apply federal health care reforms in Maryland come Jan. 1. But who becomes newly insured — and at what cost —still worries stakeholders as the state speeds toward becoming one of the first to adopt a revamped system. Under legislation passed by the House of Delegates and Senate, more low-income Marylanders would qualify for government-funded health care through Medicaid, and an existing tax on health insurers would sustain a new insurance marketplace once federal support wanes.
NEWS
By Kathleen Sebelius | March 20, 2013
This week marks the third anniversary of the Affordable Care Act. For Marylanders, that means a health care system that is stronger than it was three years ago, and a future that looks even brighter. Marylanders who have health insurance now have more security, thanks to new insurance market reforms and consumer protections put into place by the law. Preventive services like mammograms and flu shots are newly available for free to 1.5 million people with private insurance plans. About 48,950 Maryland Medicare beneficiaries with the highest prescription drug costs have saved an average of $768 on their medications.
HEALTH
By Scott Dance, The Baltimore Sun | February 18, 2013
Dr. Ben Carson says he didn't anticipate the reaction to what he considered his common-sense remarks as keynote speaker this month at the National Prayer Breakfast. But after video went viral of the trailblazing black neurosurgeon taking jabs at Barack Obama's health care overhaul a few feet from the president himself, some want the famed doctor at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore to parlay the attention into a new career: politics. "Here you have this guy who has been a celebrity minority for 30 years coming out and making the conservative case better than a lot of conservatives can," said Jonah Goldberg, editor-at-large for National Review Online.
HEALTH
By Andrea K. Walker | January 10, 2013
The federal government announced the creation of 106 new accountable care organziations, including five in Maryland, that will provide coordinated care to Medicare patients. Accountable Care Organizations are groups of doctors, hospitals, clinics and other health care providers created under health reform that work together to care for patients. The hope is that the coordinated care will help reduce medical errors and result in cost savings by keeping people healthier. More than 250 accountable care organizations have been created around the country since passage of health reform.
NEWS
January 5, 2013
Letter writer William Smith is right to point out that Republicans are to blame for the flaws in the nation's health reform law ("Ehrlich denies GOP fault in flawed health care system," Jan. 3). I hope all your readers took note. It's the military's massive waste that is bleeding our economy. It has tanks it doesn't need, planes it doesn't fly and ships it doesn't use. Aircraft carriers and submarines are about all we really need. The Republicans like wars because they can build all these weapons and their rich supporters can make more money.