US flu activity keeps climbing

Today's post was shared by CIDRAP and comes from www.cidrap.umn.edu

Highly magnified, digitally colorized  electromicrograph of 2009 H1N1 influenza virus,  the predominant strain this season. US influenza activity kept climbing last week, as several states outside the South reported widespread cases, and the 2009 H1N1 virus continued to be the predominant strain, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Ten states reported geographically widespread flu activity, up from just four southern states the week before. The ten are Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Wyoming. Also, six states reported high influenza-like illness (ILI) activity as measured by visits to sentinel clinics, up from four states the previous week, the CDC reported. Nationally, 3.0% of medical visits were due to ILI, compared with the national baseline of 2.0%. States with high ILI activity were Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. Another eight states cited moderate ILI activity, and the rest had low or minimal numbers. The CDC also reported a big jump in the percentage of respiratory samples that tested positive for flu: 24.1% (of 6,813 specimens), versus 17.8% a week earlier. An H1N1 season so far Of the positive specimens, more than 98% were influenza A viruses, and 2009 H1N1—the former pandemic virus, now a seasonal strain—accounted for nearly all of those that were subtyped. Only 1.8% of the positive specimens were influenza B isolates. Last week the...

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Medicare Seeks To Curb Spending On Post-Hospital Care

Long term care is a huge part of medical care benefits. What Medicare ultimately does will control workers' compensation costs. Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from www.kaiserhealthnews.org

After years of trying to clamp down on hospital spending, the federal government wants to get control over what Medicare spends on nursing homes, home health services and other medical care typically provided to patients after they have left the hospital. Researchers have discovered huge discrepancies in how much is spent on these services in different areas around the country. In Connecticut, Medicare beneficiaries are more than twice as likely to end up in a nursing home as they are in Arizona. Medicare spends $8,800 on each Louisiana patient getting home health care, $5,000 more than it spends on the average New Jersey senior. In Chicago, one out of four Medicare beneficiaries receives additional services after leaving the hospital—three times the rate in Phoenix. Medicare per capita spending on these services, collectively known as post-acute or post-hospital care, has grown at 5 percent a year or faster in 34 of the nation’s 50 most populous hospital markets in recent years, according to an analysis health care economist Chapin White conducted for Kaiser Health News. Last year $62 billion — one out of every six dollars Medicare spent in the traditional fee-for-service program — went to nursing and therapy for patients in rehabilitation facilities, nursing homes, long-term care hospitals and in their own homes, according to a congressional advisory panel.   Most of them got those services after coming out of the hospital. Some of these...

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Workers' compensation claims drop in Louisiana

Today's post is shared from thetowntalk.com A national group is recommending that Louisiana reduce workers' compensation rates by 5 percent because of fewer workplace claims among other factors. The Times-Picayune of New Orleans reports that the National Council on Compensation Insurance has filed documents with the Louisiana Department of Insurance saying businesses in the state should pay lower rates because workers' compensation claims declined in 2011. According to the Louisiana Workforce Commission, employers across the state saw lighter losses in 2010 and 2011. The NCCI says those improvements can be attributed to a decrease in the number of workplace injuries and a reduction in the average cost per claim. The NCCI recommends additional cuts in manufacturing by 7 percent, contracting by 5 percent, office and clerical by 6 percent, goods and services by 6 percent and miscellaneous industry groups by about 3 percent. If the insurance department adopts the lower rates, they would take effect May 14.

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Huge Differences by Region in Prescribing to Elderly, Study Finds

Researchers find that a higher proportion of seniors are prescribed antidepressants, dementia drugs and other medications in some parts of the country than others. Click to explore the researchers' findings. Elderly Americans are prescribed medications in inexplicably different ways depending on where they live,according to a new report from Dartmouth researchers. Th emostdepressed older patients—or at least the ones being medicated -- live in parts of Louisiana and Florida. There’s a cluster with dementia around Miami. And the seniors who have the most trouble sleeping? They live, perhaps unsurprisingly, in Manhattan. The study by the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice examined geographic variations in the drugs elderly Medicare patients received in 2010. Researchers mapped where patients got medications they clearly needed and where they got drugs deemed risky for the elderly. They also looked at difference sin the use of so-called discretionary drugs, which they say are   but of uncertain benefits. The report’s findings underscore those of a ProPublica investigation in May, which found that some doctors who treat Medicare patients often prescribe drugs that are dangerous or inappropriate for certain patients. ProPublica also found that the federal officials who run Medicare have done little to scrutinize prescribing patterns in their drug program,known as Part D, or question doctors whose practices differ from their peers. Officials...

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Facing Fire Over Challenge to Louisiana’s Oil Industry

Today's post was shared by The New York Times and comes from www.nytimes.com

State Senator Gerald Long of Louisiana calls it “kind of a gentlemen’s agreement.” For the generations since Mr. Long’s third cousin Huey P. Long was the governor, this state has relied on the oil and gas industry for a considerable part of its revenues and for tens of thousands of jobs. In return, the industry has largely found the state an obliging partner and staunch political ally as it has fought off curbs on its business. Now, however, a panel of state appointees, created after Hurricane Katrina to be largely insulated from politics, showed just how insulated it was by upending the agreement.

Supreme Court Decided Not to Decide Illegal Alien Issue

The US Supreme Court has determined that States should be left to decided whether illegal aliens should be barred from collecting workers' compensation benefits.


A report in Insurance Journal provides further insight:

"The U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to hear a workers’ compensation insurance case that concerned an illegal immigrant in Louisiana who had sought coverage after a workplace accident. The Court’s refusal to consider the case means states are left to decide the issue of whether workers who entered the United States illegally may benefit from workers’ compensation coverage."

No. 10-841 Title: Vaughan Roofing & Sheet Metal, LLC, Petitioner v. Antonio Garcia Rodriguez Docketed: December 28, 2010 Lower Ct: Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit   Case Nos.: (09-1537, 09-1538, 09-1539)   Decision Date: May 5, 2010 Discretionary Court      Decision Date: September 24, 2010 ~~~Date~~~  ~~~~~~~Proceedings  and  Orders~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dec 23 2010 Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due January 27, 2011) Jan 26 2011 Brief of respondent Antonio Garcia Rodriguez in opposition filed. Feb 9 2011 DISTRIBUTED for Conference of February 25, 2011. Feb 16 2011 Reply of petitioner Vaughan Roofing & Sheet Metal, LLC filed. (Distributed) Feb 28 2011 Petition DENIED.

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