Parents’ concern about the safety of the immunizations given to their children has been rising steadily for the past decade-and-more. Although immunization against selected infectious diseases has long been an important element of health care for children – and has, in fact, truly changed the face of illness-in-childhood in sweeping ways – there is a growing concern among some parents that the risks associated with immunization may exceed their substantial benefits. Continue reading ‘IOM report confirms immunizations are safe’
Archive for the 'Preventive Care' Category
Section 1001 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) establishes women’s preventive health benefits as a category of mandatory preventive services for all new fully insured and self-funded plans. The ACA, however, provides no specifics about what should be included in this general category. In order to meet some very tight timelines under the law, and likely to mitigate the anticipated controversy over inclusion of reproductive health services, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) tasked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to “review what preventive services are necessary for women’s health and well-being and should be considered in the development of comprehensive guidelines for preventive services for women.” Continue reading ‘Changes to women’s preventive health benefits’
Washington state is in many ways a great place to live and raise our children. But one aspect of life here could suddenly make our state more dangerous than others for kids : unvaccinated children.
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided the latest state performance rankings with childhood immunizations. The State of Washington had the highest percentage of kids who have been admitted to kindergarten with an immunization exemption; that means that we have a lot of kids in this state who are missing one or more immunizations either because of religious or philosophical objection. Increasingly, pediatricians and family physicians in our state are recognizing that many more parents are delaying or refusing one or more vaccines for their child. Scientific studies that track parental opinion confirm this. Continue reading ‘Reducing vaccine hesitancy’
Dr. Harold Dash, President of the Board for The Everett Clinic, and I presented at The State of Reform conference on January 5 on the topic of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) — or as we presented being accountable for the care of patients in ways that increase the quality care and is more affordable.
Much discussion at the conference at SeaTac focused on tough challenges posed by steep state budget cuts that will hit critical health programs as well as the rising cost of medical care. So there was a lot of interest in the topic of ACOs, which have been held out as one of the few elements of reform aimed at improving care and bringing down costs. Continue reading ‘ACOs could spread cost saving innovations’
Heated discussions rage over rising costs and the lack of access to affordable care. Medical professionals argue about whether we should pay for prevention or just procedures. Accusations fly about how changes to the way medical care is delivered could lead to socialism.
While it may sound a lot like the great American health care debates of the last few years, what I’m actually referring to is the turbulent time in 1946 when Group Health, the Seattle-based health care cooperative that I lead, was created. Continue reading ‘Quality Lessons’
Group Health has always been a strong proponent of preventive care and evidence-based medicine, so we were very pleased to see preventive services stand out as an important aspect to federal health care reform for health plans.
When the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury released the highly anticipated interim final rule (IFR) for preventive services last week, it moved the health care system in the right direction by helping Americans receive the preventive health care they need and thereby helping to prevent more costly and painful illness and disease down the road. The regulation, which as an interim final rule has the full force of law despite being open to comment by stakeholders and the public, requires health plans to cover in-network preventive services with zero out of pocket cost for the patient. Health plans may still require enrollees to share a portion of the cost for preventive services delivered by out-of-network providers.
The Seattle Times recent editorial Love, Protect, Immunize Kids is a strong endorsement of good science and good preventive medicine. But even though Dr. Wakefield’s 1998 study linking autism and the MMR vaccine has been discredited and retracted, concerns around the safety of vaccines continue to grow in Washington state and around the country.
Continue reading ‘Working with parents concerned about vaccines’
Recent Comments