Erie Family Health Center

Beats this week:

1) This week President Obama released the final details on the health care reform bill and urged Congress to give an up or down vote on the legislation. In remarks to a group of medical professionals, President Obama asked Congress to put aside politics and take action on behalf of the American people.

2) Politico confirmed from Senator Tom Harkin that Senate Dems have decided to use reconciliation as a means to pass health care reform.

3) Meanwhile, at the local level, big Chicago hospitals saw huge profit gains in 2009 while smaller hospitals continued to struggle.

4) Recent research published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that certain segments of the U.S. population have a higher prevalence of HIV than exists in parts of Africa. For example: “More than 1 in 30 adults in Washington, D.C., are HIV-infected—a prevalence higher than that reported in Ethiopia, Nigeria, or Rwanda.”

5) Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released a report this month that provides a breakdown by state of the federal dollars spent on public health. The report found that spending for public health has been flat and steady for the last five years and that the Midwest received the least amount of funding for disease prevention.

Beats this week:

1) Over the weekend, patients began lining up before dawn at a dentist office in the Logan Square community of Chicago to receive free dental care. The annual event, which is hosted by Dentists With Heart, drew a line of several hundred people.

2) This week, the New York Times reported that after an extended quiet period, the U.S. is finally seeing a surge in medical schools. Could this be a response to the need for primary care providers? Beats Per Minute discussed this very issue last month.

3) Wondering why no one is talking about H1N1 anymore? The Centers for Disease Control is! The CDC says that H1N1 cases are down but reported that from April 2009 through January 2010, the U.S. saw 57 million possible cases, 257,000 hospitalizations and 11,690 deaths.

4) A study released this week found that over the last three decades chronic conditions have significantly increased in children. In fact, from 1994 to 2006 the percentage of children with chronic conditions, such as asthma, obesity and behavioral health issues, nearly doubled. The highest rates of chronic conditions were found in Latino and African American children.

5) It was announced this week that two Illinois universities will receive federal stimulus money to invest in electronic medical records technology. Last month, Erie Family Health Center completed the implementation of electronic health records at all of our nine sites. Read about it here!

Beats this week:

1) A new study finds that community health centers fill the gaps in the health care crisis. This study coincides with the President’s 2011 budget plan, which calls for $290 million to expand a network of federally funded health centers.

2) Illinois had the first primary elections in the country on February 2. Read about the results of yesterday’s primary here.

3) “It is my greatest hope that we can get this done not just a year from now but soon. We came extremely close,” said President Obama about health care reform. So the question still exists, is health care reform still possible?

4) With the state of health care reform still unknown, legislators are taking steps at the state level to change health care coverage. In total, 11 states have health care bills aimed at improving coverage.

5) New mental health insurance coverage rules recently unveiled could improve access to critical behavioral health services. The new rules, known as The Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, would decrease many barriers to care faced by patients in need of mental health services.

Like many community health center advocates around the country, I waited patiently during last night’s State of the Union speech for President Obama to discuss health care reform. All week I had heard many rumors about what would or would not be said about health care reform during this important speech. It was nearly 30 minutes and 3,000 words before I heard: “health insurance reform.” A sense of relief rushed over me: it was clear that the President was not abandoning his pledge to reform health care.

Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune

Packaging health reform with a slightly different name – health insurance reform – President Obama reaffirmed his commitment to passing health care reform legislation. “Here’s what I ask Congress, though: Don’t walk away from reform. Not now. Not when we are so close. Let us find a way to come together and finish the job for the American people. Let’s get it done,” said Obama. The President acknowledged that even as he was speaking, more individuals would go without health insurance and that Congress needed to take action to relieve the American people. (more…)

The plot thickens around health care reform! Check out these articles that discuss where health care reform goes from here:

1) Some still believe that despite a loss of the 60 vote majority in the Senate, President Obama can still achieve health care reform. It begins with a simple suggestion: “Obama should use his authority as president to start reforming the health care system right now.”

2) Conversely, others believe that the election in Massachusetts signaled the end of health care reform for the Obama administration.

3) Other experts claim that Obama can still utilize special procedural maneuvers to advance the health care bill. The move, known as budget reconciliation, would allow the bill to move through Congress with simply vote in the Senate. Read more in the New York Times.

4) Are you still confused about the differences between the House and Senate health care reform bills? Check out this breakdown of the health care proposals.

5) The Hill offers insight on the top ten reasons that health reform stalled.

Welcome to Health Beats—the place to come every week to receive the top five health care stories of the week! Tune in to Beats Per Minute every Wednesday to read about the top five stories impacting Erie Family Health Center and our community.

Beats this week:

1) On Monday, January 18, 2010 Erie Family Health Center celebrated the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. Across Chicago, many did the same, invoking King’s memory in the fight for health care reform. Read more in the Chicago Sun-Times.

2) The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force just released new guidelines on the treatment of obesity among children. Currently, over one-third of America’s children are at least overweight; these new guidelines found that with intense treatment, children were able to obtain a healthy weight.

3) Yesterday Massachusetts held a special election to fill the late Senator Kennedy’s seat. This resulted in the election of Republican Scott Brown and the loss of the Democrats’ 60^th vote in the Senate for health care reform.  So the question is: Will this election lead to the collapse of health care reform?

4) Illinois Governor Pat Quinn recently signed a bill that would allow Illinois residents to have their denied medical claims reviewed. This bill will allow more than 3 million residents to get a second opinion on whether their claim should have been denied. Per the Chicago Tribune.

5) 2009 was a whirlwind year for community health centers across the nation. Read about how community health centers were mentioned in the White House’s ‘Year in Health Care.’ You can also read more at the National Association for Community Health Center’s blog, Health Center News and Happenings.

Welcome to Beats Per Minute!

Welcome to Erie Family Health Center’s brand new blog, Beats Per Minute! We are thrilled to embark on this journey in social media, building upon our other sources of new media, such as Twitter and Facebook. As one of the few community health centers in the nation to launch a blog, Beats Per Minute will provide you with news, resources and information on areas of interest impacting Erie and our community.

You can visit Beats Per Minute frequently to receive up to date news about Erie, community based health care and the fragile safety-net. Whether you’re interested in learning about new Erie events or reading about the latest research on care for the uninsured, Beats Per Minute is the place to be! Erie hopes that through these posts we can share with you – the reader and Erie friend – information about Erie Family Health Center and all the news that affects the populations we serve.

You can even tune in every Wednesday afternoon for our Health Beats segment, which will bring you the top five health stories of the week!

Beats Per Minute will be updated by a team of bloggers from within Erie: you can learn more about our writers, Ginny, Jaclyn and Steph by clicking on About Us. You can also look forward to reading posts by Erie medical providers and support staff.

Don’t be overwhelmed by the amount of digital information blanketing the blogosphere. Beats Per Minute is your safety zone for focused and innovative thinking about community based health care delivery, cutting edge health care news and clear explanations in the setting of challenging times.  Won’t you join us?