Health Care

...HHC will not be self-sufficient for at least 8 years ["if ever" adds Senator Slom]....

...The loss of an arm, for example, is worth up to $48,840 in Alabama, $193,950 in Ohio and $439,858 in Illinois....

...If approved, non-profits directed by Grace, the Paradise Lua porta-potty magnate who beat the rap for the 1999 Aloha Stadium porta-potty fire bombings, would be eligible for millions of dollars to fund proposals such as the "Paradise Ohana Heart and Vascular Center, Inc."....

...the proposed laws could actually increase obesity by increasing poverty....

Also in the H&R Block report is the news that the individual mandate penalty is averaging $172. This is likely to rise in future years....

"We want to encourage parents to always be the ones that are responsible for what their kids are learning in the public school system," Hawaii Family Forum's Eva Andrade said....

...Healthcare.gov failed customers on the last hours of open enrollment this past weekend and now anyone who had problems signing up is getting an extension....

...HB631 will be granted a hearing tomorrow, Wednesday, February 18th....

...to make experimental drugs available to terminally ill patients who meet certain qualifications....

...Hawaii has 49 different CON laws, 3rd highest in USA....

Yet another black eye for the industry which funds anti-GMO activism....

If the Legislature fails to grant MMMC permission to negotiate a partnership agreement with HPH and MMMC goes bankrupt, this interview will be the smoking gun....

“The bottom line of this bill is to start saving lives."

The defendant is the former executive director of the Hawaii Centers for Independent Living....

...dishonesty and financial carelessness by the managers of the Hawaii Health Connector have been so rampant as to be criminal in nature....

...We noted numerous questionable travel and entertainment costs as well as unsupported severance pay. These questionable costs may be disallowed by the funding agency....

...if the new contract extends longer than three years, that will be a surprise to many....

...more than 20 states have introduced so-called "Right to Try" bills in the hopes of allowing terminally ill patients to access experimental—and potentially life-saving—treatments more easily....

...Repeal certificate of need (CON) laws....

The CARE Act will help families by involving family caregivers more intentionally in the hospital discharge process....

...the proportion of children who’d missed one or more shots increased from an average of 8 percent at the beginning of the study period to 12.4 percent at the end....

The cost of tobacco for every smoker is $1,029,646 over a lifetime....

...newly eligible adults will have access to addiction treatments this year, many for the first time....

...a new report from the Hawaii Commerce and Consumer Affairs Department shows the Connector won’t be fiscally sustainable until 2022....

Top concerns include the state economy, education, the Hawaii Health Connector, oversight of the Public Utilities Commission in light of the Hawaiian Electric Industries/NextEra merger, and positively affecting the cost of living for Hawaii residents....

The Affordable Care Act is now law, but controversy over the bill is far from over....

...five states with the lowest costs Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Mississippi, Hawaii....

All of the problems sister isle medical patients face trace back to Randy Perreira's need to keep his pathetic little union presidency job....

Setting the stage as the executives walked in, the Hawaiian flag flew upside down outside HHSC's Leahi Hospital....

Without the six-month extension, Medicaid providers in Hawaii would have suffered a 48 percent pay cut....

HHSC Maui Region Enters Partnership Discussion with Hawai‘i Pacific Health....

...It is projected that 2,470 will lose their lives this year in Hawaii because of cancer....

AP: Insurer reports ongoing problems with Hawaii health exchange....

Smokers earning less than $30,000 annually spent 14.2 percent of their income on cigarettes....

In Hawaii during this period, 1,039 eligible PCPs received an aggregate increased payment of approximately $44 million for services provided to Medicaid beneficiaries....

Then-Senator David Ige was a key supporter of the universal coverage plan in 2009, but whether he’ll pick up the cause as Governor is unclear....

Montreal-based CGI Group Inc. will be awarded another year-long state maintenance contract despite the ongoing problems with the site....

Monday, December 29, 2014, 9:00 AM, Conference Room 329, State Capitol....

This report does not make any substantive recommendations to the Legislature related to innovations that should be included in a waiver proposal....

3,500 is far short of the 130,000 cited by Kissel in a Nov 28 Star-Adv interview as a break-even figure for the Connector....

...to design and test health care payment and service delivery models that will improve health care quality and lower costs....

Study sheds new light on e-cigarette behaviors in teens as regulators consider curbing sales to minors....

according to a national report released today by a coalition of public health organizations....

...there’s a big difference between insurance coverage and access to health care services....

“Evidence suggests that e-cigarettes are being used by students who are not cigarette smokers....”

Hawaii’s strengths include low prevalence of obesity and low rate of preventable hospitalizations; state’s challenges include high prevalence of binge drinking and high incidence of infectious disease....

...HMSA, UHA, and HMAA now provide coverage for hearing aids, and Kaiser plans to begin covering hearing aids in January 2015.....

...In addition, there were some people who did not like the changes we needed to implement in order to create a culture of productivity, accountability and meritocracy....

"...researchers are asking 11-year-olds whether they’ve had sex, how many partners they’ve had and if they’ve had anal sex...."