Latest Health News from the Kansas Health Institute

Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger says she’s all for doing away with the “pre-existing condition exclusions” that health insurers have long used to deny coverage to those who need it most. But, she said, there’s a problem.

Despite having the most costly health system in the world, the United States consistently under performs relative to other top industrial countries, according to a newly updated report from The Commonwealth Fund. When compared to the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and New Zealand, the U.S. came in last or next-to-last in each of five measurements of high performance.

The head of the Kansas Health Policy Authority said the agency's budget situation is "untenable," and that some services being provided now must be cut or eliminated in the months ahead. The chairman of the agency's board predicted a coming "trainwreck."

Several businesses have joined a lawsuit against the state, asserting that the statewide public smoking ban that becomes effective July 1 is unconstitutional.

Michelle Andrews, Kaiser Health News, discusses future changes to high-deductible health plans and the health savings accounts that link to them.

Federal officials have approved Connecticut's plan to add low-income adults to its state Medicaid program in accordance with the new federal health reform. That means Connecticut becomes the first state in the nation to adopt those provisions of the new law and the first in line for federal aid dollars retroactive to April 1, when the new law became effective.

Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger is one of five state insurance regulators asked to sit in today on a White House meeting in which President Obama is expected to sternly warn health insurance executives against sharp increases in premiums.

State Health Officer Dr. Jason Eberhart-Phillips discusses new federal tobacco regulations, which take effect on June 22, and the Kansas Clean Indoor Air Act, which takes effect on July 1.

Officials recently broke ground in Ottawa on a major school expansion that when completed next spring will include, among other things, four simulated hospital rooms to help train nurses, surgical technicians and other health professionals. Kansas schools have been adding training slots at an impressive pace the past few years.

Long-term care budgets and hospital downsizing are on the agenda for a public meeting scheduled July 6, featuring Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services Secretary Don Jordan and Department on Aging Secretary Martin Kennedy.

A day after the Kansas Health Policy Authority was asked to review its upcoming contract extension with CVS Caremark for state employee pharmacy benefits, CVS and Walgreens announced they had settled their problems.

The U.S. Senate today voted to delay until November a scheduled 21 percent cut in the rates paid to doctors who provide Medicare services. But the bill still needs approval in the U.S. House and the president's signature before the cut that kicked in June 1 is undone.

A dispute between two pharmacy giants has state officials thinking twice about their pending contract with CVS Caremark.

Long-simmering tension over reworking state privacy laws is no longer behind the scenes.

The new council will do periodic assessments of the quality and availability of early childhood learning programs and also recommend ways to increase participation.