Insurers Change Kids Coverage Stance After HHS Clarifies New Rules Health insurers have started to back down "on their decision to pull out of the child-only coverage market after the Obama administration addressed their concerns about the potential damage to their bottom lines," The Hill reports. "The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Tuesday clarified regulations mandating that insurance plans agree to cover sick children. HHS made it clear that plans are free to set up specific enrollment periods for their insurance plans if allowed under state laws. ...

CVS-Aetna Deal Boosts The Drug Store Chain Forbes: CVS Caremark, the drug retailer and pharmacy benefit management firm, announced a new agreement with Aetna to help constrain drug costs. "The deal encompasses approximately $9.5 billion in annual drug spending relating to approximately 9.7 million lives. CVS expects significant long-term financial benefits from this strategic relationship" (7/28). The Street: The 12-year deal helped mask a weak performance in second quarter earnings for CVS. "CVS Caremark ... missed second-quarter expectations, lowering its outlook. But a massive deal with health insurer Aetna...

Insured Americans Are Using Fewer Medical Services While Employers Consider Wellness Incentives The Wall Street Journal: "Insured Americans are using fewer medical services, raising questions about whether patients are consuming less health care as they pick up a greater share of the costs. The drop in usage is showing up as health-care companies report financial results. Insurers, lab-testing companies, hospitals and doctor-billing concerns say that patient visits, drug prescriptions and procedures were down in the second quarter from year-ago levels. Others say that consumers are beginning to forgo elective procedures like knee replacements. ...

Health Insurance Scams On Rise After Health Reform U.S. News & World Report: Regulators are accusing the Tennessee-based American Trade Association of bilking consumers out of $14 million by selling fake health insurance to 26,000 households in all 50 states. The scams happened "over a span of 16 months, according to court documents. More than a few of those dollars appear to have been spent on personal items such as cars, real estate, and loan payments, says Leslie Newman, Tennessee's insurance commissioner. At least 12 other states have taken action to stop the entities from operating...

Wash. Regulations Would Restrict Pain Killer Prescriptions; Texas Lt. Gov. Bemoans Costs Associated With Health Law; Fla. Insurance Pilot Project Show The New York Times: "In an unusual move, a state government is developing regulations meant to stop doctors from prescribing higher doses of powerful - and often dangerous - pain killers for patients who are not benefiting from them. The effort, in Washington State, represents the most sweeping attempt yet to stem what some experts see as the excessive use of prescribed narcotics, and it is being closely watched by medical professionals elsewhere...

Today's Opinions: Haiti's Lesson For The U.S.; Ending 'Pay For Delay;' Getting The CLASS Act Off The Ground In Haiti, A Lesson For U.S. Health Care The New York Times In February, a month after Haiti's earthquake, I went down to Port-au-Prince as part of a team that was helping to reactivate cardiac care in the city's public hospital. For several months since, I have observed how the earthquake and its aftermath profoundly changed Haiti's health care system. Over that time, I have come to the unorthodox conclusion that Haiti's tragic experience may show us a way to improve health care in the United States (James Wilentz, 7/28)...

Polio Cases In India Lowest In A Decade; Vaccination Effort Begins In Afghanistan This year "India has reported the lowest number of polio cases in [the] January-June period ... in a decade," PTI/ZeeTV reports. Twenty-four cases were detected between January and June this year, compared to 151 in the corresponding 2009 period, and 317 in January-June 2008 (7/29). According to LiveMint.com, for the first time in "the history of India's fight against polio," the two states that had 97% of polio cases in 2009 - Bihar and Uttar Pradesh (UP) - have not diagnosed any new cases of Type 1 polio in nearly eight months, according to the article...

Horn Of Africa Once Again Polio-Free, UNICEF And Polio Partners Announce The Horn of Africa is again polio-free, with Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda having reported no wild poliovirus cases for more than a year. Today marks a step towards the achievement of a major objective of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative's new strategy - stopping polio in Africa. The outbreak began in 2008, following the reappearance of wild poliovirus type 1 in the border area of southern Sudan and Ethiopia, and spread in early 2009 to the northern Sudanese city of Port Sudan, and to Kenya and Uganda...

Government Of Canada Welcomes Sodium Reduction Report The Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, today welcomed the release of the Sodium Reduction Strategy for Canada by the Multi-Stakeholder Working Group on Sodium Reduction, and thanked the group for its hard work. The report, which the Minister received today, is the culmination of over two years of work by the Sodium Working Group (SWG). The SWG was established in late 2007 to develop a strategy for reducing sodium intake among Canadians...

Statement By Medicare Rights Center President Joe Baker On The 45th Anniversary Of The Establishment Of Medicare On July 30, 2010, we celebrate 45 years of the Medicare program. In 1964, a year before Medicare was established, almost half of older Americans did not have health insurance, and only a quarter were estimated to have adequate hospital insurance coverage. Now, in 2010, Medicare provides health coverage to over 47 million older Americans and people with disabilities...