Dear ##FirstName##,

With new laws, regulations, and practices, the healthcare experience is constantly evolving. To that end, the Society for Healthcare Consumer Advocacy has partnered with MultiBriefs to enhance News You Need, an opt-out, bi-weekly e-mail resource providing comprehensive news briefings of the top stories in the community. The first issue will be distributed December 17.

Each edition of News You Need contains articles gathered from an expansive list of sources, including Medical News Today, The New York Times, USA Today, WebMD and other leading industry publications. Delivered to the inboxes of SHCA members only, News You Need keeps subscribers abreast of topics that are relevant to healthcare consumer advocacy.

News You Need is a great way to stay informed. The electronic publication can be easily read in your office, home, or via your mobile phone or PDA. Archived issues can be accessed through the Members Only section of the SHCA website (www.shca-aha.org).

Want to see more? Here are some examples of the articles that will appear in News You Need.

Protests Over a Rule to Protect Health Providers
from The New York Times
A last-minute Bush administration plan to grant sweeping new protections to health care providers who oppose abortion and other procedures on religious or moral grounds has provoked a torrent of objections, including a strenuous protest from the government agency that enforces job discrimination laws. The proposed rule would prohibit recipients of federal money from discriminating against doctors, nurses and other health care workers who refuse to perform or to assist in the performance of abortions or sterilization procedures because of their "religious beliefs or moral convictions." More

Wyeth vs. Levine Could Endanger Your Health
from Forbes
This past week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the blockbuster case of Wyeth vs. Levine, which posed one simple question. Once the Food and Drug Administration has approved the warnings about drugs licensed for sale, may a plaintiff bring state law action for damages on the ground that those warnings are inadequate? The principled answer to that question is a resounding "no." Concede--no insist--that the FDA is far from flawless. All too often, however, its extreme risk aversion keeps newer and safer drugs off the market--or requires strong, "black box" warnings that over-deter valuable use. More

New Medicare Advantage Marketing Rules Help People Make Informed Choices
from The Wall Street Journal
Medicare beneficiaries trying to sort through their healthcare options for 2009 should welcome new rules designed to protect them against overly aggressive marketing tactics by some insurance companies and their agents, according to Allsup, a leading provider of Social Security disability, financial and healthcare-related services to people with disabilities. "People need information to make an informed choice, but they need that information to be unbiased, complete and straightforward," said Paul Gada, personal financial planning director and product manager for Allsup Medicare AdvisorSM service, which helps people with disabilities choose the best, most affordable Medicare plan to meet their specific needs. More

The Need to Combine Social and Health Policy
from The Boston Globe
Since this is, by all accounts, a "defining moment" in American history, let's redefine the way we think about health. Over the past decade, a rich vein of research has detailed the links between large social forces - from income and discrimination to education and neighborhood safety - and a community's physical and mental well-being. Last summer, a pair of fascinating reports - overlooked in the US press - drew on this perspective to suggest a blueprint for the next administration's health agenda. Both reports stepped back from our conventional explanations of health - "individual lifestyle" and "biomedical miracle" - to analyze the structural factors behind disease and suffering in our society. More

Providers Close Doors to Poor
from Las Vegas Sun
Budget cuts in the state’s Medicaid program are forcing a major shift in where Nevada’s poor can seek health care. Cancer patients who had received outpatient treatment at University Medical Center, for instance, will have to seek treatment at other hospitals and clinics because UMC, citing reductions in Medicaid payments, says it can no longer afford to offer cancer treatment. Low-income children with bone and spine problems may need to leave Las Vegas altogether for treatment, because pediatric orthopedists are no longer accepting payment from Medicaid because of cutbacks to their reimbursements. More

ESA Supports Efforts to Protect Public Health and Safety
from WebWire
A consortium of Portuguese and Italian companies led by the Portuguese National Health Institute and with the support of ESA, is developing a Health Early Warning System designed to enable timely detection and tracking of emerging threats to public health and safety via satellite. The Health Early Warning System or HEWS is being developed as an integrated management platform devised to support epidemiologic surveillance, public health monitoring, crisis management and civil protection programmes. The Portuguese National Health Institute or INSA is responsible for its scientific and management aspects. The other consortium partners are Tekever (Portugal) and Ridgeback (Italy). HEWS was recently put to the test in Angola, Africa, through the collaboration of local health institutions and the involvement of higher-level Angolan institutions such as the Ministry of Health. The scenario for this test was a simulated surge of the Marburg virus. More