Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Medicare and Medicaid at 40  Page indexing a number of resources at the Kaiser Family Foundation site - "The Medicare and Medicaid health coverage programs were signed into law July 30, 1965. The Kaiser Family Foundation has some new resources that examine how Medicare and Medicaid came into existence and how they have evolved over the past 40 years. You will find new documentaries and extended interviews with key policymakers and government officials examining the origins of Medicare and Medicaid, new interactive historical timelines, a chart pack of key information and statistics, a webcast of a retrospective of the two programs with historian Robert Dallek and key government officials responsible for the programs over the past 40 years, and many other background resources on the two programs."  
  

Health Services Research on the Prevention and Treatment of Drug and Alcohol Abuse Notice at the Federal Funding Opportunities web site - "This Program Announcement solicits health services research on the prevention and treatment of drug and alcohol abuse. Proposed research might emphasize any of the following subjects: (1) Factors that affect the delivery of drug and alcohol abuse intervention and related services, such as social factors, personal behaviors and attributes, financing, organization, management, and health technologies; (2) Dimensions of drug and alcohol abuse intervention and related services, such as accessibility, utilization, quality, effectiveness, and costs; (3) Processes of blending science-based practices into community-based provision of drug and alcohol abuse prevention services; and (4) Research tools to facilitate higher quality health services research on drug and alcohol abuse."  
  

Governors Urge Focus on Medicaid Washington Post story - "As Congress and President Bush have sparred over Social Security and the federal judiciary this year, the top legislative priority of the nation's governors has not changed. Republican and Democratic state executives say nothing is more important to the states than restructuring Medicaid, and they worry that the federal government has not gotten the message. Medicaid was not part of the official agenda at the National Governors Association summer meeting in Des Moines earlier this month, but it was a regular topic of discussion at the governors-only sessions..."  
  

Hawaii To Create Plan For Individualized Mental Health Care Item in the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report - "The Adult Mental Health Division of the Hawaii Department of Health on Thursday announced plans to implement a community mental health plan after reviewing a 'scathing' report released by U.S. Magistrate Kevin Chang, the Honolulu Advertiser reports. In the report, Chang said the state is far behind in its efforts to provide a federally mandated standard of care for 9,000 mentally ill state residents..."