| Price of pill to rise for students
Due to the increasing cost of participating in Medicaid, many drug companies will no longer sell birth control to colleges at discounted prices, causing the cost of the pill to increase on campus. As a result of a federal deficit-reduction bill, drug companies must now pay more to participate in Medicaid, the federal health insurance provider for low-income families, said Susan Quillan, chief of clinical services at the Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center. Drug companies have historically sold contraceptives to colleges and universities at significant discounts, but the higher cost of participating in Medicaid has prompted many to halt these discounts, which translates to higher prices for students. The price of two contraceptives, NuvaRing and Estrostep, will jump immediately at the Ashe Center, from $15 to $30, Quillan said.
Innovative UPMC Center Speeds Medical Advances to US Military
In an effort to accelerate the application of cutting-edge medical research to aid the U.S. military, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) today announced the establishment of the Innovative Medical and Information Technologies (IMITs) Center as a separate, not-for-profit subsidiary. This organizational change will allow the IMITs Center to compete more effectively for federal applied research grants and services contracts, primarily from the U.S. Department of Defense. The IMITs Center is an applied research center that collaborates with military, government and private institutions to advance health care worldwide. It administers more than $40 million annually in government research funds for projects that range from preventing injuries to soldiers to simulation training for military medics.
Colorectal exam can save your life
The U.S. health care system got mixed reviews in a recent federal report: Overall quality is improving, but not enough Americans are getting preventive health screenings.
First, the good news: hospital care for heart attack victims improved 15 percent, for example, and vaccinations for children, adolescents and the elderly improved by 6 percent, according to the 2006 National Healthcare Quality Report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
But in other areas, such as colorectal cancer screening, significant improvement opportunities remain. Only 52 percent of adults, for example, received recommended colorectal cancer screenings, according to the report.
March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Excellus BlueCross BlueShield and the American Cancer Society urge all people to be vigilant about being tested for colon cancer especially as Baby Boomers age and increasingly need such screenings.
Sports Spasms
Monty Pfleider stopped by Saturday, fresh in from a turkey hunt in which his 11-year-old son bagged his first tom. Dad got one, too, both turkeys were young, with three to four inch beards. What Monty really wanted to do was get my e-mail address so that he could send me a photo of the feral hog that he killed while bow hunting for deer. Earlier I reported that the hog was taken a short time back, but Monty informs me that it was in mid-January on the last day of doe season, and that there was two or three inches of ice on the ground at the time. Monty had a corn dispenser as a deer plant, and when he approached it to begin his hunt he saw the hog scurrying away from it. Upon closer inspection, Monty found that the hog had managed to cave in one leg of the feeder and that the corn was spilled on the ground.
Bureaucracy Trumps Logic In Flood Repairs
Jason E. Todd has learned the hard way that the old adage "No good deed goes unpunished" is alive and well when it comes to dealing with Fairfax County government bureaucracy. He's been trying for 10 months to repair his flood damaged home in the Huntington section of Mount Vernon District.
His big mistake was trying to go above and beyond the necessary level of responsibility to make his Arlington Terrace home better and safer than it was prior to Cameron Run's flood rampage last June. Instead of support and encouragement from County bureaucrats, what he got was legal technicalities and Pavlovian adherence to unyielding dogma about what they perceived was and was not necessary when addressing floodplain construction.
"My Huntington home was flooded with between 11 and 12 feet of water in late June last year.
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