Insights Column

A Big (Freaking) Deal

Today’s decision by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals is, as the Vice President might say, a big (freaking) deal. The court ruled that the individual responsibility provision of the Affordable Ca...

Living 14 hours away from home, I find myself nostalgic for my childhood days in Mississippi, particularly in the summertime. As we approach July, I often reflect on hanging out with friends and famil...

Rick Santorum’s troubling connection

Rick Santorum, a former U.S. Senator for Pennsylvania, wants to be the Republican nominee to run against President Obama next year. Unfortunately for him, he’s also embroiled in a health care scanda...

Unemployed young job seekers no longer have to worry about health care

Historically, young adults have been among the most likely to go without health insurance in the country. An astounding 13.7 million people between the ages of 19 and 29 were uninsured in 2008. Many...

HHS announces new investment in school-based health centers

Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced awards of $95 million to 278 school-based health centers across the country. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, along wit...

Contraception is Prevention!

Since the passage of the health reform law, prevention has become a much talked about issue. We all know that a lot of pain, suffering, and money could be saved with good prevention strategies, but th...

IOM Preventive Care Recommendations: Beyond Contraception

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recently released its recommendations on which services should be added to the list of preventive services new insurance plans must offer at no cost to the patient un...

A win for women

Last month, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommended that a range of benefits essential to women’s health be included as preventive benefits and therefore offered free of charge in all new health...

IOM Preventive Care Recommendations: Helping Victims and Survivors of Domestic Violence

This week, the Department of Health and Human Services took a recommendation from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to add screening and counseling to detect and prevent domestic and int...

Giving Babies and New Mothers an Healthy Start

Earlier this week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) decided to adopt all of the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) eight recommendations for fully covered preventive services. This ste...