Tagged: health care

Today’s health system often falls short in addressing the pain, physical symptoms, emotional concerns, and other chronic care needs that patients face. These needs are increasingly the norm for cancer patients and their caregivers.  As medical care advances, illnesses that were death sentences a few decades ago have now become chronic illnesses that need to be managed.    As a result, quality of life care needs now span over many years or even decades.

Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin says the state will push ahead with an overhaul of its health care system, no matter what the U.S. Supreme Court does with the federal Affordable Care Act.  WAMC’s Tristan O’Neill reports…

Shumlin tells The Associated Press he's worried that if the law is struck down in its entirety, the state could lose up to $400 million a year in federal funding it had been hoping to use to subsidize universal access to health care.

Cancer patients in northeastern Vermont should be getting better coordinated — and maybe less expensive — care in the near future, if a program that's part of the state's health care overhaul is successful.

The Green Mountain Care Board is spearheading the state's push to make health care access universal while controlling costs, and on Monday it announced cancer care in the St. Johnsbury area will be brought into a new pilot program.

A new study shows that opponents of President Barack Obama's health care plan clearly beat supporters in getting their message across through the media. More from WAMC’s Dave Lucas…

The study released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism found that opponents won because their positions were sharper and easier to understand. The critics also more frequently drove coverage, particularly when Tea Party demonstrations came to the fore.

Pew director Tom Rosenstiel said the competition wasn't even close.

A leader of Vermont's efforts to reform its health care system says the state's efforts to provide insurance for nearly all of its residents likely will continue, even if the U.S. Supreme Court decides to strike down President Barack Obama's health care law.  WAMC’s North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley reports…

Anya Rader Wallack crossed the Connecticut River on Monday to meet with doctors at New Hampshire's Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon.

Northern Berkshire Healthcare, owner and operator of the North Adams Regional Hospital, has announced they have recovered from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. WAMC’s Berkshire Bureau Chief Lucas Willard reports…

Northern Berkshire Healthcare entered Chapter 11 restructuring in June of last year. Now the parent organization of North Adams Regional Hospital and source of about 575 jobs in North Adams has announced profits and a plan to move forward.

The Massachusetts House of Representatives will be taking up their version of a bill that aims to lower unnecessary health care costs in the coming years.

State representatives will begin debate Tuesday on their health care cost containment bill and its multiple amendments.

The House's bill is designed to even out disparities in the costs of hospital services by requiring hospitals that charge more than 20 percent above the state median price for a service to pay a 10 percent surcharge into a fund to help support hospitals serving the poor and most vulnerable.

Consumer Reports has teamed with a Massachusetts group to rate hundreds of primary care doctors’ practices in the Bay State. The magazine’s evaluations are being released jointly with Massachusetts Health Quality Partners, which is a coalition of health insurers, hospitals, doctors, and others with a stake in the healthcare industry.  WAMC’s Pioneer Valley  Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill spoke with the coalition’s Melinda  Karp.