Month: July 2012

The relationship between Bellin Health and the Green Bay Packers is growing to include a newly named gate at Lambeau Field and eventually a clinic near the stadium for NFL players as well as the public. (GREEN BAY PRESS GAZETTE, 7/31)

When looking at statistical profiles of Minnesota and Wisconsin, there is little that distinguishes one state from the other…But when it comes to the attitudes toward health care reform at the highest levels of government, the two Upper Midwest neighbors are miles apart. (GANNETT, 7/31)

The Medical College of Wisconsin has signed a collaboration agreement with Transgenomic Inc. that calls for the school to provide sophisticated gene-sequencing services for one of the company's products. The parties did not disclose financial terms, but said the agreement could lead to further collaborations in the rapidly growing area of next-generation DNA sequencing, where high-powered machines are used to determine the exact order of chemical base pairs in a gene. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 7/30)

Aetna Inc. will begin offering a new health plan for employers next year that is tied to Aurora Health Care's network of hospitals and doctors and that guarantees to limit future increases in premiums. Aurora is willing to guarantee that costs will increase at a slower rate than in the employer's previous two to three years, provided employees and their families get nearly all their care from the health system's doctors and hospitals. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 7/27)

Somewhere in Wisconsin, there’s a guy who, Dr. Brian Ewert says, represents the American medical system’s strengths – and weaknesses. The patient, given the made-up name of ‘Joe’, also exemplifies how Marshfield Clinic has cut hospital bills by $4 million, by committing to a care coordination program aiming to help patients get the acute care they need without relying on expensive emergency services, said Ewert, the clinic’s president. (WISCONSIN REPORTER, 7/27)

The Medical College of Wisconsin said Wednesday that it has completed a licensing agreement with a start-up that is developing a device for patients with severe acid reflux. Somna Therapeutics LLC expects to have its device, called the Reza-Band, in clinical trials by fall, the school said. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 7/26)

Tommy Thompson has attacked “Obamacare” relentlessly during his Senate campaign in Wisconsin, calling the sweeping health care law a “budget-busting government takeover,” intruding into the lives of private citizens. But as a private citizen, the Republican had a much different experience with the legislation: He held positions with eight companies and organizations that either benefited from Obamacare, strongly supported its passage or were considered models for the national law. (POLITICO, 7/26)

In most years, the country gets a little bit richer. In the last decade, nearly all of the gains - more than 90% of economic growth - went toward offsetting the growth in health care spending. The estimate, based on research by Michael Chernew, a health economist at Harvard University, is for 2000 through 2009, a period marked by sluggish growth overall. But it illustrates the growing burden that health care costs place on households as they struggle to get ahead. "At some point, you get close to the cliff," said Dean Gruner, a physician and chief executive of ThedaCare in the Fox Valley. "And to me, we are pretty darn close." (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 7/25)

The great Milwaukee fluoride debate is over. The city's Common Council on Tuesday agreed to direct the Milwaukee Water Works to lower the concentration of fluoride in the city's drinking water. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 7/25)