Month: December 2011

Tracking pollution in theGreat Lakestakes more than monitoring goo spilling out of factories or oil gushing from a pipeline.The International Joint Commission recently highlighted a subtler source of contamination lurking in medicine cabinets throughout the region. Pain medicine, birth control, anti-depressants and other pharmaceuticals make their way into theGreat Lakesthrough municipal water systems and stormwater runoff. (ASHLAND CURRENT, 12/19)

An estimated $851 million is added to the cost of commercial health insurance to make up for the lower fees that Medicare and Medicaid pay hospitals in southeasternWisconsin, according to a study released last week. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 12/19)

More than 1,500 Dean Clinic patients have been tested for hepatitis and HIV since they were potentially exposed to the viruses over the past five years, a Dean official said Wednesday. (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, 12/16)

Nestled between two health care giants in the Fox Valley lies a small clinic that quietly churns out doctors and bolsters the primary care ranks in northeast Wisconsin. The University of Wisconsin Health Fox Valley Family Medicine clinic at 229 S. Morrison St., Appleton, with its 19 young doctors-to-be completing their residencies, is the sort of training facility critical to solving the state's looming physician shortage. (APPLETON POST CRESCENT, 12/16)

Republican House budget chair Paul Ryan has teamed up with Senate Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon to offer what they're billing as a bipartisan approach to overhauling Medicare, an issue that inspires stark partisan divisions in Congress. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 12/15)

Aldermen learned Wednesday that the union has filed suit to prevent the city from imposing new health care deductibles and co-pays on its members, despite a state law that gives local governments complete control over designing their employees' health care plans. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 12/15)

Over the next two decades, Wisconsin won’t just need more doctors. Nurses, it turns out, will also be in short supply. (WHN, 12/14)

Milwaukee police have agreed to pay more for their health care in exchange for pay raises, the last and largest of the city's public safety unions to reach a deal under a new state bargaining law. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 12/14)

Women could not receive drugs that induce abortions unless a doctor gives them a physical exam and is in the same room when they receive the drugs, under a bill before a Senate committee Tuesday. In testimony to the Senate Committee on Health Tuesday, abortion opponents said the legislation is needed to ensure that doctors aren't using web cameras to consult with women about the drugs and that women aren't being pressured into receiving abortions. Opponents of the legislation said that the web camera technique is not used in Wisconsin currently, that state law already requires abortions be voluntary and that the bill is intended to make it harder for women to get an abortion. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 12/14)

Insurance companies and business groups are opposing Assembly Bill 251, which would prohibit insurers from setting fees for procedures that are not covered under the company’s plans. (WHN, 12/13)