Category: News

ViewSonic dove headfirst into the ultraportable notebook game yesterday, with the announcement of the “ViewBook” line of 12-, 13-, and 14-inch low voltage machines.

The 13.3-inch ViewBook 130 (pictured above) looks to compete directly with Acer’s 3810-model Timeline offerings, while the 12-inch ViewBook 120 (video below) bears a striking physical resemblance to the Lenovo S12 series.

The ViewBook line was announced in Taiwan but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that we would eventually see these machines in the U.S., since ViewSonic products are already represented reasonably well here.

The ViewBook 130 will be available in three different configurations ranging from $24,900 to $31,900 New Taiwan dollars, which is roughly $767 to $983 U.S. dollars. That’s not to say that we’d see those actual prices stateside — I’d guess they’d be lower than that in order to stay competitive, perhaps between $650 and $900 or so.

Specs for the ViewBook 130 line include:

• Intel ULV743 CPU at 1.3GHz, SU4100 at 1.3GHz, or SU7300 at 1.3GHz
• 13.3-inch screen with 1366×768 resolution
• 2GB of RAM
• 320GB hard drive
• HDMI/VGA output
• Windows 7 Home Premium
• Six-cell battery good for up to 8 hours

The ViewBook 120:

• Intel SU2300 CPU at 1.3GHz
• 2GB of RAM
• 250GB hard drive
• VGA out, three USB ports
• Windows 7 Home Premium
• Six-cell battery good for up to 8 hours

Pricing for the ViewBook 120 is pegged at around $22,000 New Taiwan Dollars, which is about $678 here. Again, though, that’s not to say that it’d be priced at $678 through U.S. retailers.

Not much info on the 14-inch ViewBook 140, although my guess is that it’s likely similar to the ViewBook 130 from a features standpoint.

[via NetbookNews.de (translated)]

LA Lakers superstar and NBA 2K10 coverboy Kobe Bryant sat down for a little chit-chat with USA Today and talked about his video gaming love. Yes, eve…

With new content, tools, and resources added daily, Flu.gov provides information on H1N1 and seasonal flu, including symptoms and treatments, vaccines, tips for prevention, and live briefings.  At this critical time, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) needs your help in informing the public about this valuable resource.  Here are some simple things you can do to promote Flu.gov:

1. Provide links from your website or blog to Flu.gov.
   Adding links to your homepage or health-related web pages is an easy way for you to direct users to Flu.gov for important H1N1 and seasonal flu information.  The Flu.gov site provides information for parents, health care providers, government organizations, schools, businesses and more. It also includes interactive tools for evaluating flu-like symptoms and — coming soon – more information about vaccination clinic locations.  There is also a handy myths and facts section where you can check and see if what your friend and neighbors are telling you about the flu and the flu vaccine is correct and in line with the latest guidance from the CDC, the FDA and NIH.
    
2. Add a graphic to your website or blog.
   The Flu.gov graphics, available in both English and Spanish, are simple ways to show your support and use your website, blog, or social networking profile to share information.  The image serves as a link to the Flu.gov website, allowing your visitors to quickly find flu information.
   
   
3. Reference Flu.gov on your online and offline products.
   When posting web content or creating print materials, adding references to Flu.gov is a great way to help spread the word.  With live briefings and daily content updates, the site is the one-stop resource for flu information.
   
   
4. Print flu fact sheets and share the phone number for the national call center.
   For those Americans who may not have access to the internet, you can print the one-page fact sheets, available in multiple languages, and share the CDC-Info national contact center information to encourage individuals to speak directly with call center representatives for flu questions.
    

The Flu.gov website is focused on centralizing and streamlining online content and tools to provide a better service for American citizens and public health partners, and represents a new model for online government collaboration. The new and improved site is a collaborative effort across government, including HHS, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of Education, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the White House. Please join our effort by sharing Flu.gov resources.

It’s been a very busy couple of days but I wanted to make sure to write about an inspiring day I spent in North Carolina last Wednesday, where I visited with our Marines at Camp Lejeune and met students and faculty at Coastal Carolina Community College. I am always honored to meet our men and women in uniform, and on this day I felt so proud to be both a community college teacher and a military mom.

(Jill Biden spends time with Marines from the 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion and their families prior to deployment. Photo by Cpl. Jessica Martinez, US Marine Corps.)

After stopping into a classroom on campus at Coastal, I spent some time with college instructors and students. I always say that I am inspired by my own community college students because they work so hard to get an education while dealing with many of life’s other challenges, like working full time and raising families. These students were no exception, they truly inspired me. They were all veterans, active duty Marines, or military spouses – working and raising families, serving our country, and training to be teachers on top of it all. It was incredible to see firsthand how Coastal is ensuring our service members and their families have access to higher education.

At many community colleges, students can complete the first two years of a baccalaureate degree at an affordable price, and then transfer on to a four-year university. Coastal Carolina Community College and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington are working together to make that transfer as easy as possible. Students in the cooperative "2+2" teacher education program can study for two years at Coastal, and then walk across the hall to complete their junior and senior years at UNCW extension classrooms, right on Coastal’s campus. One student told me she had wanted to be a teacher since she was a kid but between her husband’s deployments and raising children, she never got the chance to go to school. Now she is studying to be an elementary school teacher through the schools’ 2+2 program.

From the community college I went to Camp Lejeune where I met with almost 150 Marines who were getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan. When I arrived I could not help feeling some of the same pride and anxiety I felt when my son Beau deployed to Iraq. But I was also so grateful to have the opportunity to thank these young Marines for their service. I admire their courage and strength, and I pray for their safe return.

I met more heroes at lunch, where I ate Carolina barbecue with wounded warriors and learned about how injured marines rely on each other while they heal. It was an emotional visit. I hope to continue raising awareness about the wonderful men and women in our military. I want them all to know how much we appreciate them while they are here, while they are deployed, and when they return, especially when they are recovering from injuries.

I always say that a simple "thank you" to a marine or a soldier, or a warm hug to a military mom can mean so much – and I saw this power first-hand at Camp Lejeune. I hope you will join me in thanking our men and women in uniform, and doing what you can to support them and their families. It’s the simple things that can make a big difference.

-Jill

Original story by Joe Strupp, Editor and Publisher
posted from mediapost.com

For newspapers, it increasingly looks like local is golden. A new National Newspaper Association survey found that 81% of respondents read a local weekly paper each week, and those readers spend an average of 40 minutes with the paper. About three-quarters say they read “most or all of” the publication.

The NNA survey, co-sponsored by the Missouri School of Journalism, surveyed 500 adults. Researchers also found that readers, on average, share their paper with 2.36 others and nearly 40% keep their community newspaper more than a week. Almost half say there are days they read the newspaper as much for the ads as for the news.

How about online? Only 12% say they often read local news online. . . READ FULL STORY

Several news outlets seek to explain some of the unique aspects of U.S. health insurance.

The Associated Press examines why the United States is “the only wealthy industrialized nation that does not have universal health coverage.” The U.S. health system “was shaped by a World War II government policy that imposed wage controls when much of the nation’s work force was off at war. Barred from wage increases, employers turned to health insurance benefits to attract workers, and job-related health benefits became a staple in the postwar years” (Drinkard, 10/20).

A new study by Families USA finds that “[b]ecause health insurance and employment go together, this year’s devastating job losses have likely increased the ranks of the uninsured by four million people, including nearly 200,000 in Pennsylvania and New Jersey,” The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, “said bills now being considered could improve the situation by expanding the Medicaid program to people with higher incomes, offering subsidies for some individuals who need to buy insurance on their own, and placing limits on out-of-pocket costs” (Burling, 10/21).

Meanwhile, NPR‘s “Talk of the Nation” interviews Princeton economist Uwe Reinhardt, who “argues that health care should be looked at from an unemotional, economic perspective. Reinhardt explains the … the process by which the cost of care is negotiated between hospitals and insurance companies” (Shapiro, 10/20).

Watch. Smile. And enjoy the fact that you’ve witnessed such carnage without damaging your own gear. [via Gizmag]

A government-run public insurance option is in the House Democrats’ health overhaul measure which the Congressional Budget Office has “scored” at $871 billion over 10 years.

The Washington Post: “The measure would include a government-run insurance plan that pays providers at rates tied to Medicare. … That so-called ‘robust’ public option is preferred by liberals because it would save the government money and could force private insurers to lower their own reimbursement rates, driving down the cost of health care overall. But the idea is opposed by many conservative Democrats from rural areas, where Medicare rates are well below the national average” (Montgomery, 10/21).

The Associated Press/The Boston Globe: “The [CBO] figures were preliminary because no final decision on the design of the public plan had been made, said the aide, who requested anonymity in discussing the bill because the deliberations were private. The House bill with the strong public plan would extend coverage to 96 percent of uninsured Americans and significantly reduce budget deficits” (Werner, 10/20).

CongressDaily reports that under the plan, hospitals would be paid Medicare rates and physicians Medicare rates plus 5 percent. “Leaders also asked CBO to score two other versions of a public insurance option. The second plan, which many Blue Dog Coalition members backed, would require the HHS Secretary to negotiate rates directly with providers, a change that costs the government more money. To bring the price tag under $900 billion, lawmakers combined that plan with an expansion of Medicaid and a reduction in the required actuarial value of the basic benefit plan (Hunt, 10/21).

Bloomberg: “‘Whatever choice we make will reduce the deficit,’ (Pelosi) the California Democrat told reporters yesterday in Washington, ‘not only under 10 years but over 20 years’” (Rowley, 10/21).

Reuters reports that the final CBO numbers on the other two plans are due this week as well, though a showdown with the Senate over inclusion of a public plan in the final piece of legislation is likely (Whitesides, 10/20).

Meanwhile, The Hill reports that House Democrats are trying to rebrand the public option as a “Medicare for All.” Democrats see benefit in this strategy because it could help overcome the gap between party liberals, who support the public option, and moderates, who worry about its impact on private insurers. “Rep.  Mike Ross (D-Ark.) spoke out last week in favor of re-branding the public option as Medicare, startling many because he has loudly proclaimed his opposition to a public option” (Soraghan, 10/20).

Politico: “Pelosi, who has long favored the most robust public option, made clear to members that part of her strategy was to strengthen her hand by taking a strong public option bill into the House-Senate conference. She left open the possibility of going with a different version of the bill if she couldn’t muster the votes” (O’Connor, 10/20).

House leaders are being asked to post the health reform legislation 72 hours before voting on it, McClatchy Newspapers/The Miami Herald reports. “An unusual coalition of conservatives, watchdog groups and a handful of Democrats has joined the push by Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., to put the 72-hour measure into a binding rule for the House of Representatives. Similar efforts in the Senate haven’t gained much momentum” (Lightman, 10/20).

The Washington Post: “Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid is facing intensifying pressure from liberal lawmakers to revive a proposed government insurance plan before health-care reform legislation reaches the Senate floor, amid signs that moderate Democrats may be warming to the idea.” Although the Senate Finance Committee rejected two versions of this mechanism, “the idea has gained momentum in recent weeks as Democrats look to ensure that the policies Americans would be required to buy would be affordable.” The liberals are trying to convince Reid that the public option has enough votes to pass in the Senate. The real challenge is finding middle ground among all liberals and moderates like Sens. Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat, and Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, to attract a large base for passage of the health care reform bill (Murray and Montgomery, 10/21).

Roll Call: “Reid, speaking to reporters after Tuesday’s negotiating session, said the negotiators have yet to reach the point of actually merging the two competing Senate health care reform bills that are to be the basis of the final floor vehicle. But the Majority Leader said the talks thus far have been fruitful. “Reid would not talk about the particulars of discussions (Drucker, 10/20).

ABC News reports on a press conference that Reid held with his negotiators with a video: “I hope to get something to the (Congressional Budget Office) soon, but that’s a relative term,” Reid said, adding that he’s working as quickly as he can and commenting briefly on the public option’s inclusion in the merged bill. “We’re leaning toward talking about a public option” (10/20).

Kaiser Health News features an interview with former Oregon governor, Dr. John Kitzhaber. When he “was president of the Oregon Senate, the state’s languishing economy was tightening the screws on Medicaid outlays. But Kitzhaber, a Democrat, and others wanted to find a way to avoid having to drop residents from the federal-state health program for the poor and disabled, and they came up with a radical idea.” Its success “helped earn Kitzhaber, by then the governor, a national profile” (Moore, 10/21). Read entire story.

Kaiser Health News staff writer Chris Weaver reports on developments surrounding efforts in the Senate regarding legislation on Medicare payments to physicians. “Legislation to ‘fix’ Medicare’s physician payment formula has stalled in the Senate, just days after Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced his intent to fast-track the measure. … The current proposal which was introduced last week by Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., would do away with the formula and the scheduled pay cuts. Because these changes come with an estimated cost of $250 billion to the Medicare program and no off-sets, the bill has riled up budget hawks — both Republicans and Democrats — who say they will oppose the legislation until lawmakers find a way to pay for it” (10/20). Read the entire story.

Despite strong performance on earnings sheets, stocks for companies like UnitedHealth Group have faltered amid uncertainty about the future shape of American health care, BusinessWeek reports. The flagging stocks don’t reflect “the firms’ profits, sales, or anything specific to UnitedHealth or its competitors. Rather, it’s the health-care reform debate coming out of Washington.”

Despite the recession, revenues for UnitedHealth were up over 7 percent, and the firm’s third-quarter earnings of $0.89 per share bested expectations by $0.13. “Yet UnitedHealth shares are down more than 2% in 2009, even as the broader market is up almost 21% so far this year.”

“In such an uncertain position, health insurers need to maintain maximum flexibility, says Kunal Pandya, senior analyst at the Aite Group, a consulting firm.” The companies also recognize that some aspects of reform could lead to windfall earnings, such as a stringent requirement that that Americans buy health insurance (Steverman, 10/20).

State health agencies and Medicaid programs continue to take hits from spending cuts. A new program in Florida may be backfiring against some health workers with criminal records, while a novel health benefits program in Houston hopes to lower the number of uninsured.

The Associated Press: “Previous funding cuts in public health programs mean that a new reduction in state Department of Health Services funding to close a midyear budget shortfall would largely fall on services for the mentally ill and put Arizona in violation of court orders, officials said Monday” (Davenport, 10/20).

The Salt Lake Tribune: “The biggest losers following the Utah Department of Health’s recent $51 million budget cut are the poorest people in the state, whose access to health care has dwindled. Most of that money was lopped off Medicaid as part of the state’s cuts for fiscal year 2010, which began in July” (Rosetta, 10/20).

The Associated Press/The Miami Herald: “A new state law designed mainly to crack down on Medicaid fraud is having unexpected consequences by keeping some health care professionals from getting or keeping their licenses at a time when the state is suffering a shortage.” The law prohibits health workers with old convictions from applying for or renewing their licenses until 15 years after finishing their sentences (Kaczor, 10/21).

The Houston Chronicle: “On Tuesday, the nonprofit Harris County Healthcare Alliance unveiled the TexHealth Harris County 3-Share Plan, which divides monthly premiums among the employer, employee and a subsidy fund. In the program’s first two years, a $5.5 million subsidy pool will make coverage affordable for up to 5,000 workers.” The new benefits program “promises to put a small dent in the area’s massive uninsured ranks” (George, 10/20).

The Associated Press/WSJV (South Bent, Ind.): “Debate continues over whether Michigan should put a 3 percent tax on doctors’ gross receipts to raise more money for low-income health care programs. … Supporters, including some doctors, say the tax would give physicians who see Medicaid patients higher reimbursement rates instead of the 8 percent cut contained in Michigan’s current budget plan” (10/20).

I don’t know what hurts more – the fact that they just obliterated two pieces of perfectly fine hardware, or that they did so just to show they have l…

A new poll shows rising concern about how health reform would affect the cost and quality of care.

“Americans are increasingly worried about the cost and quality of medical care that could result from President Obama’s effort to revamp health care, but a majority still trust him more than Republicans to change the system, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows,” USA Today reports. “The poll, which comes as Senate leaders are crafting a bill for a critical floor vote, finds that people who fear their costs would increase under the measure jumped 7 percentage points since last month, to 49%. There were similar increases among those who believe that both quality of health care and insurance company red tape will get worse if legislation passes” (Fritze, 10/21).

NPR has an analysis of recent polls, including one from ABC News and the Washington Post that found a clear majority of Americans support a public, government-operated health insurance option. But the results of such polls depend largely “on the language and framing of the questions. Supporters of the public option say it is merely an opportunity for those denied health insurance in the private market to obtain it from the government. In that guise, the public option seems to expand individual choice and freedom. That generally polls well.”

NPR adds, “Rasmussen Reports, a polling operation favored by many conservatives, asks the question this way: Would you support a public option ‘if it encouraged companies to drop private health insurance coverage for their workers?’ Given that as a consequence, Rasmussen’s poll shows the public opposed to the public option by 2 to 1.” NPR concludes that “polls are a poor guide in such matters. Not that lawmakers are oblivious to public opinion — to the contrary, they are typically obsessed with it. But the polls they care most about are not the national polls but the ones taken back in their states and districts. Polls back home can be vastly different from the national norm” (Elving, 10/20).

Since President Obama proposed using $25 million to test new ways to handle malpractice lawsuits, suitors have been lining up, the The Asssociated Press reports. One leading idea is to appoint expert panels to sort fact from fiction in malpractice claims. The “American Hospital Association has been shopping a new plan to lawmakers,” and malpractice reform advocates are expected to propose another strategy for a pilot program at a Health and Human Services hearing next week. Doctors say they perform extra tests on patients because they fear lawsuits.

While President Obama is also looking for ways to reduce extra testing, he opposes the “hard limits on jury awards” favored by doctors. The hunt is on for alternatives. The hospital industry’s plan would send patients to a state appointed expert panel for review. “The patient wouldn’t have to prove negligence, only that the doctor could have avoided the problem by following established guidelines for clinical practice. If the experts find that a patient was harmed and the injury could have been avoided, the panel would offer compensation. Payments would not be open-ended, but based on a publicly available compensation schedule” (Alonso-Zaldivar, 10/20).

Meanwhile, Obama appeared in New York Tuesday at a Democratic party fundraiser, the Associated Press/Boston Globe reports. He said disagreements between lawmakers were inevitable, but could be unnecessarily distracting. “Let’s make sure that we keep our eye on the prize,” he said (10/20).

“Top Senate Democrats intend to try to strip the health insurance industry of its exemption from federal antitrust laws, according to congressional officials, the latest evidence of a deepening struggle over President Barack Obama’s effort to overhaul the health care industry,” the Associated Press/Boston Globe reports. Top senators, including Harry Reid, D-Nev., the majority leader, Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., planned to announce their strategy Wednesday.

The change would bring new regulations unto the industry, which views the push as a revenge attempt in response to recent insurance industry criticisms of the broader health reform bills. An industry group said insurers are already among the most heavily regulated companies (Espo, 10/21).

Sponsors of a similar bill in the House will attempt to add it to the much broader health reform legislation when it passes through the Rules Committee, The Hill reports. The House Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on the bill Wednesday. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., a co-sponsor of the bill, said, “There are only two industries with that exemption: insurance and Major League Baseball. If it ever had a rationale, it’s no longer operative” (Soraghan, 10/21).

In Q3, Uncle Sam was the green IT king maker. Read the, “Green IT Q3 Wrap-up.”

Democrats backed away from an unfunded proposal to increase physician payments from Medicare in the face of opposition from Republicans and some fiscally conservative members of their own ranks, the New York Times reports. As the week began, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had hoped to fast track the legislation to clear the way for a vote on the sweeping health reform legislation. The doctors’ payment bill would cost $247 billion, and block a 21 percent cut next year as well as smaller cuts in the following years. Democrats have worked to separate it from the broader legislation in order to keep the price tag of the overhaul below $900 billion.

Both sides characterized the battle over the doctors’ pay “fix” as a proxy for the larger health reform battle. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said, “Republicans believe they can derail health reform by defeating the doctor fix.” Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said, “I hope that there will be senators on both sides of the aisle who revolt at the majority leader’s push to purchase the support of physicians by, in essence, creating legislation that puts our country another quarter-trillion dollars in debt” (Pear, 10/20).

“Supporters of the bill say the sharp payment cuts, unless reversed, would encourage doctors to stop seeing Medicare patients,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “The bill is supported by the American Medical Association and AARP, the lobbying group for seniors. Adoption of the measure would take one of the most contentious and costly issues off the table as the White House and Democrat-controlled Congress prepare for floor debate this fall on the broader bill” (Hitt and Adamy, 10/21).

The legislation was sponsored by Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., who “says the fix should be made permanent and the cost should be made part of the budget process in years to come. For now, though, her legislation lacks the 60 votes needed to shut off debate in the Senate,” the Detroit Free Press reports (Spangler, 10/20).

Meanwhile, “Senator Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat, said he and Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, were discussing a possible compromise that would cost $25 billion over two years and — unlike the original measure — not raise federal deficits,” the Associated Press/Boston Globe reports (10/21).

Related KHN story: Advocates Urge Action Now To ‘Fix’ Medicare Doctor Payments (Weaver, 10/20).