Insights

<p><a href="http://www.patriciacornwell.com/">Patricia Cornwell</a>, take note: The Michigan Board of Medicine may have a treasure trove of story ideas for your crime novels.</p> <p>How does this sound for a book opener?</p> <p>A married patient leaves a new pair of expensive boots at a psychiatrist’s office with a note saying, “If you ever decide to ‘kick up your heels,’ I just hope you’ll do it with me.”</p> <p>Cut to the doctor’s office a few months later, heels and everything else tossed onto the floor while the two had sex.</p>

<p>Some of heath care reform's provisions went into effect today -- to acclaim and criticism, but mostly just explanation. Here's a rundown of coverage in the <em>ReportingonHealth</em> community.</p> <p><strong>8 changes, 7 caveats:</strong> <a href="http://www.reportingonhealth.org/users/macwrite&quot;

<p>Amid the election-season clamor over health reform and some major insurers’ recent decision <a href="http://www.latimes.com/health/la-fi-kids-health-insurance-20100921,0,79… stop offering new child-only policies</a>, there are <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_16137343">substantial changes rolling out on September 23</a>.</p>

<p>Here’s what we’re reading today:</p> <p><strong>Birth Control:</strong> Now that the new “morning after” contraception pill known as <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/11/AR20100…; is on the market, will pharmacists dispense it? <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/checkup/2010/09/will_pharmacists_fill_… may not</a>, according to the Washington Post’s The Checkup health blog.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The surgeons at Anaheim Hills Surgery Center had to be sweating.</p> <p>The Joint Commission, one of the most powerful arbiters of whether a health center is deemed worthy of federal funding, showed up at the surgery center’s doorstep in April 2008 to review its records, its practices and its sta

<p>Here’s what we’re reading today:</p> <p><strong>Kid Insurance:</strong> HHS chief Kathleen Sebelius may have called on states to get cracking on insuring more poor kids, but the states are responding: with what money? American Medical News <a href="http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/09/20/gvl10920.htm">has the story</a>.</p>

<p>Earlier this month, <a href="http://www.reportingonhealth.org/blogs/junk-food-and-hospitals">James Barone asked why hospitals serve vending machine snacks and unhealthy food</a>. An event in Los Angeles yesterday raised other basic questions about hospitals: Can a shift in thinking about hospital design actually improve health?</p>

<p>Here’s what we’re reading and listening to today:</p> <p><strong>Achoo:</strong> A small but intriguing new study suggests that a common cold virus is linked to childhood obesity. In San Diego, KPBS’ <a href="../../users/kennyg">Kenny Goldberg</a> has <a href="http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/sep/20/ucsd-study-suggest-link-between-co… story</a>.</p>

<p>Someone who runs a red light and is caught on one of those video cameras might expect their insurance premiums to rise.</p> <p>Likewise, a doctor who has been disciplined by the state medical board or sued repeatedly might expect his malpractice insurance company to take note and adjust accordingly. You take risks. Your insurance company will make you pay more to cover those risks.</p>

<p>Amy Wallace recently wrote about the minefield surrounding her reporting on vaccines for <em>ReportingonHealth</em>. Two months after her November 2009 <em>Wired</em> cover story "An Epidemic of Fear: One Man's Battle Against the Anti-vaccine Movement" was published, she was sued. Though the laws