By Rose Hoban Ticks carrying Lyme Disease are not that big a deal in North Carolina… yet. A study published today by Yale entomology researcher Maria Duik-Wasser generated a map of tick populations along the Eastern seaboard. She aggregated the efforts of dozens of entomologists in 37 states who wander through fields dragging pieces of […]
Posted inFeatured, Medicaid, Public Health, State Health Policy
Interview With Outgoing NC DHHS Secretary Lanier Cansler
Yesterday was the last day of work for outgoing North Carolina Secretary of Health and Human Services, Lanier Cansler. The 58 year-old Cansler has been involved in state government for most of the past two decades, first as a legislator from Asheville, then as Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services, lobbyist and as the […]
Posted inFeatured, Health Reform, Healthcare Workers, Profiles, Public Health
Interview With US Surgeon General Regina Benjamin
Answers have been edited for brevity NCHN: Why did you visit North Carolina? Dr. Benjamin: Prevention is the basis of my work as the Surgeon General and the Affordable Care Act established the National Prevention Council which I chair. We released our first ever national prevention strategy, so now we’re trying to implement that strategy. […]
Posted inConsumer News, Featured, HOUSE Calls
HOUSE Calls: Questions About Diabetes and Prostate Cancer
Physicians from the UNC Department of Family Medicine’s YOUR HEALTH™ media bring you weekly information in response to your questions about health and medicine. Send us your questions or comments to YOURHEALTH@unc.edu. This week we respond to questions about diabetes and prostate cancer. Dear HOUSE Calls, My brother takes insulin for his diabetes and drinks […]
Posted inCost of Care, Healthcare Workers, NC Health Briefs
Innovating To Improve Health Care
An energetic Duke Medicine oncologist named Amy Abernathy, MD, presented at today’s Health Care Innovations Summit in Washington, D.C. Co-hosted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, West Wireless Health Institute and the journal Health Affairs, the gathering brought together about 1,000 health care stakeholders (So says an HHS press release. I’ve been watching the […]
Posted inFeatured, Medicaid, Public Health, State Health Policy
Health and Human Services Committee Roundup
Medicaid shortfall will be met – later State lawmakers signaled yesterday the current Medicaid budget shortfall would be taken care of later this year. In the last budget, legislators from the General Assembly directed the Department of Health and Human Services to cut hundreds of millions from Medicaid, the program, that provides health care for […]