Weekend Wrap-Up / Miscellany

• Notwithstanding the President's veto threat, the Senate Finance Committee approved a $35 million expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program this week.
  
• Vanessa Fuhrmans wrote an interesting report in the Wall Street Journal about how "Medicaid provides health-care coverage for millions of Americans -- but a growing number of doctors won't accept it" because Medicaid keeps cutting the fees that it pays doctors. Sever state health care reform programs, such as California's, depend upon a Medicaid expansion. I was struck by this comment from Gary Sella on the WSJ health blog -- "Who makes up the missing reimbursement? Well its like an oblong balloon. Squeeze the Medicare, Medicaid end and the private market swells."
• The Health Information Technology Standards Panel has published a new round of standards including "Quality and Consumer Access to Clinical Information" for public comment. The deadline for submitting comments is August 17.
• U.S. News & World Report published an article on the battle between doctors and pharmacy based clinics captioned "In-store Clinics Give Doctors Heartburn". The clinics fight with competition and the doctors attempt to use regulators to fight back.