Thursday, February 04, 2010

Thursday Tidbits

OPM has created an Open Gov website that provides, among other things, links to various OPM data sources, such as federal employment statistics. There is a related OpenOPM web site where authorized users can share ideas.

Newly minted Republican Senator Scott Brown was sworn into office this evening. Is it a coincidence that Modern Healthcare is reporting that the "The White House plans to extend talks to Republican leaders in an effort to reshape health reform legislation in such a way that it can garner some GOP support." According to the Politico, President "Obama told supporters at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser [today] that he wants to have a meeting with Republicans, Democrats and health care experts to go through the bills "in a methodical way."

I'm a fan of common sense so I can only shake my head over a Politico report that while "the health care bill is in trouble, a series of narrow deals [with the exception of the so-called Cornhusker kickback] — each designed to win over a wavering senator or key interest group — is alive and well, despite voter anger over the parochial horse-trading that marked the rush toward passage before Christmas."

Business Week reports that
40,000 to 50,000 American adults die each year from diseases that vaccines could have prevented, according to the report, Adult Immunization: Shots to Save Lives. The report was released jointly Thursday by the Trust for America's Health, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The report's authors encourage the development and implementation of a better strategy to get adults vaccinated for e.g., pneumonia (recommended for adults over 65).  The FEHB Program covers childhood and adult vaccinations in full.
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