TGIF

Federal News Radio reports that yesterday, the President exercised "his authority to give federal civilian employees and uniformed service members a pay raise effective Jan. 1, 2018.Most civilian federal employees will receive an average raise of 1.4 percent, with an additional 0.5 percent adjusted in locality pay for a total of a 1.9 percent." The military will receive a 2.1% increase.

The Robert Woods Johnson Foundation has updated its state of obesity map for the U.S. The Foundation reports that

According to the most recent data, adult obesity rates now exceed 35 percent in five states, 30 percent in 25 states, and 25 percent in 46 states. West Virginia has the highest adult obesity rate at 37.7 percent and Colorado has the lowest at 22.3 percent. The adult obesity rate decreased in Kansas between 2015 and 2016, increased in Colorado, Minnesota, Washington, and West Virginia, and remained stable in the rest of states. This supports trends that have shown overall leveling off of obesity rates in recent years.

The obesity designation is based on a body mass index of 30 or over which is a widely accepted standard. Here's a link to their fast facts on obesity in our country.

The FEHBlog wants to correct one Tuesday tidbit which read "HHS's Office for Civil Rights, which is responsible for enforcing the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules, has a new feedback form, which is capable of accepting many categories of feedback." The feedback form in fact was posted by the Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology within HHS. The HHS OCR complaint forms can be found at this link. Lo siento.

Enjoy the long weekend and the start of the college football season.