Healthcare scorecard, El Paso v McAllen

From the Washington Post, an interview with Atul Gawande, the author of New Yorker article comparing the medical systems of El Paso and McAllen. An excerpt from the interview:

The interesting thing to me is not that McAllen is different from elsewhere. it’s that El Paso is different than McAllen. They have the incentives to go in that direction! My hypothesis is that communities have local anchor institutions that foster values and norms that make the medical system successful. My sense is that in McAllen it was about a few institutions striking out in different ways that set the norm for what others did.

In the early 90s, McAllen was the same cost as El Paso. Three years later, they jumped into the top 10 or 20 and never really left. The first thing to really leap in price was home health care and it happened, it seems, because a few home health agencies came on the scene and began offering doctors something serious for their involvement: extra salaries as medical directors who don’t really do much. McAllen is also on the leading edge of for-profit innovations. They were early with a specialty hearts center, for instance, and cardiovascular operation rates began climbing. Then you had physician-owned imaging centers and physician-owned surgery centers and everything began going up a lot.

Health care, even for the border folk, is the talk of the town in DC

From the office of U.S. Rep, Silvestre Reyes, and taking place at a time when people are streaming in and out of Washington, D.c. to lobby on health care reform:

4TH ANNUAL BORDER HEALTH CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The 4th Annual Border Health Conference will be held tomorrow, June 24, 2009 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the South Congressional Meeting Room in the Capitol Visitor’s Center. The conference will address issues such as the recruitment and retention of health care professionals; public health issues unique to the Southwest Border; and the future of medicine along the border as Congress debates health care reform. Congressman Silvestre Reyes will participate in the conference. For a complete list of participants and panelists, please see the final agenda below.

White, liberal Austin? Ask Socorro. Meanwhile, Westlake responds to racial taunting allegations.

Some discussion in Austin about the state high school baseball championship between the Austin-area Westlake and Socorro. A blog entry yesterday had some of the discussion. You can view some of the comments below.

Meanwhile, here’s the follow-up today, in which the Westlake folks issue a non-apologetic apology:

Byrd’s speech on El Paso past and future

Text of city Rep. Susie Byrd’s speech at the inauguration Monday night can be seen below. Video can be found here at the Newman Park Blog.

“Ze plane! Ze plane!” Mr. Roarke on the Council dais

Old school sartorial splendor, Fantasy Island-style! Really, this ought to be on Moda Urbana, but there is the political tie-in, so here you go.

Forget green cards; red’s the new rage

Folks, the number of ideas out there is truly amazing, as is our capacity to generate, collect and collate data through the Internet. Pandora’s Box, indeed!

The White House. The Red Card. Why Not?

Why Isn’t Helen Krieble Invited to the Immigration Reform Meeting?

http://www.redcardsolution.com

WASHINGTON, June 22 /PRNewswire/ — While leaders discuss citizenship, taxes, legalization, and i.d. cards this Thursday at the White House meeting on Immigration Reform – all essentials of The Red Card Solution – the solution itself, from businesswoman Helen Krieble, is apparently not invited.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, June 23, Krieble takes The Red Card Solution to the Library of Congress and that afternoon at 5:30 debuts a mini-documentary at the National Press Club Ballroom. The documentary includes Luis Cortez, head of Esperanza, host of the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast (where the President announced the new White House meeting date). The panel after the mini-documentary features Alberto Avendano from El Tiempo Latino; Helen Krieble of The Red Card Solution; Steve Moore from the Wall Street Journal; James Carafano, Heritage Foundation; Matt Kibbe of Freedom Works; and Mario Lopez, Hispanic Leadership Fund.

A solution for the sweatiest city in America

Is this clever marketing or what? It would be even more enticing if they promised those girls from the commercial would be there to scrub. Here’s the news release:

Hey there –

We know it gets hot in El Paso, so as you are doing your beat the heat and summer cool down stories, we have a product that will keep him feeling refreshed and clean during those unbearable days.

Irish Spring Body Wash Cool Relief Scrub has a unique cooling complex with natural exfoliating scrub that will wash away the sweat and dirt, leaving his body feeling clean and rejuvenated. So during the hot days, when you can’t stand the heat anymore, jump in the shower and use this cooling body wash to feel refreshed.

For more information, images, and samples, please contact me at 212-798-9783 or Alana.Rockland@cohnwolfe.com

Best,

Alana

State Rep. Coleman news release about Marquez echoes health issues addressed by Chavez

UPDATE: NPT editor Sito Negron needs some reading comprehension lessons. The item below has been reworked to address a glaring error — the item initially attributed Coleman’s news release to Marquez.

State Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, sent a news release lauding Marquez’s work on health care issues. His news release has this line:

This week, Chairman Coleman and the Progressive States Network, a national policy organization he co-chairs, presented a letter calling for healthcare reform to the White House by state legislators at a meeting with Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and Nancy-Ann DeParle, the head of the White House Office on Health Reform. Earlier, the delegation delivered the letter to Congress at a Capitol Hill press conference hosted by Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, third-ranking Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. The letter was signed by 25 Texas legislators, including Rep. Márquez.

Something rung a bell. Sure enough, last week, state Rep. Norma Chavez, who famously is not Marquez’s friend, sent a news release mentioning the Progressive States Network (which, by the way, is an interesting deal in its own right, giving rise to the thought that President Obama might be playing a little rope-a-dope on the health care issue). Anyway, here’s what Chavez’s news release stated:

State Rep. Norma Chávez will host a press conference on Wednesday, June 17th, in support of a national effort led by state legislators around the country to reinforce President Obama’s efforts to pass comprehensive health care reform, including the choice of a public health insurance option, this year.

Texas legislators have joined a nationwide movement of state lawmakers which now number over 600 state legislators from 46 states who have signed on to a support letter organized by the Progressive States Network, a national partner of Health Care for America Now.

Her news release went on to state that:

Rep. Chávez will be leading a delegation from Texas that will include, State Rep. Elliott Naishtat of Austin, Bexar County Commissioner Chico Rodriguez, and LULAC Council President Henry Rodriguez, to Washington D.C. on June 24-25th to lobby members of Congress to support President Obama’s efforts to pass comprehensive health care reform.

While Coleman is in Washington, D.C., getting ink on the national press release about the big picture of the effort under way, Chavez is in El Paso spilling ink for the local effort (at which, by the way, Marquez was present).

Addendum, 4:15 p.m., Monday, June 22, 2009
By way of reference to the parenthetical thought above, that Obama might have more support than he has let on, as Chavez said during a conversation after this item was published, the topic of health care will dominate the national discussion for the rest of the summer. Thus far, the loudest voices have been the opposition to major reform, or at least, to the major bone of contention, the public option. As the interlocked efforts of HCAN (Chavez) and its partners (PSN and Coleman, for one) begin to unfurl, and take on the look of the Obama presidential campaign with its grassroots and Web-based organizing, it may be that Obama takes on the look of Ali fighting Foreman.

– Sito Negron

Liberal immigration hardliners

Ok, I follow the argument, but still … this sounds sort of like Conservatives for Abortion Rights or something similar.

Recent Poll by Progressives for Immigration Reform Shows Concern Among Liberals and Progressives Over Current Immigration Levels

WASHINGTON, June 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A nationwide poll of 600 self-indentified liberals and progressives shows that liberals are concerned about the current levels of immigration into the United States and the harmful effect that current immigration policies are having on U.S. population growth, the environment, and the availability of jobs. The poll was conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC in April 2009.

But how did he die?

Without commenting on the issue of justification, this headline seems to be missing something:

MAN DIES AFTER ATTEMPTING TO STRIKE PEDESTRIANS

Date/Time: 06-19-2009 @ 11:54p.m.
Location: 2500 N. Mesa
Vehicle: 2008 Ford Mustang, 2 door, red
Suspect: Ruben Troncoso, 31 year of age, 3100 block of Rockwall (DECEASED)
Victim: Police Sergeant, 12 year veteran, Westside Regional Command Center

EL PASO, TEXAS – An El Paso Police officer is forced to discharge his weapon after a man attempts to strike pedestrians and earlier attempts to strike an officer. Just before midnight, an El Paso Police Sergeant assigned to the Westside Regional Command Center was forced to take immediate action in an attempt to save a crowd of pedestrians at Mesa and Cincinnati. The Police Sergeant had spotted 31-year old Ruben Troncoso driving erratically in the area of Executive and Mesa, and knew from police dispatch that he had been involved in a pursuit from the Mission Valley area. The Sergeant attempted to stop Troncoso, who was driving a red 2008 Ford Mustang. The Sergeant signaled and gave commands for Troncoso to stop and he refused. As Troncoso continued south on Mesa and was approaching Cincinnati he began to rev his engine and accelerate toward pedestrians. Witnesses recalled people having to scatter in an attempt to avoid being struck. At that moment, the Sergeant, forced to stop the dangerous actions of Troncoso fired his weapon at Troncoso striking him.