Story Archives of 'Project Health'

This month planes have been flying low over the forest of Northern New England, pelting the ground with hundreds of thousands of fish-flavored treats.

Their target: raccoons.

The fishy treats are laced with rabies vaccine.

The vaccine bait drops are part of a government strategy to halt the march of raccoon rabies across the Eastern United States.

So far the program has helped stall the northward advance in New Hampshire at the North Country.

But in southern New Hampshire the virus is well established and rabies cases are on the rise.

New Hampshire Public Radio’s Kerry Grens reports.

The practice of pharmacy has changed considerably over the last century.

It used to be that pharmacists filled prescriptions by taking the raw ingredients and mixing up medications.

Now only about one percent of the prescriptions in the United States are prepared individually for patients—most of them are dispensed pre-made by pharmaceutical manufacturers.

In New Hampshire a handful of pharmacists continue to fill prescriptions the old way.

But to practice their craft, they must operate in a legal limbo.

New Hampshire Public Radio’s Kerry Grens has more.

Our series on the latest movement in health care continues this morning. All this week, we've been looking at what is called consumer driven health care. This is insurance that gives patients a financial stake in deciding the treatments they get and the price they pay.

But just to say "consumer driven" raises some fundamental questions about what forces shape our health care options and who makes decisions over the services we use.

Today, we hear from one of the originators of the consumer health care movement and explore how consumer preference might play itself out in the health care industry.

New Hampshire Public Radio's Jon Greenberg has more.

In the second half of our two hour special, we look at consumer driven health care in New Hampshire. We'll define what it is, see if geography makes a difference in where these types of plans work, get the breakdown of consumer driven health care versus the traditional HMO-type plan in our state and ask how feasible it is for these programs to make an impact here in the Granite State and on health care costs in general. Laura's guests are Charlie Arlinghaus, President of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy Study and Rob Nordgren, Pediatrician, Executive Director of Child Health Services in Manchester and Co-Chair of the New Hampshire Citizen’s Health Initiative and Rob Nordgren, pediatrician and executive director of Child Health Services in Manchester and co-chair of the New Hampshire Citizens' Health Initiative. We'll also hear from Leslie Ludtke, Health Policy Analyst for the New Hampshire Insurance Department, Jennah Partington, Customer Service Supervisor for New England Employee Benefits Company to give us the perspective of New Hampshire companies who have considered consumer driven healthcare plans and have either signed up or passed on them and Michael Green, President and CEO of Concord Hospital.

This week NHPR is taking an in-depth look at consumer driven health care.

A key idea behind consumer driven care is that patients will become smart shoppers and get the best value for their healthcare dollars.

But in order to shop for something, a person needs some information: what’s it going to cost, and how good is the quality?

New Hampshire Public Radio’s Kerry Grens looks at the tools patients can turn to in New Hampshire.