IRDAI delists 10 medical treatments for health cover from optional list

The insurance regulator, in a circular on Monday, delisted 10 specific medical treatments from its list of optional covers, that can be offered by health insurance companies.

Through its guidelines on the standardisation of health insurance, the Insurance and Regulatory Authority of India (IRDAI) lists various medical procedures, medical equipment like alcohol swabs and administrative charges amongst others, that can be offered as part of a health insurance policy.

Health insurance companies have the option to offer customers a cover for the items or procedures listed in chapter 3 of the guidelines. These are part of the ‘non-payable’ aspects of a standard health insurance policy.

Health insurance policies mainly cover hospitalisation charges, while the costs of other treatments and ancillary equipment have to be borne by the customer or policyholder themselves.

With health funds unused, 24%-38% shortfall in medicines, medical staff

There is a 24%-38% shortfall in the availability of medical personnel at primary health centres, sub-centres, and community health centres in 28 states/union territories of India, according to the latest audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.

In the first part of this series on the CAG’s assessment of the National Health Mission (NHM), we looked at issues of financial management. In this concluding part, we detail the lack of physical infrastructure and human resources at public health facilities.

The survey found that 73% of sub-centres were more than 3 km from the remotest village, 28% were not accessible by public transport and 17% were unhygienic. In 24 states, instances of non-availability of essential drugs were observed. In eight of these states, essential medicines/ consumables such as vitamin-A, contraceptive pills, oral rehydration solution (ORS) packets and essential obstetric kits were not available at select health facilities.

NHM, launched in 2005, is India’s largest health programme aimed at providing universal access to healthcare. It passes on funds to state health societies to strengthen local health systems, institutions and capabilities. But, as we reported in the first part of the series, states are not utilising these funds optimally and there has been a 29% rise in the balance left with states in the five years leading to 2016. The results of this are visible in the infrastructure and human resource gaps across health facilities in India.

How Afghanistan improved its health in 10 years despite bombs and bullets

After the fall of the Taliban in 2001 and as a country recovering from conflict, Afghanistan had some of the worst health indicators in the world. More than one-in-two (54%) children under five were stunted and around four-in-ten (39%) children were underweight in Afghanistan in 2004. It ranked 181/182 on the human development index, ranked the worst in stunting prevalence across the world and its under-five mortality was 257 per 1,000 live births.

In just 10 years, despite conflict and widespread poverty, Afghanistan made significant improvements in its health indicators: Under-five mortality reduced 29%, stunting declined from 54% in 2004 to 40% and underweight children declined from 39% to 20% in 2013.

Coverage of several maternal care interventions increased: Antenatal care–care during pregnancy–increased from 16% to 53%, births assisted by a skilled birth attendant from 14% to 46%, and births in a health facility from 13% to 39%. Childhood vaccinations doubled from 40% to 80% during this time.

The reduction in stunting has a lot to do with the health ministry’s focus on early breastfeeding and convergence of various ministries and aid agencies to achieve the goal, according to Homayoun Ludin, director of public nutrition, Ministry of Public Health.

Forget your sunglasses, here are contact lenses that adapt to light

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared on Tuesday the first contact lens to incorporate an additive that automatically darkens the lens when exposed to bright light.

The Acuvue Oasys Contact Lenses with Transitions Light Intelligent Technology are soft contact lenses indicated for daily use to correct the vision of people with non-diseased eyes who are nearsighted or farsighted and can be used by people with certain degrees of astigmatism, an anomaly of The eye, according to FDA.

"This contact lens is the first of its kind to incorporate the same technology that is used in eyeglasses that automatically darken in the sun," said Malvina Eydelman, Director of the Division of Ophthalmic, and Ear, Nose and Throat Devices at the FDA's Center For Devices and Radiological Health.

More younger, educated women are now giving birth at unsafe intervals: Data

Indian women aged 15 to 29 years and those with more years in school gave birth at shorter, unsafe intervals over the decade to 2015-16, shows an IndiaSpend analysis of health data.

Birth intervals–the time between two successive live births–of less than 24 months may lead to low birth weight and death of a child, according to the 2015-16 report of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS).

The optimal birth interval to reduce neonatal and infant mortality is three to five years, according to global research (here and here). In India, spacing between births for women aged 15-29 years worsened from 25 months to 22.5 months over 10 years, we found.

The median interval between two live births fell by 2.5 months to 22.5 months in 2015-16 from 25 months in 2005-06 for women aged 15-19 years and by 6 days to under 29 months from 29 months for women aged 20-29 years, according to our analysis of data from 2005-06 and 2015-16.

India vaccination rate up 18% in 10 yrs but still trails China, Bangladesh

More Indian babies are receiving all basic vaccinations than a decade ago, a sign of better-educated mothers and better healthcare. But India still lags China, which vaccinated more than 90% of its children, and a host of emerging nations.

In 2015-16, 62% Indian children (6 of 10) aged 12-23 months received basic vaccinations, up from 44% a decade ago in 2005-06, according to the latest national health data.

China has vaccinated more than 90% of its children, while Vietnam has vaccinated about 90%, Thailand more than 95%, Bangladesh more than 90% and Sri Lanka more than 95%. Developed nations, such as the US and the UK, vaccinate similar proportions of children as China, while African countries vaccinate about half, according to a monitoring system by the World Health Organization (WHO).

ArcelorMittal denies French pollution charge, says 97% residue recycled

Facing allegations of pollution, steel giant ArcelorMittal has said 97 per cent of residues from the Florange site in France are recycled or recovered and its internal probe has concluded that there is no wrong-doing.

The statement comes amid reports by French newspaper The Repulicain Lorrain that the public prosecutor's office in Thionville has opened an investigation into the alleged acid pollution of ArcelorMittal's crassier in Florange of France.

"ArcelorMittal and all of Florange's staff work are in full compliance with our authorisations to operate and store our residues. For the past 10 years, the Florange site has considerably reduced the volume of residues deposited in the storage area and today, 97 per cent of the residues from the site are recycled or recovered," said Eric Niedziela, CEO of ArcelorMittal Atlantique and Lorraine, in a statement.

"Our internal investigation concludes that there is neither fraud nor pollution," Niedziela said.

Announcing the conclusion of the internal investigation, Niedziela stressed: "We take our responsibilities very seriously and continue to work intensively to improve treatment and recovery of our residues to reduce our environmental footprint."

The steelmaker said: "No dumping of pure acid has been done... The acid used for the pickling process is systematically regenerated and reused."

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Meet Abhishek Prasad, the man who played guitar during his brain surgery

A 37-year-old musician played guitar while a nerve disorder in his brain was stimulated at a private hospital in the city recently, said a neurosurgeon on Thursday.

"We conducted a live brain circuit surgery on Abhishek Prasad to stimulate his left hand fingers even as he strummed his guitar in the operation theatre on July 11," Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain Hospital neurosurgeon Sharan Srinivasan told reporters here.

Post-operation, a beaming Prasad, who hails from Bihar, but settled in this tech hub, displayed proficiency by playing guitar at ease nine days after his skull was drilled and operated upon to set right the disorder in his four fingers.

Touted to be the first such brain circuit surgery in the country, the delicate operation involved passing an electrode 8-9cm through a 14mm hole into the brain and stimulating a specific nerve to confirm the right location and prevent any side-effect or complications to other circuits.

"After reconfirming the target location, a radio frequency lesion was made using a RF ablation machine. As the surgery was on, Prasad was conscious and played guitar, as the disorder used to manifest when he tried to play the instrument. The live feedback was important for us to ascertain the exact location to be lesioned," noted Srinivasan.
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Sisodia seeks removal of DIP director for not launching Dengue awareness

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has again sought action against the director of the Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) for "not following" his direction to launch awareness campaign about chikungunya and dengue in the city.

This is the second time when Sisodia has sought the removal of DIP Director Jayadev Sarangi after he denied his nod to hold the Deputy CM's Facebook Live even on GST with traders.

In his letter to Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, the deputy chief minister said that Sarangi was directed on May 25 to place hoardings and run a campaign for creating awareness about dengue and chikungunya, but he has not done anything till now.

"I do not understand what are the compulsions for not replacing such an incompetent officer. I again urge the Lt Governor to either replace him with a more sincere officer or get the campaign on dengue/chikungunya done from him," Sisodia said in the letter.

He also said that at a time, LG himself is proactively involved in preventive operations and taking regular meetings and all the agencies are trying their best to coordinate with each other and do the needful, the DIP is having no interest in creating awareness as required.

Earlier this month, Sisodia had directed Chief Secretary M M Kutty to take action against Sarangi for denying permission to his Facebook Live event, saying an open tender was required to organise such an event.

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Budget 2017: After Health Minister's warning, health budget likely to be up

Latest News - India's health ministry is likely to see a substantial increase in funding, after it warned that its programmes were short of cash and sought more than $1.2 billion in additional money, according to government officials and documents seen by Reuters.

The final numbers could change when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presents the budget for fiscal 2017-18 on Wednesday. But one official familiar with the numbers said the health ministry is expected to get a $1.5 billion, or 27 per cent, increase in funding to around $7 billion.

The health and finance ministries did not respond to requests for comment.

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