Daily Rounds: Medicaid For Working Poor; Robodoctor; Test Anxiety; Chick-fil-A Debate

Working poor stand at center of Medicaid debate (Associated Press) - "Families like the Gallegos stand at the center of a debate over President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, which could have expanded Medicaid coverage to 1.3 million uninsured Texans. But Republican Gov. Rick Perry has said he will not widen the program because it would cost too much. "It gets me mad," Gallegos said. Perry "made a decision without us." Nowhere did Obama's health care law hold more promise than in Texas, which leads the nation in the portion of its population that is uninsured. A quarter of Texans have no coverage, many of them families like the Gallegos who are considered the working poor."

IRobot to take on health care (The Boston Globe) - "Military and consumer robot manufacturer iRobot Corp. in Bedford will unveil a new product Tuesday intended for the health care industry as it diversifies its product line in preparation for looming defense cuts. The 5-foot-4-inch, 140-pound “telemedicine” robot will be produced in partnership with InTouch Health of Santa Barbara, Calif., a maker of in-hospital robots, and is designed to help patients with health emergencies get more rapid treatment from specialists — especially at night, when hospital staff levels are lower, the company"

Related: Partners in national telemedicine deal (Mass High Tech)

The anxiety of waiting for test results (The New York Times) - "The excruciating limbo that follows significant medical tests is a nearly universal experience for patients. Doctors do not always ease patients’ anxiety, delivering bad news matter-of-factly, failing to call swiftly, even losing results altogether. As medical records move online and state regulations loosen, many patients can bypass the doctor’s call and get the results of these tests faster, directly from labs via Web sites and apps. But new federal regulations may permit all patients that right by year’s end. Many experts are concerned that pervasive direct access to test results may have serious drawbacks, leaving patients even more confused and overwhelmed by information they do not know how to interpret. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 6.8 billion laboratory tests were performed in the United States in 2007."

Chick-fil-A policies and food not necessarily healthy for Boston (Examiner.com) - "Today, the Boston Herald blasted Mayor Tom Menino for what it called “withold[ing] permits on a subjective basis” when he announced last week that Chick-fil-A would have to change their anti-equality policies on gay marriage in order to be able to operate in Boston. Thursday, Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy confirmed his company was “guilty as charged” of advocating what he called “the biblical definition of the family unit.” In Massachusetts, the implications of this debate are two-fold. First, Public Health in Boston. Examiner reported in May on how the acceptance of gay marriage can lower health costs through minimizing stress on same-sex couples in the community."