Op Ed
Full-year birth control should be the new normal in New Jersey | Opinion
By: Brittany Lee Special to the USA TODAY Network It’s time for New Jersey to update its laws around prescribing and dispensing birth control and give people greater control in deciding when or if they grow their families. Health care providers should be able to prescribe a full year of contraceptives at one time. A…Read More…
If You’re Reluctant to Get the Coronavirus Vaccine, I Urge You to Get One ASAP
By AL SMITH March 22, 2021 at 2:10 PM Credits: Mayors Wellness Campaign Dear Editor: For the second year in a row, Scotch Plains has been recognized as a “Healthy Town” by the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute. Only eight towns in the state earned this prestigious designation in 2020. We were first recognized…Read More…
Please don’t weaken N.J.’s health insurance mandate | Opinion
By Linda Schwimmer New Jersey requires those who can afford health insurance to purchase coverage. For those who need help paying for coverage, there is free and subsidized health insurance. And if you still can’t afford coverage because of financial hardship, you are not penalized. Indeed, our state legislators and Gov. Phil Murphy have crafted…Read More…
Op-Ed: Reproductive Justice Is a Key to Quality Care
by Linda Sloan Locke, CNM, MPH, LSW, FACNM December 27, 2020 Access to the full range of reproductive health services, and especially to contraception, remains an issue for many Americans. For instance, in New Jersey, where I work, data show that 25% of all pregnancies in our state are “unintended” and nearly 435,000 women live in “contraceptive…Read More…
Op-Ed: Pandemic must drive nursing-home transformation
FRED A. KOBYLARZ | NOVEMBER 13, 2020 | CORONAVIRUS IN NJ, OPINION COVID-19 presents an opportunity to transform nursing-home care. Residents and staff have been overlooked for too long Fred A. Kobylarz When the floodwaters receded after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, they revealed disastrous conditions and losses of life at nursing homes across the Gulf region. In the…Read More…
Op-Ed: Birth Control Is Healthcare — Why don’t we treat it that way?
MedPage Today by Brittany Stapelfeld Lee, MSW August 31, 2020 Birth control has been long applauded as one of the biggest public health advancements of our time. According to the Guttmacher Institute, over 99% of sexually active women ages 15–44 have used at least one contraceptive method in their lifetime. So, why, 60 years after the first FDA-approved oral contraceptive,…Read More…
Op-Ed: Change Burdensome Policies Creating Barriers to Birth Control in NJ
BRITTANY STAPELFELD LEE | JUNE 22, 2020 | OPINION To truly dismantle barriers to birth control, it is essential to address state-level policies that limit access to services Brittany Stapelfeld Lee Every day, patients and health care providers across the state make decisions about contraceptives that are not based on medicine. Instead, confusing, outdated and burdensome policies…Read More…
Only half of us talk to anyone about dying, a new poll finds. We must change the culture around death.
Posted Apr 16, 2019 A New Jersey Health Matters poll with Rutgers Eagleton released Tuesday found that only about half of the state’s residents have talked to anyone about their end-of-life care preferences. New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute urges New Jerseyans to have that conversation before they, or a loved one, becomes too ill….Read More…
OP-ED: NJ SHOULD EXTEND MEDICAID POSTPARTUM COVERAGE
OP-ED: NJ SHOULD EXTEND MEDICAID POSTPARTUM COVERAGE LINDA SCHWIMMER | JUNE 11, 2019 Every year, thousands of women in New Jersey lose Medicaid coverage 60 days after having given birth; New Jersey can — and should — change that Linda Schwimmer Two months after a new mother gives birth is not the time for her to lose…Read More…
Schwimmer: Hospital ratings: imperfect, but still needed
Published by Linda Schwimmer on The Record The federal government last week released a report rating every hospital in the nation. The fallout has been swift. Some call the new ratings from Medicare Compare unfair to teaching hospitals, which often care for the most complex patients. Others said the ratings do not account for the…Read More…