Health Care

GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C. officially opened its soaring glass Navy Yard building on Saturday, but the pharmaceutical giant was already embarked on a street-level project to help it connect with consumers of its medicines, toothpaste and other products - its Healthy Communities initiative. Philadelphia, St. Louis and Denver are cities in which Glaxo and the Atlantic magazine have hosted leaders of community groups that directly or indirectly help people with health care. While not exactly alike, each city faces problems of aging populations with chronic diseases, bulging waistlines and shrinking budgets.

SEVERAL years ago, I wrote about health care in Japan, where the government had begun charging corporations for their overweight employees. The Japanese tackle diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer and heart disease with a tape measure first: A waist circumference greater than 33.5 inches for women and 35.5 inches for men is enough to trigger a fine for an employer. My readers scoffed at this strategy, reacting with laughter and a lot of eye-rolling. Fast-forward to today. With health-care costs soaring in the United States, many companies have started to penalize overweight employees.

Temple University Health System said it established an Institute for Population Health to put under one umbrella numerous existing efforts to move health care into the community.   Among the programs being moved to the institute is the training of community health workers, who work to reduce readmissions and unnecessary visits to the emergency room, said Paula Stillman, Temple vice president of health care services and director of the institute.   A second class of 30 community health workers is scheduled to start training in May. Another program is a Transition Center, which ensures that primary care physicians are notified when one of their patients comes to the ER or is admitted to the hospital, among other things, Stillman said.

In the Region   Wharton fellow is Obama appointee   A senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School is one of three nominations made Tuesday by President Obama for appointments to the National Labor Relations Board . Philip A. Miscimarra, a Penn law school graduate, serves as managing director of the Wharton Center for Human Resources Research Advisory Group and is the employment law adviser to...

HARRISBURG - Gov. Corbett on Friday moved to fill two vacancies in the upper echelons of his administration. Corbett said he would nominate acting Health Secretary Michael Wolf to permanently fill the post vacated last fall, and he tapped lawyer Michael Sprow to serve as acting state inspector general. Wolf, 46, of Enola, a Harrisburg suburb, was director of worldwide public affairs and policy for pharmaceutical giant Pfizer before joining the Corbett administration in May 2011 as a top deputy to then-Health Secretary Eli N. Avila.

  For all its size and strength in South Jersey, Virtua Health remains a community health system, leaving complicated care it does not do itself to partners and competitors. But the nonprofit system, which had more than $1 billion in revenue last year, is showing signs of broader aspirations. Virtua drew attention to itself as an economic driver in South Jersey on Thursday, holding a meeting at its new Voorhees medical complex on "how health care is boosting the regional economy and beyond.

When the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act and President Obama won reelection last year, the die was cast: "Obamacare" became the law of the land. While Republican players want to re-litigate the issue, the new federal guarantee of health-care insurance for every American family is here to stay. Until Republicans embrace this reality - and persuade the voters that they can deliver universal coverage on far better terms - the Party of Lincoln will never sustain a comeback.