Medicine & Health articles from April 2004

Medicine & Health archives from April 2004

NIH wants community providers on research teams.(Clinical Research)(National Institutes of Health)
April 5, 2004... If National Institutes of Health Director Elias Zerhouni, MD, has his way, the nation will soon be dotted with new electronically integrated clinical-research networks anchored by clinician-researchers who are community-based health-care...

Medicare finances: scary, but maybe not scary enough.(In Medicine & Health Perspectives this week ...)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... This is the second part of a Perspectives series on recent financial analyses of the new Medicare prescription-drug law and the program as a whole. The first appeared March 29. Perhaps the scariest daytime drama in Washington last week was...

U.S. decisions, not host nations', will govern PEPFAR purchases.(HIV/AIDS)(President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief)
April 5, 2004... An international conclave in Botswana seems to have done little to change the battle lines regarding the use of fixed dose combinations, HIV/AIDS treatments that combine two or three drugs into a single pill. Participants at the March 29-30...

HSA guidance: Rx transition, prevention safe harbor.(Health Savings Accounts)
April 5, 2004... Newly issued Treasury Department guidelines may give Health Savings Accounts a boost by removing some uncertainty surrounding the tax-favored vehicles. HSAs may be used only with "high-deductible health plans" carrying deductibles...

McClellan is to docs as Scully was to hospitals?(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator, Mark McClellan)
April 5, 2004... In one of his first public presentations as Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator, Mark McClellan, MD, offered a two-sided message to the American Medical Association's annual national advocacy conference in Washington March...

Dorn on Health Tax Credits: a for effort, F for results.(survey report)
April 5, 2004... Only 3.6 percent of eligible displaced workers and early retirees have taken advantage of the Health Care Tax Credits Congress enacted in 2002, Stan Dorn of the Economic and Social Research Institute reports. According to the Commonwealth...

Court bars gov't access to abortion records.(Reproductive Rights)(United States. Department of Justice)
April 5, 2004... A federal appellate court has turned back Justice Department efforts to obtain the records of late-term abortions performed by a physician who is challenging new federal restrictions on such procedures. The government sought the records of...

Senate will try again on Med Mal, adding Trauma providers.(medical bill to protect medical personnel to be in the pipeline)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) told an American Medical Association advocacy conference March 30 that he'll try to call up a bill early this week that would curb damages awards against both emergency and trauma-care personnel and...

Medicare private plans due for 6.6 percent raise in 2005.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Under payment rules enacted in last year's prescription-drug law, Medicare private health plans will likely see a 6.6 percent annual reimbursement increase for 2005, up considerably from the 2 percent increases many have experienced in recent...

Employers won't get the medicare drug subsidy if they shift too many costs to retirees, congress and administration agree.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal reported expert opinion suggesting that employers could still get their full Medicare drug-coverage subsidies if they offered plans in which retirees--not the company--picked up virtually all the...

Congress sends Bush organ donation bill.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Legislation passed by both houses of Congress last week authorizes $25 million in fiscal year 2005 grants to promote organ donation. The money would go for purposes such as paying expenses for living donors and coordinating activities of...

A sentence you thought you'd never read: drama over actuarial estimates continues.(In Other News)
April 5, 2004... House Ways and Means Committee Democrats invoked a seldom used House rule to get the Republican majority to call a second heating April 1 on the subject of whether, when, how, by whom, and how legitimately Centers for Medicare and Medicaid...

Democrats call it "cover-up." Republicans ask, "Was it legal?".(health care industry spending)
April 5, 2004... Ways and Means Democrats were especially interested in questioning Scully and Badger because they see the flap over the actuary's estimates as a cover-up by the Bush administration of analysis whose public release might have led to a more...

Lawmakers don't do a lot without a deadline.(health care industry)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Baby-boom retirement is now less than a decade away, and lawmakers like to worry about it--but mostly in the abstract, many analysts have opined. In general, estimates of looming program insolvency--soon--have been more likely to spur action,...

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.(Patricia Smith joins the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... Longtime AARP lobbyist Patricia Smith joins the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as head of the Health Plan Benefits Group in the Center for Beneficiary Choices. Smith, who most recently was vice president of the Alliance of Community...

VA health's computer woes end Roswell's tenure as chief.(VA Health Computerization)(United States. Department of Veterans Affairs)(Core Financial and Logistics System)
April 12, 2004... Department of Veterans' Affairs health chief Robert Roswell, MD, resigned April 5 amid a host of questions surrounding VA's troubled attempt to link its procurement, inventory, budgeting, and billing functions in a single computer network. A...

Imagine health care swallowing 50 percent of GDP.(In medicine & health: perspective this week ...)(Gross Domestic Product)
April 12, 2004... This is the third part of a Perspectives series on recent financial analyses of the Medicare program. The last part appeared in our April 5 issue. Washington's attention recently has been focused on who told the Centers for Medicare and...

Michigan preferred Rx list wins appellate blessing.(medicaid)
April 12, 2004... A federal appellate court has okayed a Michigan program that leverages the state's Medicaid population to achieve lower prescription-drug prices for Medicaid recipients and enrollees in other state programs. The opinion could have widespread...

New generics deal relies on who approvals.(HIV/AIDS)(President's Emergency Plan for HIV/AIDS Relief)
April 12, 2004... Signatories to an April 6 agreement say it will eventually provide generic HIV/AIDS medications in over 100 developing countries at prices as low as $140 a year, half the lowest generic price otherwise available and a third of the cheapest...

Lawmakers want answers on FDA antidepressant warning.(Food and Drug Administration)
April 12, 2004... Two congressional committees want to know if and why the Food and Drug Administration suppressed evidence in the course of its public deliberations over connections between antidepressant use and suicide. The FDA issued a March 22 advisory...

Grassley unveils Canada-first reimport bill, sans Kennedy.(Drug Reimportation)(Senate Finance Committee chair Chuck Grassley)
April 12, 2004... Under legislation introduced April 8 by Senate Finance Committee chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the Food and Drug Administration would have 90 days to develop a regulatory structure allowing individuals, pharmacies, and wholesalers to import...

So much for becoming sophisticated consumers of health data: nearly half of US adults have difficulty reading even basic health information, says IOM panel.(In Other News)
April 12, 2004... * So Much For Becoming Sophisticated Consumers Of Health Data: Nearly Half Of US Adults Have Difficulty Reading Even Basic Health Information, Says IOM Panel. Defining "health literacy" as "the degree to which individuals have the capacity to...

HIPAA privacy provisions could cripple outcomes studies, researchers say.(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 )(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... * HIPAA Privacy Provisions Could Cripple Outcomes Studies, Researchers Say. Costs rose substantially and data reliability was compromised in a study of heart patients' health outcomes, due to the privacy protections enacted in the Health...

Damages CPS go down in Senate again.(Senate Republicans falls short of 11 votes )(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... * Damages Caps Go Down In Senate Again. On April 7, Senate Republicans fell 11 votes short of the 60 needed to force consideration of legislation capping noneconomic damages against emergency room and trauma center staffers, as well as...

Green light for resident match program sneaks into pension bill.(National Resident Matching Program)(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... * Green Light For Resident Match Program Sneaks Into Pension Bill. The National Resident Matching Program appears poised to get antitrust protection in the pension reform bill that Congress this week cleared for President Bush's expected...

In the Health and Human Services Office of Human Research Protections.(People)(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... In the Health and Human Services Office of Human Research Protections, Bernard Schwetz has been appointed director. Schwetz, a veterinarian who previously served as senior advisor for science at the Food and Drug Administration, has been OHRP's...

Traci Davis is director of health and social policy for the Progressive Policy Institute.(People)(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... Traci Davis is director of health and social policy for the Progressive Policy Institute. A former staffer at the General Accounting Office and the Senate Finance Committee, most recently she headed the state of California's Washington office.

NGA wants single standard on medicaid revenue sources.(Medicaid)
April 19, 2004... Not yet recovered from the long economic downturn, state Medicaid programs are suffering a new assault, this time administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. So alleges testimony presented by the National Governors...

Health literacy: how many patients are left behind?(In Medicine & Health Perspectives this week ...)
April 19, 2004... In the 21st century, there's plenty of reason for policymakers to worry, if Americans aren't sufficiently "health literate" to make sense of written and oral health-care and medical information. Current policy goals that depend heavily on...

Thomas, Johnson push CMS to hike DOC pay.(Physician Reimbursement)
April 19, 2004... House Ways and Means Chair Bill Thomas (R-CA) is pushing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to administratively bump up Medicare reimbursement for physicians. Besides boosting reimbursement on their own, the steps urged by...

CMS likes reverse mortgages; analysts, not so much.(Long Term Care Funding)
April 19, 2004... One good option for elderly people in need of cash to pay pricey long-term-care insurance premiums, according to the federal Medicare.gov Web site: home-equity conversion mortgages, commonly called reverse mortgages. Based on the fact that...

MedPAC: medicare private plans cost more than FFS.(Medicare Advantage)
April 19, 2004... Medicare pays private plans 7 percent more than it would cost to cover the same people through the program's fee-for-service arm, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission reported April 8. Fifty-three percent of all Medicare beneficiaries...

Pension bill 'match' provision prompts debate.(Medical Residents)
April 19, 2004... Does recently enacted congressional language mean the end of the antitrust challenge to the way medical students are assigned to residency programs? It depends on who you ask. Yes, say Sens. Judd Gregg (R-NH) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA), who...

Tough Times Ahead For CMS?(In Other News)
April 19, 2004... Tough Times Ahead For CMS? Two former heads of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, one Republican and one Democrat, warned April 8 that the agency faces a huge task in implementing the sweeping changes contained in the recently...

Department of Health and Human Services.(People)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... At the Department of Health and Human Services, Charles Havekost is the new chief information officer. A 25-year veteran of the federal government, he most recently has managed the e-government project, Grants.gov--a one-stop Internet shop for...

HHS approves joint Rx purchasing pool.(prescription drugs)(Health and Human Services)
April 26, 2004... Michigan, Vermont, and three other states can combine their purchasing clout to negotiate cheaper prescription drug prices for their Medicaid programs, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced April 22. Michigan and...

Easy fix for high drug costs? Guess again, America.(In Medicine & Health Perspectives this week ...)
April 26, 2004... This is the first part of a Perspectives series on the increasingly noisy outcry about high prescription-drug costs. Now that last year's Medicare prescription-drug and private-plan law is in the implementation stages, what's most on...

Politicians say 'either/or'; public says 'both/and'.(Election-Year Opinion Polling)
April 26, 2004... This election year, voters in key battleground states are unhappy about the health-care system and want politicians to address their concerns. They want to hear more detailed explanations of health-care issues than the average political...

Frauds roll out in advance of drug card.(Medicare Discount Card)
April 26, 2004... Enrollment in Medicare-endorsed prescription-drug discount cards doesn't begin until May 3. But beneficiaries around the country already are receiving unsolicited phone calls and visits from seam artists who offer fake cards and, in the...

Drug-import bill sponsors run from Kennedy to Lott.(senators plan to introduce medical bills)
April 26, 2004... A bipartisan group of Senators introduced legislation April 21 that would allow Americans to import cheaper prescription drugs from abroad without the manufacturer's consent. The Democratic sponsors of the proposal, S 2328, include Sens....

EEOC: employers can coordinate health benefits with Medicare.(Retiree Coverage)(Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)
April 26, 2004... The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission voted April 22 to allow employers to reduce or eliminate health benefits for retirees when they become eligible for Medicare or state-sponsored retiree health coverage. The Commission said...

CMS solicits proposals for care coordination pilot.(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)(Voluntary Chronic Care Improvement Program)
April 26, 2004... The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is seeking proposals from organizations interested in coordinating care for Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries with multiple chronic conditions, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy...

Geographically Reclassified Hospitals To Get Higher Payments.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... * Geographically Reclassified Hospitals To Get Higher Payments. A total of 121 hospitals in 25 states will receive higher payments under the one-time only geographic reclassification provided for in the Medicare Modernization Act, the Centers...

FDA Says Data Still Aren't Clear On Adolescents' Suicide Risk From Antidepressants.(Food and Drug Administration)
April 26, 2004... * FDA Says Data Still Aren't Clear On Adolescents' Suicide Risk From Antidepressants. The Food and Drug Administration canceled planned testimony by one of its staff at a February 2 advisory committee meeting to avoid giving the false...

FSA, HRA, HAS, RMBA!(In Other News)(Retirement Medical Benefit Accounts)(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... * FSA, HRA, HSA, RMBA! No, it's not the newest Latin dance craze. RMBA is short for Retirement Medical Benefit Accounts, a healthcare financing/savings vehicle that lawmakers may soon propose to join the lineup of flexible spending accounts,...

PR Industry Group Acknowledges That Medicare VNR Tactic May Be Misleading.(video news release)
April 26, 2004... * PR Industry Group Acknowledges That Medicare VNR Tactic May Be Misleading. The flap over a so-called video news release sent out to television stations by the Department of Health and Human Services has prompted the Public Relations Society...

Health Care's Big Dilemma: Don't Let Evidence Stand In The Way Of Your Market Share.(hormone replacement therapy)(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... * Health Care's Big Dilemma: Don't Let Evidence Stand In The Way Of Your Market Share. In the past two years, several large studies, including the massive Women's Health Initiative, have demonstrated that serious safety concerns attend...

The National Alliance for Health Information Technology.(Bill Head)(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... The National Alliance for Health Information Technology is establishing a Washington office, where Bill Head will be vice president for policy and government affairs. Previously, he directed congressional relations for the Blue Cross Blue...

House energy and Commerce Committee.(Chuck Clapton)(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... Chuck Clapton is chief counsel for health on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. A panel staffer on health-care issues since 1999, he previously was a legislative aide to Sen. Aden Specter (R-PA) and former Rep. Harris Fawell (R-IL).