Medicine & Health articles from December 2003

Medicine & Health archives from December 2003

AIDS toll up globally ...(HIV/AIDS)
December 8, 2003... This year's World AIDS Day was commemorated on Dec. 1, amidst sobering news about the damage wrought by the HIV virus both internationally and in the United States. On the international front, the year 2003 is shaping up to be the...

Now what? Wonks weigh in or Rx bill's future.(Perspectives)
December 8, 2003... This is the first part of a two-part Perspectives on pundits' predictions for the new Medicare law. The second part will appear Dec. 15. Reading the new Medicare prescription-drug bill feels a lot like perusing "the owner's manual for the...

... And in the United States.(HIV/AIDS)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2003... In the United States, during the four-year period from 1999 through 2002, new HIV diagnoses increased 5.1 percent overall while spiking by 26 percent among Hispanics and 17 percent among gay and bisexual men, according to a study published in...

Omnibus ups spending for veterans, global AIDS.(Appropriations)
December 8, 2003... Veterans' health benefits are in line for a big funding jump under an omnibus spending measure encompassing the seven unfinished fiscal year 2004 appropriations measures. Pressure to add money for veterans health has grown as American...

GAO: spotty surveys, few penalties harm dialysis care.(End Stage Renal Disease)(General Accounting Office)
December 8, 2003... Survey agencies in many states don't adequately inspect dialysis facilities, leaving one of Medicare's sickest populations--people suffering from end-stage renal disease--susceptible to poor care. While saying that dialysis care in general has...

MedPAC: dialysis payment bundle should be bigger.(End Stage Renal Disease)
December 8, 2003... To improve quality and lower costs in dialysis care and potentially head off expensive hospitalizations of end-stage renal disease patients, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services should include a much broader range of goods and...

Scully to step down.(CMS)(Tom Scully)
December 8, 2003... Tom Scully is leaving his post as Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator, effective Dec. 15. In a Dec. 3 statement, CMS said an acting administrator would be named before the 15th. Names that have surfaced in Washington...

AGS, others seek halt to drug-price shredding rule.(Medicaid Pricing Data)
December 8, 2003... Senate Finance Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and 46 state and territorial attorneys general are among those protesting a federal rule--scheduled to take effect Jan. 1--that would allow drug manufacturers to destroy after three years...

President signs codification of pediatric rule.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2003... The on-again, off-again authority of the Food and Drug Administration to order pediatric testing of medications is on again. On Dec. 3, President Bush signed the Pediatric Equity Research Act of 2003, S 650. Under this legislation, the FDA...

Walmart profits while government pays, SEIU charges.(In Other News)
December 8, 2003... Employers that offer no health coverage or only bare-bones coverage worsen the health status of Americans generally and increase burdens on taxpayers. Organized labor increasingly makes that argument, which some Democratic candidates are...

Syphilis increases in U.S.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2003... The centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Nov. 20 that U.S. syphilis cases increased 9.1 percent in 2002, the second consecutive increase after a ten-year decline led to an all-time low in 2000. The female syphilis rate declined...

Tom Grissom, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Center for Medicare Management, will leave the agency at the end of the month.(People)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2003... Tom Grissom, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Center for Medicare Management, will leave the agency at the end of the month. The Center directs provider and claims-contractor activities and serves as the main Medicare...

Colin Roskey, who's helped manage Medicare overhaul efforts and overseen rural health issues for Senate Finance Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA), has left the Hill.(People)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2003... Colin Roskey, who's helped manage Medicare overhaul efforts and overseen rural health issues for Senate Finance Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA), has left the Hill. He joins the health-care practice in the Washington office of the Alston...

CMS issues drug discount card rule.(Medicare)(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)
December 15, 2003... On Dec. 10, only two days after President Bush signed sweeping Medicare legislation, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued an interim final rule providing for the prescription drug discount card program authorized by the new...

E-prescribing, formularies play big roles in Rx bill.(Perspectives)
December 15, 2003... This is the second part of a two-part Perspectives on pundits' predictions for the new Medicare law. The first appeared Dec. 8. There can't be significant expansion of benefits without significant new benefit management: That seems to be...

Spending growth slows for the privately insured.(Health Care Spending)
December 15, 2003... Ah, the wacky world of health care! According to a new report from the Center for Studying Health System Change, spending per privately insured American rose 8.5 percent in the first half of 2003, almost three times the 2.9 percent growth in...

If foreign drug prices go up, will U.S. prices come down?(Pharmaceutical Prices)
December 15, 2003... Congressional Republicans are declaring war on a variety of methods they call pharmaceutical price controls abroad as an alternative means of procuring "fairer pricing" of prescription drugs for American consumers. The campaign is part of a...

Mental Health groups, ER docs raise alarm on Medicaid cuts.(Medicaid and Mental Illness)
December 15, 2003... Mentally ill patients already are suffering "dire consequences" from recent Medicaid cuts, and trimming services for this most vulnerable population won't even help state budgets. That's the message the American Psychiatric Association,...

Congress extends Mental Health Parity law.(Mental Health)
December 15, 2003... Via a Dec. 8 voice vote, the House sent President Bush a one-year extension of the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996. The president is expected to sign the bill. The '96 law amended the Employee Retirement Income Security Act to bar group...

New Hampshire to import Canadian drugs.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
December 15, 2003... New Hampshire's Republican governor, Craig Benson, announced Dec. 10 that the state plans to buy certain lower-priced, Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs in Canada for the state's prisoners and Medicaid recipients. Within 10 days, New...

Physician class action clears hurdle.(In Other News)
December 15, 2003... Score a round for physicians in their Miami class-action battle with insurers. Federal District Court Judge Federico Moreno ruled Dec. 9 that the 700,000-strong physician class can continue seeking triple damages from insurers under the...

More NIH conflicts of interest draw concern.(In Other News)(National Institutes of Health )
December 15, 2003... The National Institutes of Health and the House Energy and Commerce Committee have launched investigations into new conflict-of-interest questions raised by the Los Angeles Times concerning many top NIH researchers. Since June, the...

AMA sees inequities in physician workforce.(In Other News)(American Medical Association)(Brief Article)
December 15, 2003... The American Medical Association's House of Delegates Dec. 8 voted to amend its longstanding policy finding that continued growth in the U.S. physician workforce would lead to an oversupply of doctors. The amended policy notes that, while the...

Congress gives itself role in VA consolidations.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
December 15, 2003... Under S 1156, signed into law by President Bush on Dec. 6, Congress will have 60 days to review any proposal by the Veterans Affairs Secretary to close or consolidate VA hospitals under the department's Capital Realignment for Enhanced Services...

Contact lens purchasers can finally obey their mommas.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
December 15, 2003... On Dec. 6, President Bush signed legislation giving contact lens purchasers the same freedom to shop around for the best deal that the Federal Trade Commission gave purchasers of eye glasses a quarter-century ago. Under the measure, HR 3140, an...

It's "wait until next year" for Senate on appropriations.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
December 15, 2003... When Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) refused on Dec. 9 to drop administration-backed riders to HR 2673, the fiscal year 2004 omnibus appropriations bill, Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) objected to passing the bill by unanimous...

HHS unveils all-agency grants Web site.(In Other News)(Health and Human Services)(Brief Article)
December 15, 2003... Comprehensive information about grants available from all federal agencies will soon be available at http://www.grants.gov, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced Dec. 9. HHS--which awards more than half of all competitive...

Kenneth Olden steps down from his double post as director of both the National Toxicology Program and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.(People)(Brief Article)
December 15, 2003... Kenneth Olden steps down from his double post as director of both the National Toxicology Program and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Formerly director of the Howard University Cancer Center, he was named director of...

Norka Ruiz Bravo is deputy director for extramural research at the National Institutes of Health.(People)(Brief Article)
December 15, 2003... Norka Ruiz Bravo is deputy director for extramural research at the National Institutes of Health. She has served in a variety of NIH posts, including, most recently, as associate director for extramural programs at the National Institute of...