Medicine & Health articles from January 2005

Medicine & Health archives from January 2005

Commerce: market-set drug prices abroad wouldn't cut U.S. prices.(Global Pharmaceutical Market)
January 10, 2005... Raising prescription-drug prices abroad by inducing foreign governments to abandon price regulation would provide new research and development funding that could produce three or four additional new drugs a year. But it would not cut drug...

Medicine & Health 2004 Health Person of the Year.(In Medicine & Health Perspectives this week ...)(Editorial)
January 10, 2005... Some top health stories of 2004 were just that--leading news items that generated significant public interest, sometimes involving broader problems that had largely gone unnoticed. When one of only two manufacturers of injected flu vaccine...

Task force finds reimportation too expensive, too risky.(Reimportation)(importation of pharmaceuticals)
January 10, 2005... It's possible that the drug-regulatory system could be revamped to allow some safe importation of pharmaceuticals, but the extreme difficulty and expense of doing so--along with reimportation's minimal efficacy in lowering costs--would make it...

USP final guidelines don't add more drug classes.(Medicare Drug Formularies)(United States Pharmacopeia)
January 10, 2005... On Jan. 3, the United States Pharmacopeia released its final drug-classification guidelines for Medicare Part D formularies, and the result pleased insurers and pharmacy benefit managers significantly more than it pleased drug manufacturers....

Snow: treasury can't eliminate "use-it-or-lose-it".(Tax-Favored Accounts)(Secretary of the Treasury John Snow says rules on flexible spending accounts can't change)
January 10, 2005... If the "use-it-or-lose-it" limitation is to be removed from health care flexible spending accounts, Congress will have to do it through legislation. In a Dec. 23 letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Treasury Secretary John Snow said his...

Drug groups announce new disclosure policy.(Clinical Trials of drugs on the websites)
January 10, 2005... Four pharmaceutical industry trade associations said Jan. 6 that their members would voluntarily post information on a Web site run by the National Library of Medicine, www.clinicaltrials.gov, regarding all mid- to late-stage...

Staffers say deficit reduction could hit Medicare and Medicaid.(Federal Budget)
January 10, 2005... If Congress gets serious about implementing President Bush's promise to cut the deficit in half, Medicare and Medicaid are in line for serious cuts. That was the message delivered by congressional staffers at a Dec. 10 forum sponsored by...

Governors wary of too much change to Medicaid.(Medicaid)
January 10, 2005... Assuming it signals anything, President Bush's choice of former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt (R) to head the Department of Health and Human Services likely means that the administration will try again to persuade the nation's governors to accept a...

Tobacco-prevention programs go up in smoke.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... Tobacco-Prevention Programs Go Up In Smoke. In the state budget crunch of the past several years, funding from the 1998 multi-state financial settlement with the tobacco industry has flowed from tobacco-prevention programs and toward other...

White House.(People)(Claude Allen appointed)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... Deputy Health and Human Services Secretary Claude Allen will be the new top assistant to the president on domestic policy, the White House has announced. President Bush has twice nominated Allen to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, but Senate...

In a Jan. 5 vote, House GOP leaders ousted Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), an outspoken advocate for increased funding for veterans' services, including health care, from the chairmanship of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.(People)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... In a Jan. 5 vote, House GOP leaders ousted Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), an outspoken advocate for increased funding for veterans' services, including health care, from the chairmanship of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. Under House...

MedPAC to recommend skimpy--or no--2006 updates for providers.(Medicare Payment)
January 17, 2005... Over the past several years, numerous congressional Republicans have grumbled that the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission made too many recommendations that would cost the government more money. As fretting over budget deficits builds this...

Get ready for the ownership society, MedPAC style.(In Medicine & Health Perspectives this week ...)
January 17, 2005... Under the Bush administration, Washington's hottest new buzzword may be "the ownership society." As with most political buzzwords, though, what the phrase means--or ought to mean--in the eye of the beholder. Among those echoing the coinage of...

Extend specialty hospital moratorium, says MedPAC.(Specialty Hospitals)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2005... The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission will recommend that Congress extend its moratorium on new physician-owned specialty hospitals--set to expire in June 2005--for 18 months, to Jan. 1, 2007. The extension will give lawmakers and the...

Governor: after dropping 321,000 adults, TennCare still generous.(TennCare)
January 17, 2005... After it dumps 321,000 adults from its rolls over the next 12 months and institutes new limits on services such as prescriptions and physician visits, TennCare will still be "in the top ten" among the nation's Medicaid programs for coverage...

Public sector cuts hold down spending growth.(Health Care Spending)
January 17, 2005... U.S. health care spending growth slowed in 2003 for the first time in seven years, researchers at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services report in the January/February Health Affairs. Spending increased 7.7 percent in 2003, down...

Gains from hospital concentration concentrated in hospitals.(Hospital Consolidation)
January 17, 2005... Hospital consolidation is a great thing--as long as you happen to run a hospital. For the rest of us, it may not be so great. That's the message inherent in a study by Allison Cuellar of Columbia University and Paul Gertler of the...

AHIP says HSAs taking off.(Consumer-Driven Health Care)
January 17, 2005... Through September 2004, about 438,000 people had purchased the high-deductible insurance policies that would qualify them to enroll in health savings accounts, according to a survey released Jan. 12 by America's Health Insurance Plans. ...

Pharmas offer version of Together Rx to younger folks.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2005... * Pharmas Offer Version of Together Rx To Younger Folks. Ten major drug companies are collaborating on a new card they say will provide discounts ranging from 25 percent to 40 percent on 275 brand-name drugs, as well as a "wide range" of...

Drug industry's site for trial results lacks ... well, trial results.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2005... * Drug Industry's Site For Trial Results Lacks... Well, Trial Results. A week after the drug industry unveiled a promise to publish more information about clinical trials on a National Institutes of Health Web site (See M&H, Jan. 10, p. 4),...

Center for Studying Health System Change.(People)
January 17, 2005... New at the not-for-profit research and policy group Center for Studying Health System Change is Ann O'Malley, MD. She has been an assistant professor at Georgetown University Medical Center and will focus on access to care and racial and ethnic...

Low-income, employer participation facilitated in final rule.(Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit)
January 24, 2005... The final edition of Medicare's rule for the 2005 prescription drug benefit went on display at the Federal Register Jan. 21. New wrinkles in the final version include a dialogue-heavy process through which plan sponsors and the Centers for...

Budget cutters vs. entitlement programs: back to the BBA?(In Medicine & Health Perspective this week ...)
January 24, 2005... Washington will try to trim the federal budget deficit in 2005, and the big health entitlement programs, Medicare and Medicaid, will be on the table. But few are predicting it will be easy--or even possible--to enact cuts that can achieve...

Leavitt dodges questions on Medicaid caps.(Medicaid)
January 24, 2005... Will the Bush administration again seek to cap a big chunk of federal Medicaid expenditures? And how does Michael Leavitt, the president's nominee to succeed Tommy Thompson as Secretary of Health and Human Services, feel about such caps? ...

Leavitt: let market, not HHS, set Medicare Rx prices.(Medicare Drug Benefit)
January 24, 2005... Michael Leavitt, President Bush's nominee to replace Tommy Thompson as Secretary of Health and Human Services, does not want the power to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries. Congress'...

Drug safety, it, quality, schip on lawmakers' minds this year.(2005 Congressional Preview)
January 24, 2005... Most likely, 2005 will see much more talk than action from Congress on health care. And between debates over Social Security, budget deficits, and Iraq, even the time for talking will be minimal. Nevertheless, legislators still have hopes...

CDC researchers reduce estimate of obesity deaths.(Obesity)(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
January 24, 2005... As expected, a team of researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has downgraded their earlier estimate of the number of obesity-related deaths that occur annually in the United States. In a letter published Jan. 19 in...

Milbank Quarterly.(People)(Urban Institute's Health Policy Center)(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... Milbank Quarterly Editor Bradford Gray is now a principal research associate at the Urban Institute's Health Policy Center. Gray, whose current research focuses on healthcare disparities and the behavior of for-profit versus nonprofit...

Nicholson wins VA job, but will he win funding?(Veterans Benefits)
January 31, 2005... The Senate in a Jan. 26 voice vote confirmed Jim Nicholson as the new Secretary of Veterans Affairs Nicholson, the current Ambassador to the Vatican, faced no significant opposition from either party. Indeed, on Jan. 24, the Senate...

'A' for effort on final rule, but no guarantee Part D will succeed.(Perspectives this week ...)
January 31, 2005... There is agreement about one thing: When it issued final rules for the new Medicare Part D drug benefit, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services did everything it could to meet the often conflicting concerns of the stakeholders. Health...

For rural docs, they really are green acres.(Rural Health Care)
January 31, 2005... Taking into account geographic variation in cost of living, rural physicians make more than their urban counterparts, and physicians in the most remote rural areas make the most money of all. This counterintuitive finding comes courtesy of...

FDA approves generic drug regimen.(Global HIV/AIDS)
January 31, 2005... On Jan. 25, Food and Drug Administration for the first time approved a generic multi-drug regimen that can be used by U.S. foreign-aid recipients to fight HIV/AIDS in developing countries. Generic AIDS drugs commonly sell for a third to a...

With little room on Congress' agenda, is 2005 the year of I.T.?(Congressional Agenda)
January 31, 2005... When Senate Republicans and Democrats offered their respective 2005 top legislative proposals last week, few areas of strong shared health-care interest emerged. Both parties advocate initiatives aimed at enrolling all eligible children into...

NLRC opposes Medicare Rx bargaining.(Right-to-Life Agenda)
January 31, 2005... The National Right to Life Committee's legislative agenda covers a broader range of issues than you might think. Specifically, said NRLC's Burke Balch at a Jan. 24 press conference marking the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the organization...

Number of developing-world AIDS victims treated increasing.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
January 31, 2005... * As of December 2004, 700,000 people living with AIDS in the developing world were receiving antiretroviral drugs, the only effective treatment against the disease, according to a joint announcement by the World Health Organization, UNAIDS,...

Leavitt gets HHS post, Dorgan gets reimportation hearing.(In Other News)
January 31, 2005... * In a Jan. 26 voice vote, the Senate confirmed former Utah governor Mike Leavitt as the new Secretary of Health and Human Services. Leavitt, who moves over from his current post as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, succeeds...

Rep. Nathan Deal.(People)(Brief Article)
January 31, 2005... There's new leadership on the health subpanel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over Medicaid, Medicare physician services and home health, the Food and Drug Administration, and other non-revenue issues...