Medicine & Health articles from March 2004

Medicine & Health archives from March 2004

HHS agrees to consult on prescreening Medicaid spending: medicaid waivers.(Department of Health and Human Services)
March 1, 2004... It was all a big mistake. That's what President Bush and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson told the nation's governors about HHS's one-day comment period on a Jan. 7 Federal Register proposal that would require states to get...

States, feds continue long squabble over Medicaid match.(Perspectives ...)
March 1, 2004... This is the first part of a Perspectives series on cost and financial-integrity issues arising from Medicaid's structure as a state-federal funding partnership. States and the federal government share funding responsibilities for Medicaid....

Proposal aimed at financing abuses.(federal payments for state governments' Medicaid programs)
March 1, 2004... HHS spokesperson Bill Pierce said the goal of prescreening was to head off schemes employed by some state governments to improperly boost federal Medicaid payments using "intergovernmental transfers" and other methods (see Perspectives, p.1)....

A slowdown on waivers?
March 1, 2004... Combing state waiver requests for IGTs is a lengthy process, the state health representative said, and at a Feb. 23 National Governors Association briefing, governors Jennifer Granholm (D-MI) and Kathleen Sebelius (DKS) complained of a general...

CMS will update drug-card price data every week: medicare discount card.(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)
March 1, 2004... When Medicare prescription-drug discount cards launch early this summer, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Web site will become a mecca for price-conscious consumers in and out of Medicare, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy...

Bredesen: state must regain control of TennCare.(Phil Bredesen)
March 1, 2004... Tennessee has lost control of spending in TennCare--the state's ambitious attempt to use managed care to cover most of its low-income and uninsured citizens--and must now take back the reins to avoid bankrupting the government or being forced...

Cox-2 use follows coverage, not need: Rx drugs.
March 1, 2004... Are newer prescription drugs like the pain relievers Celebrex and Vioxx under used or over used? The answer is "yes," say researchers led by the University of Pennsylvania's Jalpa Doshi. Their findings, published Feb. 18 on the Health Affairs...

On medical liability, different strategy, same result.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... With three Republicans and one Democrat crossing party lines, the Senate GOP Feb. 24 fell 12 votes short of the 60 needed to force consideration of a bill limiting noneconomic damages against obstetricians and gynecologists to $250,000. ...

Thompson: Michigan pooling waiver alive, maybe even well.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said Feb. 25 that his department would "more than likely" approve a Michigan Medicaid waiver request allowing the state to join with Vermont, and perhaps other states, to negotiate drug prices....

As if he weren't busy enough ...(Mark McClellan's speeches on drug reimportation bill)
March 1, 2004... Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Mark McClellan, MD, will lead a government task force on the reimportation of prescription drugs, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced Feb. 26. Under the new Medicare...

CalPERS could drop expensive hospitals.(California Public Employees' Retirement System)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... The California Public Employees' Retirement System, one of the nation's largest health-care purchasers, said Feb. 18 that it plans to save around $72 million by dropping coverage for stays in 45 of California's most expensive hospitals, the...

Medicare health plans will see 15 to 18 regions, Scully predicts.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... It's "highly likely" that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will divide the country into "15 to 18" regions for Medicare preferred provider organizations to serve beginning in 2006, former CMS Administrator Tom Scully told the...

Are long-term-care hospitals filling an important niche, or are they voracious animals that Medicare created?(In Other News)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) introduced legislation Feb. 10 to place a moratorium on new Medicare LTCH beds until the Department of Health and Human Services gathers enough information to determine whether the facilities provide services that can't...

FDA accelerates bar code requirement.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Under a final rule unveiled Feb. 25 by the Food and Drug Administration, prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications commonly used in hospitals will carry supermarket-style bar codes within two years, a year earlier than required by a...

It depends on what 'closely' means.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... About two-thirds of seniors report following the debate over Medicare prescription-drug legislation "very closely" or "somewhat closely," but almost seven in ten don't know that a bill has been signed into law, according to a Kaiser Family...

Republicans still singing from same hymnal: no 2004 technical fixes for drug law.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... "One of the things we're not interested in doing this year is opening the Medicare provisions of this bill," a top Senate GOP aide told the National Medicare Prescription Drug Congress Feb. 25.

Financial incentive for buying long-term-care coverage a must, says Frist.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... The federal government and states must offer tax subsidies to get people to buy long-term-care insurance, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) told the National Governors Association Feb. 24. "When people today are struggling between buying...

Got a favorite federal program? Three words: expect funding cuts.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Commenting on Congress' new determination to bring down the deficit, Senate Majority Bill Frist (R-TN) told the nation's governors Feb. 24 that "we got there because of the jobs and growth [tax] package." But taxes aren't where it's at for...

Carl Feldbaum.(People)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Biotechnology Industry Organization President Carl Feldbaum will retire after 11 years with the association. Bit's first president, Feldbaum plans a move to Idaho as soon as the group names his successor.

Ann Greiner.(People)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Ann Greiner has left the Institute of Medicine's quality-studies department. Currently, she is an independent consultant in the healthcare quality field.

Few ESC lines available, NIH reports.(Embryonic stem cells)
March 8, 2004... Even in a "best-case" scenario, less than a third of the 78 embryonic stem cell lines eligible for federal funding will ever be available to the research community. So says James Battey, director of the National Institutes of Health...

Medicaid revenue prescreening: fiscal prudence or sea change?(In Medicine & Health Perspectives this week ...)
March 8, 2004... This is the second in a Perspectives series on issues arising from Medicaid's structure as a state-federal partnership. The first was published March 1. Are new financial requirements federal officials want to implement for Medicaid...

High charges to uninsured stir hornets' nest for nonprofits.(Provider Tax Status)(Brief Article)
March 8, 2004... The House Ways and Means Committee is now among those scrutinizing the high prices many hospitals charge to uninsured patients. That's what Ways and Means Chair Bill Thomas (R-CA) told the annual meeting of the for-profit hospital industry...

Senate budget panel approves Medicaid cuts.(FY 2005 Budget)
March 8, 2004... The fiscal year 2005 budget resolution passed March 4 by the Senate Budget Committee would cut over $11 billion from the Medicaid program in FY 2005. The panel approved the measure in a 12-10 party-line vote and sent it to the Senate...

GAO backs MedPAC: home health margins are fine.(Home Health)
March 8, 2004... The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission and General Accounting Office agree: Home health agencies' aggregate Medicare margins are high. Based on the finding that the 2004 Medicare margin for home health is 16.8 percent and that...

Groups unite behind mandatory funding.(Veterans Health Benefits)
March 8, 2004... Seeking to rescue the Veterans Health Administration from the funding delays and uncertainties inherent in the discretionary appropriations process, the nation's nine largest veterans organizations are pushing Congress to make the funding...

Senators: if DOL can't police today's fraud, how will it do with association health plans?(In Other News)
March 8, 2004... Senators: If DOL Can't Police Today's Fraud, How Will It Do With Association Health Plans? It wasn't a hearing on association health plans, said Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who noted that AHPs are the business of the Senate Health, Education,...

Administration's proposed budget seeks unrealistic out-year cuts, says group.(In Other News)
March 8, 2004... Administration's Proposed Budget Seeks Unrealistic Out-Year Cuts, Says Group. A cap on discretionary spending in the Bush administration's budget proposal would necessitate deep out-year cuts in domestic discretionary programs, including some...

Patrick Morrisey, deputy staff director of the House Commerce Committee, leaves the panel, where he served for the past three years as chief health counsel.(People)(Brief Article)
March 8, 2004... Patrick Morrisey, deputy staff director of the House Commerce Committee, leaves the panel, where he served for the past three years as chief health counsel. He joins the law firm of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood.

Big plans on medicare pay, uninsured; little to move in 2004.(Ways and Means Committee)
March 15, 2004... Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee would like to enact legislation this year to help decrease the number of uninsured Americans, but they're hesitant to say they'll get even a small-scale effort done. That was the message Health...

Determined drug-card players face barriers on take-up.(In Medicine & Health Perspectives this week ...)
March 15, 2004... The Bush administration, pharmaceutical manufacturers, pharmacy benefit administrators, many aging advocacy groups, and others are fervently united this spring behind one goal: ensuring high take-up--quickly--of the new Medicare...

GOP: consumerism must work or single payer's on the way.(Health-Care System Reform)
March 15, 2004... Employers and others are fed up with rising prices and lack of transparency in the U.S. health-care system and will jump ship to embrace a national single-payer model if providers and, especially, insurers don't step up quickly to make the...

Court blocks Maine PBM transparency law.(PBMs)
March 15, 2004... A federal trial court has, at least for now, barred Maine from requiring that pharmacy benefit managers disclose deals they make with drugmakers. On March 9, Judge John Woodcock issued a preliminary injunction against a state statute,...

McClellan confirmed at CMS.(CMS)
March 15, 2004... It wasn't pretty, but it's official. Mark McClellan, MD, is the new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator. The Senate confirmed McClellan by voice vote March 11, after Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) released the hold he had placed on...

Research shows surprising support for government action.(Health-Care System Reform)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2004... In a study in the March/April Health Affairs, researchers find "deep skepticism" around the country "about the ability of market-based reforms to produce urgently needed improvements in the efficiency and quality of the nation's health care...

House votes to protect food industry from suits.(Obesity)
March 15, 2004... The House voted 276-139 March 10 to bar overweight people from claiming in federal or state court that the food industry made them fat. The action came the day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that obesity looks set...

CMS actuary reportedly feared dismissal if he revealed cost estimates.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2004... CMS Actuary Reportedly Feared Dismissal If He Revealed Cost Estimates. Rick Foster, chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, believed he would be fired if he revealed to federal lawmakers his estimate that legislation...

Senate drops finance entitlement-cut reconciliation instructions.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2004... Senate Drops Finance Entitlement-Cut Reconciliation Instructions. On a virtually party-line 51-45 March 11 vote, the Senate adopted a $2.36 trillion budget resolution for fiscal year 2005. On March 10, the chamber voted 53 to 43 to approve...

Amgen loses, but case could lead to medicare law challenges.(In Other News)
March 15, 2004... Amgen Loses, But Case Could Lead To Medicare Law Challenges. In a decision that could allow drugmakers to challenge government decisions implementing the new Medicare prescription drug benefit, a federal appellate court ruled Feb. 13 that Amgen...

AHIP: one association fits all Health Insurers.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2004... AHIP: One Association Fits All Health Insurers. The recently merged association that now includes virtually all health-related insurers in the United States announced its name March 9. What was formerly two groups--the American Association of...

Johnson seeks input on medicare regions.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2004... Johnson Seeks Input On Medicare Regions. The House Ways and Means Committee will keep a close eye on how the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services defines areas that Medicare regional preferred provider organizations will serve starting in...

Biggest share of medicare private-plan pay boost bolsters provider networks.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2004... Biggest Share Of Medicare Private-Plan Pay Boost Bolsters Provider Networks. Medicare private plans will use 42 percent of new funding they were awarded this year under the Medicare drug law to raise provider payments and take other steps to...

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Center for Medicare Management.(People)(Brief Article)
March 15, 2004... Herb Kuhn, formerly top lobbyist for the not-for-profit hospital alliance Premier Inc., now heads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Center for Medicare Management. Previously, he had been chief of federal relations for the...

Foster charges White House was behind firing threats.(Medicare)
March 22, 2004... Chief Medicare actuary Richard Foster says he believes the White House was involved in threats to fire him last year if he revealed analyses showing that Medicare legislation would cost substantially more than the $395 billion over 10 years...

Discount card is drug benefit with training wheels.(Perspectives)
March 22, 2004... For now, at least, potential players in Medicare's prescription-drug discount-card program give the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services high marks for its quick implementation. Nevertheless, the card is a brand new world, and enough...

McClellan on value purchasing, SCHIP, DSH, specialty hospitals.(CMS Administrator)
March 22, 2004... Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services head Mark McClellan, MD, supports federal funding for comparative-effectiveness studies of drugs, says he'll consider a new redistribution plan for unused disproportionate-share-hospital funds, and...

FDA may rule soon on contraceptive's OTC status.(Emergency Contraceptives)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2004... The Food and Drug Administration's new target date for declaring whether the Plan B emergency contraceptive can be sold over the counter is May 21. That's according to answers that former FDA chief and new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid...

MedPAC suggests productivity measures for doc pay formula.(Physician Payment)
March 22, 2004... In 2005 Medicare should update physicians' payment based on the annual change in input prices adjusted by a productivity-growth target. That's according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission's March report, which finds that Medicare's...

Panel wants Medicaid funds to fund Medicaid.(Medicaid)
March 22, 2004... How to make states accountable for spending Medicaid funds only on needed Medicaid services: That's the continuing quest of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, whose Health Subcommittee held its first heating of the year on the matter...

Response to ED diversion may have broader lesssons.(Hospital Emergency Departments)
March 22, 2004... Communities and hospitals have made significant progress in reducing ambulance diversions from overcrowded emergency departments, and their strategies may prove useful in preparing for unpredictable future demands on hospital resources. So says...

Carmona to head task force.(In Other News)(Richard Carmona)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2004... * Carmona To Head Task Force. Surgeon General Richard Carmona, MD, is the new chair of an administration task force that will report to Congress on issues surrounding reimportation of less expensive Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs...

American Health Care Association.(People)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2004... Charles Roadman, MD, will leave the American Health Care Association later this year, after five years heading the organization.

Sandra Shewry directs the health division of the National Governors Association's Center for Best Practices.(People)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2004... Sandra Shewry directs the health division of the National Governors Association's Center for Best Practices. Most recently, she was executive director of the California state agency charged with expanding insurance coverage, the Managed Risk...

36 million Americans have no regular source of care.(Medically Underserved)
March 29, 2004... The Bush administration's push to expand community health centers helped cut the number of people without a regular source of care by 2.4 million during fiscal years 2002 and 2003--to a total of 36 million today--according to a new analysis by...

Medicare doc pay change, big part B premium hike on the way.
March 29, 2004... This is the first part of a Perspectives series on recent financial analyses of the Medicare prescription-drug law and of the program as a whole. Suddenly it's all about actuaries. Even as controversy continued over which Bush...

HHS announces Rx discount-card sponsor selections.(Medicare, United States Department of Health and Human Services, prescription drugs)(Brief Article)
March 29, 2004... The Department of Health and Human Services has selected 28 companies to sponsor prescription drug discount cards for the general Medicare population, HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson announced March 25. Applications from 29 companies were...

Tobias, W.H.O. at odds over drug standards.(Randal Tobias, United States global Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome coordinator, World Health Organization)
March 29, 2004... In appearances on Capitol Hill, United States Global AIDS Coordinator Randall Tobias has been asked whether overseas service providers will be allowed to purchase generic medications with U.S. funds. His answers have led to charges that he is...

Restructure HSAs, says Ginsburg.(Health savings account, consumer driven care)
March 29, 2004... A new definition could make health savings accounts a much better tool for increasing consumer cost-consciousness, said Center for Studying Health System Change President Paul Ginsburg at a March 10 America's Health Insurance Plans policy...

Colorado Civil Rights Commission drops hospital charge probe.(In Other News)
March 29, 2004... Lacking adequate resources to pursue a complex investigation, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission March 18 ended its inquiry into alleged over-charging of uninsured minority patients by hospitals, the Denver Post reports. "It was a matter...

Bush set to sign bill making harm to fetus separate crime.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
March 29, 2004... After succeeding last year in banning certain late-term abortions, anti-abortion forces won another Capitol Hill skirmish March 25 when the Senate approved legislation making it a separate criminal offense to injure or kill a fetus during a...

Governors want to do more on health, but it's not clear how they'd pay for it.(Brief Article)
March 29, 2004... This year's state of the states addresses by the nation's governors are a mixed bag for proponents of strong state investment in health care, according to information gathered by the National Governors Association. On the up side, most...

CalPERS Board approves regional premium differences.(California Public Employees' Retirement System)(Brief Article)
March 29, 2004... In an attempt to keep more members from leaving its health-coverage plans, the country's largest public pension fund and third-largest health-care purchaser, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, has approved dividing its...

High court hears Texas health plan liability case.(Texas Healthcare Liability Act, Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974)(Brief Article)
March 29, 2004... The Supreme Court March 23 heard oral arguments on the question of whether group health plan enrollees can sue plans for negligence when they refuse to pay for physician-recommended treatment. The Court is considering an appeal of a...

Big medicine, big money.(Salaries, National Institutes of Health scientists)(Brief Article)
March 29, 2004... Both houses of Congress are investigating whether some National Institutes of Health scientists a) make too much money under special rules that offer them higher salaries than many other government employees and/or b) buttress their already...

Jennings Policy Strategies.(Yvette Shenouda, vice-president)(Brief Article)
March 29, 2004... Yvette Shenouda has left the post of senior health policy advisor to Sen. John D. Rockefeller (D-WV) to join Jennings Policy Strategies as vice president. Earlier, she was a program examiner on Medicaid and Medicare for the White House Office...

Federation of American Hospitals.(People)(Brief Article)
March 29, 2004... At the Federation of American Hospitals, Jennifer McGihon is director of public affairs and quality, assisting with hospital quality-reporting projects for the group. Previously she was a public affairs specialist at the Centers for Medicare...