Medicine & Health articles from May 2004

Medicine & Health archives from May 2004

Administration touts Rx Card discounts as Web site goes live.(Medicare Rx Cards, discounts to seniors)
May 3, 2004... With the Web site for the program live as of April 29, Medicare officials are touting the discounts they say will be available to seniors through the new Medicare-endorsed prescription drug cards. But the data available so far suggests...

Trade pacts won't solve drug-price woes.(American consumers pay more for drug research and evelopment)
May 3, 2004... This is the second part of a Perspectives series on prescription-drug pricing. The first appeared in our April 26 issue. Intense conversation on prescription-drug prices continued in Congress last week. Two Senate Finance subcommittees held...

Study: PPOs may not be up to Medicare challenge.(Medicare Private Plans, Preferred Provider Organizations)
May 3, 2004... Based on the experience of preferred provider organizations in the private sector, PPOs may not be able to perform all the tasks lawmakers set for them in last year's Medicare legislation. That's the finding of a report from the nonpartisan...

Medco settles with feds, states.(PBMs)(Medco Health Solutions, Inc)
May 3, 2004... Medco Health Solutions, Inc., the nation's largest pharmacy benefit manager, has agreed to new restrictions on encouraging physicians to switch patients from one drug to another. The restrictions on the controversial practice are contained...

Money still tight but some states enhance pay, benefits.(Medicaid)
May 3, 2004... Lawmakers in 38 states have said they'll face another Medicaid funding shortfall in fiscal year 2005, according to a report from the National Conference of State Legislatures Health Policy Tracking Service. To cope, states continue to consider...

House members push funding for more stem cell lines.(Embryonic Stem Cells)
May 3, 2004... Two-hundred-and-six members of the House, including 36 Republicans, have signed a letter urging President Bush to liberalize federal funding regulations for research involving embryonic stem cells. Because ESCs are pluripotent, meaning they...

Slow year on hill for health care, says Thomas.(In Congress)
May 3, 2004... Health care looms as a major issue in the presidential campaign, making it unlikely that Congress will move any major bills in 2004, said House Ways and Means Committee Chair Bill Thomas (R-CA) in a wide-ranging chat with health reporters April...

Grassley, Baucus probe Medicaid drug pricing.(Brief Article)
May 3, 2004... Grassley, Baucus Probe Medicaid Drug Pricing. Bipartisan leaders of the Senate Finance Committee issued 19 pharmaceutical manufacturers an extensive questionnaire April 29 on how the companies set prices for Medicaid. To help manufacturers...

Insurer mergers continue.(In the news)(Brief Article)
May 3, 2004... Insurer Mergers Continue. UnitedHealth Group is purchasing Oxford Health Plans Inc. for $4.9 billion in cash and stock, the companies announced April 26. The merger would give UnitedHealth about 22 million members, but United is still...

Rule would keep health issues out of credit decisions.(In the news)(Brief Article)
May 3, 2004... * Rule Would Keep Health Issues Out Of Credit Decisions. Under a proposed rule in the April 29 Federal Register, loan officers could not consider a potential borrower's health in making credit decisions. The rule implements part of the Fair...

Final inpatient rehab rule announced.(In other news)(Brief Article)
May 3, 2004... Final Inpatient Rehab Rule Announced. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a final rule April 30 to "make it possible for facilities treating a broader range of patients who require intensive rehabilitation to qualify for...

Food and Drug Administration.(People)(Brief Article)
May 3, 2004... At the Food and Drug Administration, Patrick Ronan is the new assistant commissioner for legislation. He joins FDA from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, where he was lead staffer for FDA issues. He's also been on the staffs of the...

Capitol Associates, Inc.(People)(Brief Article)
May 3, 2004... David Connolly joins the government and public-relations firm Capitol Associates, Inc. For the past five years, he's been an aide to Republican leaders of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

FDA: no OTC plan B sales, at least for now.(Emergency Contraception)(over the counter)(Barr Pharmaceuticals)
May 10, 2004... The Food and Drug Administration May 6 denied Barr Pharmaceuticals' application to sell its Plan B emergency contraception pills over the counter, rejecting the recommendation of one of its traditionally influential expert advisory committees....

Washington on health care: it's the drug prices, stupid.(In Medicine & Health Perspectives this week ...)
May 10, 2004... This is the third in a series of Perspectives on pharmaceutical prices. The most recent appeared May 3. There are plenty of major health-care problems for lawmakers to worry about. Millions of Americans lack health insurance and access to...

CMS says cards save over retail.(Rx Discount Cards)
May 10, 2004... Medicare beneficiaries using the new Medicare-endorsed prescription drug discount cards can save 10 to 17 percent on brand-name drugs, and 30 to 60 percent on generics, compared to the average prices paid by all Americans, the Centers for...

First cross-national quality comparison released.(Quality Measures)
May 10, 2004... In a first-of-its-kind effort, a working group assembled by the Commonwealth Fund has produced a cross-national analysis of data for 21 quality-of-care measures for five countries, including the United States. Published in the May/June...

U.S. spends twice as much, gets middling scores on quality.(Quality)
May 10, 2004... U.S. clinicians and policy makers should be "particularly concerned" about a new international quality-of-care study (see story, p. 3) because, although the United States spends twice as much per capita on health care as the five other nations...

RAND: poor health care widespread.(Quality)
May 10, 2004... No matter where you live in the United States, the chances are pretty good that you won't get the medical care you should. That's the conclusion of the second phase of a RAND Corporation study of health-care quality, published in the...

Economist: no, we don't want to cover the uninsured.(Uwe Reinhardt, Princeton University economist, medically uninsured persons)
May 10, 2004... The first step for advocates of extending coverage to all of America's uninsured, according to Princeton University economist Uwe Reinhardt: Acknowledge and confront the dirty little secret of the debate. It simply isn't true that, as is often...

Senate votes to extend medicaid coverage for disabled children.(Middle-income families )(Brief Article)
May 10, 2004... Senate Votes To Extend Medicaid Coverage For Disabled Children. States could allow middle-income families with disabled children to buy into Medicaid under Senate legislation approved in a May 6 voice vote. "Many parents of disabled...

CMS can't prevent actuary from speaking to congress, says research agency.(United States Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Rick Foster, Congressional Research Service)(Brief Article)
May 10, 2004... CMS Can't Prevent Actuary From Speaking To Congress, Says Research Agency. Congress' nonpartisan research and analysis arm, the Congressional Research Service, said April 26 that Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services then-administrator Tom...

Final rule contains bigger increase in LTCH payments.(Long-term care hospitals)(Brief Article)
May 10, 2004... Final Rule Contains Bigger Increase In LTCH Payments. Medicare payments to long-term care hospitals will increase 3.1 percent, or $2.96 billion, under a final rule in the May 7 Federal Register. That's up from the 2.9 percent--$2.33...

Steve Lieberman.(People)
May 10, 2004... Steve Lieberman has been temporarily detailed to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from his current post as assistant director for health and human resources at the Congressional Budget Office. Lieberman is a senior advisor to CMS...

Pfizer agrees to $430 million neurontin settlement.(Pharmaceutical Sales)
May 17, 2004... The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. has agreed to pay $430 million to settle federal and state charges that one of its divisions fraudulently promoted the drug Neurontin for an array of unapproved uses. In a May 13 statement, the Justice...

Senate GOP plan: cut red tape, focus on individuals.(Grand Old Party, health insurance, information technology usage)
May 17, 2004... A Senate Republican task force released a many-faceted health-care proposal May 11 that leaders say would increase access to coverage and care and decrease costs for public coverage programs and for U.S. health care overall. Titled Cost,...

Commerce members fault NIH conflict proposals.(Conflicts of Interest)(National Institutes of Health)
May 17, 2004... National Institutes of Health Director Elias Zerhouni, MD, said May 12 that he plans to bar NIH scientists from accepting stock or stock options as compensation for outside consulting. Testifying at a congressional hearing, Zerhouni also...

IRS clarifies HSA interactions with other health accounts.(Internal Revenue Service, Health Savings Accounts)(Brief Article)
May 17, 2004... The Treasury Department issued guidance May 11 clarifying the ways in which health savings accounts may be used by workers who have access to other employer-based health accounts, including flexible spending accounts and health reimbursement...

AHA has concerns about proposed inpatient rule.(Hospital Inpatient)(American Hospital Association)
May 17, 2004... For only the third time in twenty-one years, hospitals will receive a full "market-basket" update under Medicare's inpatient prospective payment system in fiscal year 2005, but only if they submit quality information to the Centers for Medicare...

Employers plan unified effort on quality, access.(Employer-Sponsored Coverage, affordable health insurance coverage, uninsured workers, retirees, and dependents)
May 17, 2004... Around 50 big employers May 10 announced an initiative to create affordable coverage options for workers, retirees, and dependents who are affiliated with the companies but ineligible to receive group coverage from them. The group of Fortune...

U.S. is 108th tobacco treaty signatory.(Tobacco)
May 17, 2004... The United States on May l0 became the 108th nation to sign the international Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. However, many proponents of the accord are worried that the signing is intended to generate good publicity for the U.S.,...

House Revisits FSA Carry-Overs, AHPs, Damages Caps.(Health care flexible spending accounts, association health plans)(Brief Article)
May 17, 2004... Summer rerun season hit the House of Representatives the week of May 10. Republican leaders pushed through three health-related bills, two of which the House has already passed in this Congress and one of which is virtually identical to...

Coming up on the hill.(health policy, senate finance committee)(Brief Article)
May 17, 2004... Senators won't attempt much big health-related legislation in 2004, but next year several issues will be on tap, a Senate aide told a Schwab investors' conference in Washington May 6. Medicare physician reimbursement will be on the Senate...

Muris leaves FTC.(In other news)(Federal Trade Commission)(Brief Article)
May 17, 2004... Timothy Muris is leaving the chairmanship of the Federal Trade Commission and will return to law-school teaching. Appointed by President Bush in 2001, Muris has presided over a low-key period in FTC history. However, anticompetitive conduct in...

Department of Health and Human Services.(People)
May 17, 2004... David Brailer, MD, is the new national health information technology coordinator at the Department of Health and Human Services. Currently a senior fellow at the Health Technology Center in San Francisco, Brailer previously was chief executive...

California court upholds state's strict view of nurse ratio law.(Nurse Staffing)
May 31, 2004... A California county superior court judge ruled May 26 that the Department of Health Services was correct when it enforced state-mandated nurse-staffing ratios strictly, demanding that hospitals meet the standards even during employee breaks....

Candidates' proposals: two diverging paths, a bit of middle ground.(Presidential candidates, health policy, health insurance)
May 31, 2004... This is the first in a Perspectives series on health-care proposals of the two likely major-party presidential candidates, President George Bush and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA). As concerns grow about the rising cost of medical care, quality...

HHS, coalition step up Low income outreach ...(Medicare Rx Cards)
May 31, 2004... Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced at a May 27 briefing that his department is making $4.6 million available to community-based organizations to help them educate low-income Medicare beneficiaries about the subsidies...

Court says Ashcroft can't interfere with Oregon law.(Physician-Assisted Suicide)
May 31, 2004... A federal appellate court has turned back Attorney General John Ashcroft's attempt to punish Oregon physicians who help patients end their lives under the state's Death with Dignity law by prescribing lethal drug doses. In November 2001,...

Another report says plans get more than FFS ...(Medicare Private Plans)
May 31, 2004... According to a May 20 Commonwealth Fund report, Medicare private plans will receive per-enrollee payments in 2004 averaging 8.4 percent above fee-for-service cost. For each Medicare Advantage enrollee, the government will pay $552 more...

Stop seeking discounts, demand value, buyers and analysts say.(Health Care Costs)
May 31, 2004... Health-care reimbursement by public and private payers is on the threshold of change--or at least it had better be--say a growing number of analysts, health plans, and public and private purchasers. Rising costs increasingly threaten access,...

New FDA fast-track for AIDS drug combos unveiled.(HIV/AIDS)
May 31, 2004... The Food and Drug Administration will review proposed fixed-dose combination HIV/ AIDS therapies within about six weeks, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced May 16. FDCs combine two or three AIDS medications into a...

Senate passes funding authorization for bioterror countermeasures.(In Other News)
May 31, 2004... * Senate Passes Funding Authorization For Bioterror Countermeasures. On May 19, the Senate unanimously approved the long-stalled "BioShield" legislation, proposed by President Bush in 2003. S. 15 would authorize $5.6 billion over 10 years...

Senate chair to soon introduce Reimportation measure.(In Other News)
May 31, 2004... * Senate Chair To Soon Introduce Reimportation Measure. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Chair Judd Gregg (RNH) hopes to introduce a bill on prescription-drug importation shortly after Congress' Memorial Day recess, he announced at...

Every breath you take ...(In Other News)(American Association of Retired Persons )
May 31, 2004... * Every Breath Yon Take... Pharmaceutical executives could be forgiven if they thought they heard lyrics from the band The Police this past week. The giant senior lobby AARP said "I'll be watching you" to the industry in a very high profile...

Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.(People)(Brief Article)
May 31, 2004... Three new members join the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, Comptroller General David Walker of the General Accounting Office has announced. John Bertko, vice president and chief actuary for Humana Inc., coordinates actuarial...