Medicine & Health articles from November 2004

Medicine & Health archives from November 2004

No doubt about it, doc pay will swell Medicare tab.(Physician Payment)
November 1, 2004... Medicare's Part B physician and outpatient benefit will cost taxpayers and beneficiaries more over the coming years than current budget projections show. Policymakers and physicians clearly won't allow the current formula to stand--it...

Tech coverage: "show me the money" vs "show me the value".(In Medicine & Health Perspectives this week ...)(technology)
November 1, 2004... This is the first in a Perspectives series on technology-coverage issues. It's an old war. On one side, health-care companies, clinicians, and patients push for wider access to new technologies. Across the battlefield, payers and many...

Red sox win, but U.S. health care system still trails.(International Comparisons)
November 1, 2004... For almost as long as the New York Yankees have been beating the Boston Red Sox, the United States has been doing poorly on international comparisons of health-care delivery and outcomes. And unlike the recent baseball season, a newly released...

PLoS opens another front in open-access battles.(Scientific Publishing)(Public Library of Science)
November 1, 2004... PLoS Medicine has officially arrived, marking another step forward for the "open access" movement in scientific publishing. The peer-reviewed, on-line journal, launched Oct. 19 by the Public Library of Science, will carry no subscription or...

Flu points up tough problem of directing services where need is.(Public Health)(vaccines)
November 1, 2004... The flu-vaccine shortage points to a dearth of coordination in U.S. national and local health-care delivery systems that makes it difficult or even impossible to direct resources to those in most need, even in cases for which market-oriented...

Analysts: hospital-specific data show more care is worse care.(Quality of Care)
November 1, 2004... Hospital-specific information demonstrating that higher utilization is not connected to better clinical outcomes--and in many cases may create worse ones--is now available, Dartmouth Medical School researchers said at an Oct. 7 briefing hosted...

MedPAC wants CMS to use negotiating clout to head off possible MA cost-sharing offenses.(In Other News)(Medicare Payment Advisory Commission)(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)
November 1, 2004... MedPAC Wants CMS To Use Negotiating Clout To Head Off Possible MA Cost-Sharing Offenses. At press time, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission seemed likely to recommend that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services get more resources...

MedPAC of two minds on sharing data.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... MedPAC Of Two Minds On Sharing Data. Private insurers and payers would like to get their hands on Medicare's rich trove of claims data--identified by provider--to assist fledgling but determined efforts to profile providers as a means of...

United States Chamber of Commerce.(People)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Joining the United States Chamber of Commerce health-care staff is Katie Maloney. Previously a health-care consultant specializing in Medicaid, she's the Chamber's new manager for health care policy. She replaces Kate Sullivan Hare, who's moved...

Katie Strong.(People)
November 1, 2004... Katie Strong, a lawyer and former Republican fund raiser, also joins the group as a health lobbyist.

Pay for Part B drugs cut, but docs can bill for more services.(Medicare Physician Payment)
November 8, 2004... Medicare's final physician payment rule for 2005 makes about a 6-percent reduction from 2004 in the amount the program will reimburse oncologists for cancer drugs administered in their offices. However, in its continuing attempt to reimburse...

Five years after medical-error report, progress is hard to see.(In Medicine & Health Perspectives this week ...)(patient safety)
November 8, 2004... The Institute of Medicine's November 1999 report on patient safety--To Err Is Human--struck a chord, not only with policy analysts who scan most new IOM products with interest, but with the public. To Err Is Human put the concept of medical...

Final outpatient rule increases outlier thresholds.(Medicare OPPS)(2005 hospital outpatient payment rule)
November 8, 2004... Under Medicare's final 2005 hospital outpatient payment rule, it will be harder for hospitals to get extra payments for particularly expensive patients than it would have been under the proposed rule. The rule gives hospitals a 3.3 percent...

HHS acquires anthrax vaccine using bioshield.(Bioterrorism)(Health and Human Services)
November 8, 2004... Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced Nov. 4 that the federal government will pay VaxGen Inc. $877.5 million for 75 million doses of a new, more purified vaccine against airborne anthrax. That's enough to protect 25...

Californians repeal employer health coverage mandate.(Employee Health Care)
November 8, 2004... Californians narrowly voted Nov. 2 to repeal the state's "play or pay" law, which would have required businesses with more than 50 workers to provide health coverage or pay into a state coverage fund. Voters rejected Proposition 72, which would...

Damages caps win, lose in states.(Medical Malpractice)($250,000 caps on punitive and noneconomic damages)
November 8, 2004... President Bush and Republican congressional leaders have pushed for $250,000 caps on punitive and noneconomic damages--so-called pain and suffering awards--in medical malpractice cases. In his Nov. 4, news conference, the president signaled...

EBRI: paying health bills dings savings rate.(Personal Health Funding)(Employee Benefit Research Institute)
November 8, 2004... If Americans weren't paying higher health costs, where would the money go? In many cases, it would go into personal savings accounts to fund retirement and other needs. That's according to the annual Health Confidence Survey by the Employee...

Analysis: health care will drain retired boomers' income.(Retirement Health Spending)(Brief Article)
November 8, 2004... Older married couples will receive 38 percent more income--in real dollars--in 2030 than they did in 2000. However, taxes and health spending will eat up all the gains. So says an October issue brief from Boston Colleges" Center for Retirement...

IOM: population health, provider networks sag in rural areas.(Rural Health)(Institute of Medicine)
November 8, 2004... Rural areas face unique and difficult barriers to maintaining adequate provider networks. And rural populations also show poorer health behaviors--they tend to smoke more, be more obese, and exercise less--giving them a greater chance of seeing...

Specialty hospitals see more profitable patients in MedPAC data.(In Other News)(Medicare Payment Advisory Commission )(Brief Article)
November 8, 2004... Specialty Hospitals See More Profitable Patients In MedPAC Data. Physician-owned specialty hospitals generally have a more profitable mix of patients than other hospitals, Medicare Payment Advisory Commission staff said at an Oct. 29 commission...

Note to readers.(In Other News)(correction)(Correction Notice)
November 8, 2004... Note to Readers: Last week's Perspectives mischaracterized comments made by Harvard School of Public Health analyst Peter Neumann at an Oct. 21 forum in Washington, DC. Neumann did not say that evidence submitted to the Centers for...

Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.(People)(appointment of Jon Retzlaff)(Brief Article)
November 8, 2004... Jon Retzlaff has joined the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. Formerly a staff member at the National Institutes of Health, where he worked in several capacities, including as a staff member of NIH's office of...

Lame-duck Congress to tackle spending, flu shots, drug safety.(In Congress)
November 15, 2004... Drug safety, the vaccine industry, and appropriations bills are on the congressional agenda. Several health hearings will take place during the lame-duck Congress' first week back, which begins Tuesday, Nov. 16. The Senate Finance...

States at bottom of public-health rankings slip further behind.(Perspectives this week ...)
November 15, 2004... Overall, public health in the United States continues to improve on most measures, although at a considerably slower pace than in the 1990s, according to the 15th annual iteration of America's Health: State Health Rankings, funded by United...

IOM study, new safety director in FDA plan.(Drug Safety)
November 15, 2004... Amidst controversy surrounding its handling of dangers posed by antidepressants and the pain reliever Vioxx, the Food and Drug Administration Nov. 5 announced a series of steps designed to strengthen the agency's post-marketing surveillance of...

AHRQ survey targets culture.(Patient Safety)(Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality)
November 15, 2004... Analysts generally agree that, when it comes to making health-care environments safer for patients, It's the culture, stupid. Trouble is, culture is hard to assess and perhaps even harder to change. To help in the assessment part, at least,...

Small hospitals face big it problem, says Brailer.(Clinical IT)
November 15, 2004... Much attention has been focused on the problems that physicians--especially those in individual or small-group practice--face in acquiring and implementing e-health tools such as electronic medical records or computerized subscribing. The...

GAO: health coverage credits draw few takers.(Tax Credits)
November 15, 2004... A program designed to help workers who lose their health insurance buy new coverage is going largely unused, the Government Accountability Office reported Oct. 4. The Health Care Tax Credit, part of the 2002 Trade Adjustment Assistance...

Grassley, Baucus spar over tax credit model.(Brief Article)
November 15, 2004... In a written response to the GAO, Senate Finance Committee Chair Charles Grassley (R-IA) said the HCTC "was implemented at record speed," and he called the program "a live demonstration" of the concept of "providing federal assistance for...

Goodbye, TennCare?(In Other News)
November 15, 2004... * Goodbye, TennCare? Ever-rising health-care costs and increasing numbers of uninsured, poor, and chronically ill people may finally have strained to the breaking point Tennessee's 10-year-old effort to provide health coverage to many of its...

Hello, Anthem supersized ... maybe.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
November 15, 2004... * Hello, Anthem Supersized... Maybe. California's insurance commissioner, John Garamendi, has rescinded his objection to Anthem Inc.'s pending acquisition of WellPoint Health Networks in the wake of a new deal between the state and the...

Go West, young man, for medical marijuana.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
November 15, 2004... * Go West, Young Man, For Medical Marijuana. By a 62 percent to 38 percent margin, Montanans voted Nov. 2 to allow the medical use of marijuana by patients with "debilitating medical conditions" such as cancer, glaucoma, and HIV/AIDS. ...

WHO says yes to patient safety, no to nosocomial infections.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
November 15, 2004... * WHO Say Yes To Patient Safety, No To Nosocomial Infections. "Do no harm" is the first commandment of health care. It is also the mantra of the newest World Health Organization initiative, the World Alliance for Patient Safety. The first...

Jeff Ezell, who has managed medical relations and public affairs at AdvaMed for the past five years, is moving up to a new post with the medical-technology association.(People)(Brief Article)
November 15, 2004... Jeff Ezell, who has managed medical relations and public affairs at AdvaMed for the past five years, is moving up to a new post with the medical-technology association. As the group's new associate vice president, he'll lead AdvaMed's...

Grassley pushes independent drug safety office.(Rx Drug Safety)
November 22, 2004... Unless the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Drug Safety is given greater authority and independence, the tens of thousands of Americans killed and injured by the painkiller Vioxx will be only the beginning. That was the message...

Whither coverage expansion in the new Congress and beyond?(In Medicine & Health Perspectives this week ...)
November 22, 2004... Ten years after defeat of the last major legislative attempt to expand coverage--the Clinton plan--policy experts and some members of Congress say they're still committed to such a project. But with increased political polarization and...

MedPAC, private payers continue push on pay for performance.(Pay for Performance)
November 22, 2004... What Medicare will do is still unknown, but the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission--and a growing number of private payers and health insurers--are making a strong push to move forward with pay-for-performance systems. In a P4P scheme,...

Leapfrog keeps pushing, but hospitals are slow to jump.(Hospital Quality and Safety)
November 22, 2004... Adopting standardized procedures for avoiding wrong-site surgery would seem to be a no-brainer for hospitals in this age of heightened awareness about patient safety. Nevertheless, only eight in 10 hospitals have done so, out of the 1,019 urban...

Leadership-backed bill would make coverage market national.(Health Insurance Markets)
November 22, 2004... In his September address to the Republican National Convention, President Bush proposed creating a national--rather than a state-based--market for individual health-care coverage as a means of helping individual consumers find lower-priced...

Drugmakers launch RFID pilot programs.(Rx Drug Counterfeiting)(Radio Frequency Identification)
November 22, 2004... November 15 was a significant day for Radio Frequency Identification, the technology the Food and Drug Administration aims to have in widespread use by 2007, protecting the nation's prescription drug supply network against counterfeit drugs....

NAS: don't ask science experts how they vote.(Federal Advisory Groups)(Brief Article)
November 22, 2004... A National Academy of Sciences committee was sufficiently concerned about allegations that appointments to federal advisory committees are being politicized to add recommendations on the matter to a long-standing periodic report on presidential...

Congress extends program matching foreign docs with underserved areas.(In Other News)(Brief Article)
November 22, 2004... Congress Extends Program Matching Foreign Docs With Underserved Areas. On Nov. 17, an overwhelming House majority sent President Bush for his expected signature a bill extending the J-1 visa waiver program for two years, retroactive to May 31....

Irresistible force on course to encounter immovable object: how will providers and suppliers react as health-care discussion turns to costs?(In Other News)(Brief Article)
November 22, 2004... Irresistible Force On Course To Encounter Immovable Object: How Will Providers And Suppliers React As Health-Care Discussion Turns To Costs? As happened in the late 1980s and early '90s, the main battle over health-care policy, public and...

Food and Drug Administration Chief Counsel, Daniel Troy, and Troy's special assistant, Coleen Klasmeier, both are leaving the agency.(People)(Brief Article)
November 22, 2004... Food and Drug Administration Chief Counsel, Daniel Troy, and Troy's special assistant, Coleen Klasmeier, both are leaving the agency. Prior to joining FDA, Troy was a partner in the Washington law firm of Wiley, Rein & Fielding, where he...