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In the News:March 20, 2007 IG: Soldier care hampered by antiquated database March 19, 2007 Democratic Control Could Facilitate Passage of Health IT Bill Health IT advocates are optimistic that the new Democratic leadership in Congress will make health IT a priority, build on past progress and push more comprehensive legislation, Government Health IT reports. Ticia Gerber, vice president of public policy and international programs at the eHealth Initiative, said health IT could be part of larger health legislation rather than as its own legislation. She added, "A bill for improving access for the uninsured, for example, might include ways that health IT can be used to better serve the underserved more efficiently and effectively." Michael Zamore, a senior policy adviser to Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), said strong privacy provisions will be critical to the passage of any health IT bill because many Democratic lawmakers believe health IT will fail in the long term without strong privacy protections. House Democrats last summer, for example, addressed their objections to a health IT bill with an amendment that included privacy safeguards -- such as the right to consent to data disclosure, opt into and out of electronic databases, audit trails and take action if privacy breaches occur -- David Merritt, project director at the Center for Health Transformation, said. Some Democrats believe personal health records could be the tipping point for health IT, Dave Roberts, vice president of government relations for the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, said. Kennedy last fall introduced the Personal Health Information Act (HR 2689), which aimed to promote the rapid use and adoption of PHRs. Kennedy likely will introduce a similar bill this year or attempt to incorporate the main provisions of it in a larger health IT bill, Government Health IT reports (Hayes, Government Health IT, 3/19). March 16, 2007 Senate Committee Hears Testimony On Drug Importation Safety testing, inspections, and chain of custody requirements provide no guarantee that imported drugs will be safe, Billy Tauzin, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), told the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation Subcommittee on Interstate Commerce, Trade, and Tourism at a March 7 hearing. March 15, 2007 Empire BCBS Members Notified Of Missing Data Disc March 14, 2007 CCHIT approves EHR certification criteria March 12, 2007 VA chiefs criticized for data security lapses March 8, 2007 Fragmented system raises risk of medication errors: study March 6, 2007 Election 2008 | Health Care Affordability, Access Already Key Issues in 2008 Presidential Race The Washington Post on Tuesday examined the 2008 presidential race and "the reality that no White House hopeful can be taken seriously ... without confronting what many Americans have long said is one of their biggest concerns: the availability and affordability of health care." Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) has made the most detailed proposal to date, including a requirement that employers provide coverage to workers or pay a portion of their payroll into a fund to help individuals buy private insurance through regional purchasing pools. Edwards also would expand Medicaid and SCHIP and provide tax credits to help lower-income families purchase insurance. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) each have said that, as president, they would implement universal health coverage, although they have not offered detailed proposals. Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) has proposed expanding Medicare to all U.S. residents, which he said would eliminate for-profit insurance companies. According to the Post, insurers' "opposition would be a major political obstacle." Meanwhile, two Republicans -- former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, also a former HHS secretary -- are expected to use their health care experience "as campaign selling points," the Post reports. Kaiser Family Foundation President and CEO Drew Altman said, "This is an issue which was very much on the minds of the American people as an economic worry for quite some time, but was just nowhere as a national political priority even six months ago. Now it's front and center again, and the words 'universal coverage' are back at the center of the debate. March 1, 2007 Federal health IT office extends study of state information sharing NEW ORLEANS -- The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology has signed a contract to extend a project to identify the best practices for successful state-level health information exchanges. The $800,000 contract would fund for an additional year the work of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), the eHealth Initiative, and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society to determine effective ways health information can be shared between providers at the state level. Robert Kolodner, interim director of ONC, said the project by the three organizations comes “at a critical time for engaging the states in a variety of activities for advancing the health IT agenda.” He called the new contract “a vehicle for making that happen.”NEW ORLEANS -- The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology has signed a contract to extend a project to identify the best practices for successful state-level health information exchanges. The $800,000 contract would fund for an additional year the work of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), the eHealth Initiative, and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society to determine effective ways health information can be shared between providers at the state level. February 28, 2007 Microsoft Targets Health Care Industry With Health Search Engine Acquisition Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the Health Information and Management Systems Society conference in New Orleans on Monday announced that Microsoft is acquiring Medstory, a California-based health care search engine startup, AP/BusinessWeek reports. The two-year-old search engine's algorithms are designed to classify and provide data from legitimate health care sites (Blitstein, San Jose Mercury News, 2/26). Microsoft is looking into ways to expand Medstory, such as using information from personal health records to produce better search results, Microsoft Vice President Peter Neupert said. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, the Wall Street Journal reports. February 27, 2007 President Bush Urges Governors To Support Tax Plan That Would Allow More People To Purchase Private Insurance, Does Not Address SCHIP Funding President Bush on Monday encouraged governors to support his proposal to change the tax code to help more people purchase private health insurance, but he did not address the governors' request for supplemental funds for SCHIP or additional funds for the program in his fiscal year 2008 budget proposal, the AP/San Francisco Chronicle reports. Bush met with the governors on Monday but did not comment directly on SCHIP (Tanner, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 2/27). HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said that he would work with Congress to find "a short-term solution" for the need for supplemental SCHIP funds but added that states could avoid deficits through more effective management of their programs. Leavitt said that, during his time as governor of Utah, "when we were out of an allotment, we just discontinued enrolling people until we had room." In addition, Leavitt said that some states could reduce SCHIP benefits. February 26, 2007 Analyst sees growth in EMR market, but not hyper-growth The physician-based electronic medical record (EMR) market is growing at a fast pace, but not as fast as many in the industry would like to believe, according to a market analysis by the consulting firm of Frost and Sullivan. The findings are based on a study of metrics, including vendor sales data and end-user surveys. February 23, 2007 E-prescribing plan aims to be self-sustaining Everyone seems to be searching for a business model to make regional data sharing work. Stanley Borg, chief medical officer of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, says he looked at the successes and failures of similar e-prescribing initiatives across the country and thinks his Illinois group has cherry-picked the best elements for the e-prescribing program launched this week by a consortium of payers, providers, medical societies and a local business group. The program will be kicked off with the Blues plan making an initial contribution to get about 500 doctors up and running on an e-prescribing platform. Right now, there are two vendors of stand-alone e-prescription systems chosen for the plan, but others, including vendors of complete electronic medical-records systems, could participate if their products can pass a certification process, Borg said. The effort, called the Illinois e-Prescribing Collaborative, aims to involve multiple payers and be self-sustaining, Borg said. It will assess the health plans a transaction fee that will not only cover the operating cost of that transaction, but also be sufficient to build up a pool of funds to pay for the installation and set up costs for physicians wanting to join the program later. February 21, 2007 Federation of American Hospitals Proposes Nationwide Health Insurance Mandate That Would Add $115.2B Annually to Current Federal, State Health Care Spending The Federation of American Hospitals on Thursday plans to announce a proposal that would require all U.S. residents to obtain health insurance, the New York Times reports (Freudenheim, New York Times, 2/22). FAH released the proposal on the group's Web site on Wednesday and will discuss the plan at a press conference on Thursday (AP/Boston Globe, 2/22). Under the proposal, which FAH hopes might become part of federal legislation after the 2008 presidential election, residents would have to enroll in health plans offered by employers, purchase individual health insurance or obtain coverage through public programs. February 21, 2007 Health Care, Other Small Business Issues on Congressional Agenda; Republican Leaders Outline Proposals Several issues important to small businesses, such as health care, "top the agenda" for the 110th Congress, the New York Times reports. Todd McCracken, president of the National Small Business Association, cited the need for legislation that would reduce health care costs for small businesses. "We are actively courting change," he said, adding, "Piecemeal solutions are not going to work. We need to have universal coverage and subsidize people who are least able to afford it." Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee Chair John Kerry (D-Mass.) has introduced the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit Act, which would provide refundable tax credits to businesses with fewer than 50 employees that pay at least half of health insurance premiums for workers with annual incomes of as much as $50,000. "It is not clear" whether the legislation will pass, but "it is most likely to be among many proposals tackling the problem," according to the Times. Meanwhile, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) have introduced the Healthy Families Act. The bill would extend the Family and Medical Leave Act, which requires businesses with 15 or more employees to provide workers with seven paid sick days, to some part-time workers. February 20, 2007 American Heart Association Releases 2007 Guidelines About Heart Disease Prevention for Women
February 16, 2007 National Politics & Policy | House Committee Approves Bill That Bans Discrimination Based on Genetics, Rejects Provision To Protect Fetuses February 15, 2007 New York hospitals sue UnitedHealth for racketeeringTwo New York hospitals said they sued insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc. on Tuesday alleging "a pattern of racketeering activity."The lawsuit by Flushing Hospital Medical Center and Jamaica Hospital Medical Center was brought under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law and filed in federal court in the Eastern District of New York, according to Idan Sims, a spokesman for the hospitals. It claims at least $50 million in punitive damages, along with millions more in actual damages.The same hospitals sued under a similar set of facts last year in state court in New York. Both lawsuits claim UnitedHealth cost them business by repeatedly telling patients that Flushing was not in its network and that Oxford Health, which was bought by UnitedHealth, did the same thing to patients at Jamaica Hospital. February 13, 2007 Few doctors are Web M.D.s In a world where most people routinely e-mail friends, family and colleagues, and many exchange e-mail with teachers, newspaper columnists and even the pizza delivery guy, it's a weird fact: Most of us still don't have e-mail relationships with our doctors. For a decade, experts in medicine and technology have been saying that patient/doctor e-mailing was an obvious trend just waiting to explode. But studies show a very slow adoption of the practice: Just 8% of adults said they had received e-mail from their doctors in an online survey in 2005 by Harris Interactive for The Wall Street Journal Online. February 12, 2007 Sen. Obama Announces Presidential Candidacy, Proposes Universal Health Coverage February 8, 2007 Public Health & Education | Some Doctors Do Not Tell Patients About Treatments They Oppose, Including Contraception, Study Says Some physicians do not tell patients about treatments -- such as contraception, abortion or sedation for dying patients -- that they are morally opposed to, according to a study published in the Feb. 8 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, the Washington Post reports. Farr Curlin, a bioethicist at the University of Chicago, and colleagues in 2003 mailed 12-page questionnaires to 2,000 physicians nationwide, receiving responses from 1,144. The study found that 42% of physicians objected to providing contraception to minors without parental consent, 52% objected to abortion after failed contraception and 17% objected to "terminal sedation." According to the study, 86% of physicians believed they should present all options to patients, 8% felt no obligation to present all options and 6% were undecided on the issue. In addition, the study found that 63% of doctors believed it was ethical to tell patients they had objections about certain treatments and that 18% felt no obligation to refer patients to another physician, while 11% were undecided. According to the Post, the study was prompted by the issue of health care providers who refuse to provide care that counters their moral and religious beliefs, such as pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception or birth control pills and physicians and nurses who refuse to participate in providing an abortion or to prescribe contraception. Study co-author John Lantos, professor of pediatrics and associate director of the University of Chicago MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, said the study is part of a larger effort to determine how physicians' values and religious beliefs shape their practice of medicine. About 45% of respondents to the survey said they attend religious services at least two times monthly. Men, Christian physicians and doctors with the strongest religious beliefs were the most likely to respond that it is permissible to withhold information on treatment options, Reuters reports (Emery, Reuters, 2/7). According to the Post, many states have considered legislation that would require doctors to provide patients with all legal treatments or would protect health care providers who refuse to provide certain treatments. February 7, 2007 FDA Approves Genetic Test That Predicts Odds of Breast Cancer Recurrence FDA on Tuesday announced that it has approved MammaPrint, a genetic test made by Amsterdam, Netherlands-based Agendia that attempts to predict whether a woman diagnosed with breast cancer will have a recurrence of the disease, the New York Times reports (Pollack, New York Times, 2/7). The test measures the activity of 70 genes in tissue taken from a surgically removed breast tumor to determine the risk of recurrence in women under age 61 after five- and 10-year periods, the Washington Times reports. According to FDA, the test is the first computer-derived indicator that scans multiple genes to provide a "risk score" for the recurrence of the disease. Similar devices usually measure one or two genes, according to FDA . February 6, 2007 CDC to realign BioSense to focus on most populous cities The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) plans to narrow the focus of its key disease surveillance system, BioSense, and proposes to reduce 2008 funding for state and local programs and projects to respond to pandemic flu outbreaks by $125 million, compared with 2007 levels. In the federal budget released today, the CDC requested $57 million for BioSense in fiscal 2008, down $200,000 from what Congress approved in 2007. The CDC said it will realign the program and narrow its scope to focus on public health preparedness in the most populous cities in the country. Overall, the CDC asked for $88 million for biosurveillance programs in 2008, $10 million more than approved by Congress for 2007 in the continuing resolution passed last month. February 5, 2007 Bush FY 2008 Budget Proposal Includes $101.5B in Medicare, Medicaid Savings President Bush on Monday released a $2.8 trillion fiscal year 2008 budget proposal that includes $101.5 billion in savings from Medicare and Medicaid over five years, the New York Times reports. The budget includes more than $78.6 billion in Medicare and Medicaid savings, and, according to the New York Times, it also includes revisions to federal regulations for an additional $22.9 billion in savings from the two programs. The proposal would "eliminate annual indexing on income thresholds" to require a larger number of higher-income Medicare beneficiaries to pay increased premiums in future years (Pear, New York Times, 2/4). Currently, individual Medicare beneficiaries with annual incomes that exceed $80,000 and married couples with annual incomes that exceed $160,000 pay increased premiums (Crutsinger, AP/Akron Beacon Journal, 2/5). In addition, the proposal would implement a premium based on income in the Medicare prescription drug benefit. The two provisions would result in an estimated $10.2 billion in Medicare savings over five years. Bush "contends that he can make the rule changes without any action by Congress," but "Congress could try to block some or all of the changes," the Times reports. The proposal also would make permanent reductions in Medicare reimbursements to health care providers. The proposal would include $25.7 billion in Medicaid savings over five years, $12.7 billion of which would result from revisions to federal regulations. Bush said, "Our budget reduces Medicare's average annual growth rate over five years to 5.6% from 6.5%" and reduces the average annual Medicaid growth rate to 7.1% from 7.3%. February 1, 2007 Economists Question Savings From Health IT
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