"Health & Medical News"

Two hospital agreements to share with physicians some of the cost savings derived from quality-of-care measures are not likely to violate federal fraud and anti-kickback statutes, according to a pair of Jan. 14 advisory opinions by the Dept. of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General.

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In a 7-2 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a judge’s decision to violate federal sentencing guidelines and impose a shorter prison term on a man convicted of possession of crack cocaine, the Associated Press reported Dec. 10.

Weighing in on the controversy surrounding sentencing disparities for crack and powdered cocaine, the high court said that a judge had the discretion to sentence crack offender Derrick Kimbrough to 15 years in prison rather than the recommended 19 to 22 years.

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By Bob Curley

Performance-based government funding may be the wave of the future, but Congress still isn’t quite ready to base its budgetary decisions on formalized performance measures, as the FY2008 budget process makes clear.

The Senate voted 75-19 on Oct. 23 to approve the budget for the Department of Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, which includes funding for all programs within the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the National Institute on Health research agencies (the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism), and? the Department of Education’s? Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities (SDFS) program.

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