"Health & Medical News"

Washington — Funding levels for health information technology programs in President Bush’s fiscal 2009 budget have come under fire in recent weeks from some analysts and Democratic lawmakers. They say the proposed investment isn’t enough to advance the administration’s goal of widespread electronic health record use by 2014.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: unranked [?]

Washington — President Bush’s fiscal 2009 health budget, with steep Medicare spending cuts as a main highlight, sets the stage for a tough fight with Congress in the months ahead.

The proposal, part of a wider $3.1 trillion plan, is just the first step in this year’s health care budget debate. Health care organizations and congressional Democrats have found a lot not to like. Bush proposes reducing Medicare and Medicaid spending anticipated under current law by $196 billion over five years, with hospitals as the main target. The plan would do nothing to prevent Medicare physician payment cuts.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: unranked [?]

By Bob Curley

Drug-prevention advocates and others are raising the alarm over President Bush’s FY2009 budget plan, which slashed $198 million from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and calls for elimination of the Recovery Community Support Programs and the STOP Underage Drinking program.

Popularity: unranked [?]

By Bob Curley

With federal research showing that its anti-drug media campaign isn’t working with kids, and Congress calling for major cuts in the program, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has unveiled a more modest effort that focuses on an emerging threat — prescription-drug abuse — and appeals to parents rather than youth.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Facing a projected $14 billion budget shortfall, California lawmakers are right to consider how the landmark health care reform bill, ABX1-1, will affect the deficit. But ABX1-1 brings in new money for health care that could not be used to plug the gap in the general fund, as well as limiting health care costs moving forward. And as the past shows, if it is not passed, short-term cuts without an eye towards systemic reform are likely to increase costs down the road, effectively mortgaging California’s health care budget with no end in sight. As a result, Senate passage and voter approval of ABX1-1 are the responsible way to put our health care system on a secure footing.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: unranked [?]

Washington — For the fifth consecutive year, the National Institutes of Health budget will fail to keep pace with growth in the cost of conducting biomedical research, research groups said.

On Dec. 26, 2007, President Bush signed a $555 billion fiscal 2008 domestic spending package, one week after the House and eight days after the Senate adopted the measure. While the nearly flat NIH budget left research advocates warning that the U.S. edge on biomedical research is eroding, community health centers were thankful for an increase.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: unranked [?]

By Bob Curley

An omnibus federal budget for FY2008 has been passed by the U.S. Senate and House and is headed for the president’s desk; the bill includes funding for addiction treatment and prevention programs as part of $555 billion in appropriations.

The consensus among addiction-field advocates seems to indicate that treatment, prevention and research programs fared reasonably well in another difficult budget year, despite some significant cuts in certain programs.

Popularity: unranked [?]

By Bob Curley

A House-Senate conference committee has approved a FY2008 budget plan that calls for spending $1.779 billion on the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant and increasing the budgets of the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP), Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

Popularity: unranked [?]

Washington — Community health centers, medical researchers and medical students would benefit from a fiscal 2008 Dept. of Health and Human Services budget passed by the Senate. But Congress must gather enough votes to override a threatened veto.

The Senate adopted a $479 billion HHS appropriations bill 75-19 on Oct. 23, easily achieving a two-thirds, veto-proof majority with the help of 29 Republicans. The House passed a similar $472 billion HHS budget in mid-July by a vote of 276-140 — short of a veto-proof level, despite the support of 53 Republicans.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: unranked [?]

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.

Popularity: unranked [?]