"Health & Medical News"

Washington — A bipartisan bill to delay Medicaid rules that would cut billions in federal funding for hospitals and physician training has attracted support in the House.

A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee approved the legislation unanimously on April 9. The measure would prevent until April 1, 2009, the implementation of seven Medicaid rules introduced since 2007 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. One of the regulations would eliminate on May 25 Medicaid funding for graduate medical education — an estimated $1.78 billion over five years.

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Washington — Ongoing consumer complaints about misleading sales pitches for private Medicare health plans have spurred a powerful Senate committee to scrutinize their marketing practices and prompted calls for legislation. The problems have continued despite Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services efforts to curb abuses.

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Buried in clinical guidelines and buffeted by the latest published research findings, what’s a physician to do when faced with a patient and a 15-minute treatment window? Begin to sort through the conflicting guidelines or analyze the latest research studies?

A Jan. 24 Institute of Medicine report suggests a way to bring order from the chaos that surrounds conflicting clinical guidelines and questions about how to choose the best available diagnostic, treatment or preventive service — but Congress would have to create a federal program to make it happen.

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Washington — Even with Medicare payments to physicians still in doubt for the final half of this year, lawmakers and their Medicare advisers already are thinking about how much doctors will be paid next year.

If Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee have their way, by early summer physicians will know what they’ll be paid both in the last half of 2008 and in 2009.

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New Jersey needs fewer but more effective ‘Drug-Free School Zones,’ according to a new task-force report.

The Asbury Park Press reported Dec. 5 that the Task Force on Sentencing and Corrections told New Jersey Gov. John Corzine that the zones often overlap and sometimes cover large swaths of cities.

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Washington — A House committee approved legislation that would make the National Institute of Standards and Technology responsible for setting federal health information technology standards and would make the institute available as a consulting body for private industry efforts.

The purpose is to speed up adoption of HIT, said Rep. Bart Gordon (D, Tenn.), who sponsored the measure.

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Washington — The rapid consolidation of the insurance industry in recent years has made the health system less efficient and has harmed patients and physicians, medical organizations told lawmakers at an Oct. 24 hearing.

The American Medical Association asked the House Small Business Committee for help in convincing the Dept. of Justice to disapprove a proposed merger that it believes would add to these problems.

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