"Health & Medical News"

Colorado’s noneconomic damage cap in medical liability cases is under fire. Physicians say legislation — approved by the state Senate in late February — threatens to unhinge the state’s stable medical liability climate.

The bill, backed by trial lawyers, would raise the current $300,000 cap by roughly 50%, to more than $460,000, largely to track inflation. More problematic, doctors say, is that injuries classified as physical impairment or disfigurement no longer would be subject to the limit on pain and suffering awards.

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Washington — Physician relationships with medical device makers came under fire at a Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing last month. So far, legislation is focused on manufacturers’ conduct, but lawmakers and enforcement agencies expressed concern about doctors’ potential conflicts of interest as well.

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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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CALPIRG Expresses Deep Disappointment in Senate’s Failure to Pass Health Care Reform
 
We are deeply disappointed in the lack of action by the Senate Health Committee today. The failure to vote for health care reform was in effect a vote for the status quo.
 
Our current health care system, with skyrocketing costs and six million uninsured Californians, is unacceptable and unsustainable. To add to current problems, today the Senate Pro Tem and many others noted that in the near term, health care could get worse, as state coverage programs could face up to $1.1 billion in cuts in the upcoming budget. The faltering economy makes health insurance all the more tenuous for many California residents, bolstering the need for reform even more.
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Washington — The Senate is poised to vote on new funding for the Indian Health Service that includes plans to combat a doctor shortage. But President Bush says he would veto it over cost and Medicaid documentation concerns.

The Indian Health Care Improvement Act of 2007 would authorize $35 billion from 2008 through 2017 for the IHS. The bill would establish doctor retention and recruitment bonuses of up to $25,000 and fund demonstration programs to recruit new physicians to the IHS. The agency’s physician vacancy rate is currently 13%. The measure also would:

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Popularity: unranked [?]

CALPIRG Expresses Deep Disappointment in Senate’s Failure to Pass Health Care Reform
 
We are deeply disappointed in the lack of action by the Senate Health Committee today. The failure to vote for health care reform was in effect a vote for the status quo.
 
Our current health care system, with skyrocketing costs and six million uninsured Californians, is unacceptable and unsustainable. To add to current problems, today the Senate Pro Tem and many others noted that in the near term, health care will get worse in the short-term, as state coverage programs could face up to $1.1 billion in cuts in the upcoming budget. The faltering economy makes health insurance all the more tenuous for many California residents, bolstering the need for reform even more.
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Popularity: unranked [?]

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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The Tennessee Senate voted 24-6 to allow individuals with handgun permits to carry their weapons into establishments that serve alcohol, including bars and restaurants, WTVF-5 in Nashville reported Jan. 16.

However, the law stipulates that an individual carrying a gun cannot drink alcohol, and individual business owners still have the right to ban weapons from their property.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Faced with strong opposition from the liquor industry, a measure that would have raised the alcohol tax in South Dakota was killed in a Senate committee, the Associated Press reported Jan. 16.

The measure would have given South Dakota the highest alcohol tax in the nation;? an estimated $35 million in annual proceeds from the “dime-a-drink” tax would have been used to support alcohol-related law enforcement and other services to mitigate the harm caused by alcohol use.

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 [?]