"Health & Medical News"

Advanced-practice nurses are the focus of a new wave of scope-of-practice bills that are making their way to state lawmakers.

At least 24 states are already considering bills or are expecting measures to be introduced this year. Measures address issues such as independent practice, doctor supervision of nurses, prescribing authority, or extended prescribing, including of controlled substances.

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One physician’s faxed order to discontinue hydrocodone, marketed as Anexsia, was misread by the pharmacist as an order to discontinue Arixtra, an anticoagulant. Another doctor intended to electronically order clonidine, an antihypertensive, but accidentally ordered the sedative clonazepam because both appeared as “CLON” on the computer screen.

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An integral part of some state and local health system reform efforts has hit a major stumbling block. The business community has taken employer mandates to court.

These state and local laws require businesses to spend a certain amount on workers’ health care coverage or put that money into a fund to provide access for the uninsured. U.S. courts in Maryland, New York and California have sided with the business community and ruled that the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act trumps these efforts.

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From:
Treatment Research Institute
600 Public Ledger Building, 150 S. Independence Mall West
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Tel: (215) 399-0980
http://www.tresearch.org

Paying substance abuse treatment providers for results, not services, may lead to improved quality of care, according to the first published study of a novel performance-based contracting system implemented by the State of Delaware in 2002.

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The most-favored-nation contract clause is becoming least favored by more legislators and regulators.

Indiana and Colorado this year banned the practice of insurers requiring, by contract, that doctors always give them the lowest reimbursement rate, while Maryland did so in 2006. Idaho this year extended its ban to foreign-based insurers. And Ohio’s House has passed a ban that covers any insurer that controls more than 20% of a local market, a measure now being taken up by the state’s Senate.

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Washington — Four states joined in a lawsuit and a fifth filed its own to block new rules limiting eligibility for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

The group lawsuit, filed Oct. 4 in a federal court in New York, says the Dept. of Health and Human Services should have provided the public notice and comment period required by law for program changes as significant as those in its Aug. 17 guidance.

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Funded with grants from the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), Illinois and seven other states are launching media campaigns aimed at preventing use of methamphetamine, the Tinley Park (Ill.) Daily Southtown reported Sept. 17.

The campaign includes ads in which speakers discuss the real-life consequences of meth use, such as a mother who lost custody of her son because of her addiction to the drug. The ads are funded with $10 million in federal money, and are also intended to let viewers know that addiction treatment is available. They target viewers ages 18 to 34.

Popularity: 5% [?]