"Health & Medical News"

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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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 — President Bush used his last State of the Union speech to restate his existing health care proposals, including tax deductions for health insurance spending, health insurance pools for businesses, medical liability reform and wider use of health information technology. Bush also challenged Congress to address the long-term solvency of entitlement programs, such as Medicare.

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By Bob Curley

HIV/AIDS and “crosscutting priorities” join prevention and treatment as the four major goals outlined in the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s (NIDA) new strategic plan, recently released in draft form.

Citing “recent revolutionary advances in drug abuse research,” NIDA has been working with its national advisory council and others in the addiction research field to develop the plan, the agency’s first major new outline of goals and objectives since former director Alan Leshner, Ph.D., published a five-year strategic plan in 2000.

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The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) is still looking for a new director, seeking to give the agency its first permanent leader since the departure of Beverly Watts Davis in 2005.

CSAP conducted a previous job search but recently reopened the process to “ensure that our search efforts result in a strong and diverse applicant pool which includes individuals who would welcome such a challenging and rewarding management position,” according to a recent posting.

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The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is pouring $15.9 million into a new effort to give doctors and the public a more accurate assessment of physician performance.

The plan is to combine national Medicare and private health plan claims data and then use the data for public reporting of physician performance on quality and cost measures. Reporting in select areas is set for 2010.

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