"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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The Bush administration wants to pour billions into fighting drugs in Mexico after doing the same in Colombia, but some Central American nations are complaining that they are not getting their share of the antidrug cash, the Washington Post reported Nov. 29.

“Central American officials feel that they will not be able to confront threats effectively without more assistance,” said U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), ranking minority member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.? ”They fear that gang members and drug traffickers will flee Mexico for Central America, where it will be easier to operate.”

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The New York and Boston public-transit systems have lagged in protecting children from exposure to alcohol advertising, according to the Marin Institute, which wants to ban all alcohol ads from municipal trains, buses, and other transit services.

NY1 News reported Nov. 8 that Marin officials held a press conference at City Hall in New York to call for an alcohol-ad ban at the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA).

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Think lowering the drinking age in the U.S. from 21 to 18 is a bad idea? In Great Britain, one health official says that 16-year-olds should be allowed to consume alcohol legally, the BBC reported Oct. 11.

John Ashton, director of public health at the Cumbria National Health Service (NHS) Primary Care Trust, said that most 16-year-olds are already drinking and that treating them like adults could promote responsible drinking and prevent problems like unprotected sex and antisocial behavior.

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Pushing an antidrug strategy rejected in Colombia, the U.S. wants the Afghan government to go along with a plan to spray the nation’s illicit poppy fields with herbicides.

The Telegraph reported Oct. 10 that the collapse of a British-led law-enforcement campaign and another record opium harvest have the U.S. urging the Afghan government to approve spraying the poppies with the herbicide “glyphosate.” The campaign has earned U.S. Ambassador William B. Wood — who has offered to have himself sprayed with the chemical to demonstrate its safety — the nickname “Chemical Bill.”

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While physicians in some states will see a break in their medical liability premiums next year, Maryland insurance officials are questioning a proposal by the state’s largest medical liability insurance carrier to issue a credit to its physician policyholders on Jan. 1, 2008.

In a Sept. 13 order, Maryland Insurance Commissioner Ralph S. Tyler halted Medical Mutual Liability Insurance Society of Maryland’s plans to pay a portion of a $68.6 million dividend to policyholders as a premium discount. The company allotted some of the money to reimburse the state because it subsidizes Medical Mutual’s premiums under a program set up in 2005 to ensure that doctors have access to medical liability insurance.

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