Federal court rules in favor of
hospitals on Medicaid rule
On Friday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
ruled
that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) violated
a congressionally imposed, one-year moratorium by finalizing a Medicaid
regulation on the same day that President Bush enacted the moratorium
prohibiting any action related to the rule. The regulation, which
would cut $5 billion in funding to safety net hospitals, must now
be re-issued by CMS. The hospital community applauded the Court's
ruling, but strongly urges Congress to complete its work on broadly
supported legislation to extend the current Medicaid moratorium.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit, "Alameda County Medical Center v. The
Honorable Michael O. Leavitt," include Alameda County Medical Center,
the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems,
the American Hospital Association, and the AAMC.
AAMC briefs congressional staff
on NIH-funded autism research
At an AAMC-sponsored briefing
on Capitol Hill last week, two renowned researchers presented congressional
staff with some of the most current research into the potential
causes of and markers for autism-a complex brain disorder that affects
one in 150 8-year old children in the United States. Thomas R. Insel,
M.D., director of the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National
Institute of Mental Health, and Joseph Piven, M.D., professor of
psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School
of Medicine, told the congressional staff in attendance how federally
funded researchers at medical schools and teaching hospitals have
made tremendous progress in beginning to understanding autism and
related disorders. The briefing, "Autism: What Do We Know? What
Do We Need?" was the eighth in the AAMC's "Fulfilling the Promise"
series. A Webcast of the briefing is available online.
AAMC nominee named to Medicare advisory commission
Three new members have been appointed
to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), including
Peter W. Butler, executive vice president and chief operating officer
of Rush University Medical Center, who was nominated for the position
by the AAMC and the American Hospital Association. "We applaud the
appointment," said AAMC President and Chief Executive Officer Darrell
G. Kirch, M.D. "Peter will bring to the commission the important
perspective of the nation's teaching hospitals and physicians who
provide a full range of clinical care for Medicare beneficiaries
and train the next generation of health care providers."
Michael Chernew, Ph.D., professor of health care policy at Harvard
Medical School, and George N. Miller, Jr., senior vice president
of Catholic Health Partners and president and chief executive officer
of Community Mercy Health Partners, were also appointed to the commission.
Two current MedPAC members were reappointed: Jennie Chin Hansen,
R.N., M.S.N., member of the Board of Directors of AARP, and Nancy
M. Kane, D.B.A., professor of management at the Harvard School of
Public Health. MedPAC is an independent federal agency that advises
Congress on issues affecting the Medicare program. Members of the
commission serve three-year terms.
Senate funding bill provides Medicaid
relief, research funding
On May 22, the U.S. Senate passed an emergency supplemental spending
package that included AAMC-supported language to prohibit the Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services from acting on a proposed rule
affecting Medicaid graduate medical education payments to teaching
hospitals. In anticipation of the Senate vote on the bill,
the AAMC joined with other hospital groups in supporting the amendment
and expressing disappointment at President Bush's threat to veto
the legislation.
Also included in the emergency supplemental spending package is
language limiting the growth of physician-owned hospitals. The AAMC
and other hospital groups sent a letter
to members of the Senate urging them to support the provisions,
citing federal research that physician-owned hospitals treat healthier
patients with similar and uncomplicated diagnoses and not "all citizens
in our communities."
The appropriations package, which mainly provides funding for war
efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, also includes $400 million for
the National Institutes of Health and $200 million for the National
Science Foundation. AAMC President and Chief Executive Officer Darrell
G. Kirch, M.D., sent a letter
earlier in the week urging all senators to support the additional
funding for medical research.
FDA and CMS launch new initiative
to improve drug safety
Last week, the Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that the Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS) will begin efforts to improve drug safety and medical
care through a new proactive approach called the Sentinel Initiative.
The FDA plans to use a number of public and private databases to
monitor millions of patient records and alert officials to possible
adverse effects from medical products sooner than the current system
allows. The FDA will work closely with the CMS using data from its
25 million beneficiaries through the Medicare prescription drug
program, as well as information from a number of other government
and private health care organizations. While patient privacy will
continue to be protected, the data will also be made available to
state agencies and academic researchers in order to improve various
health care services. The idea for the initiative began as a recommendation
from the Institute of Medicine outlined in a 2006 report. It was
presented as a way to increase drug safety and will ultimately improve
upon a system that would often take years to bring concerns to light.
NIH launches undiagnosed diseases
program
The National
Institutes of Health (NIH) has established a new clinical research
program to provide answers to patients with mysterious conditions
that have long eluded diagnosis. The trans-NIH "Undiagnosed Diseases
Program" will focus on the most puzzling medical cases referred
to the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., by physicians across
the nation. The program will begin accepting patients in July.
