Healthcare Policy

A bill traveling through the Missouri state legislature is getting vigorous support from physician assistants (PAs), who feel that new rules loosening supervision requirements in rural and inner-city communities could make a big difference for patients in those areas. Right now, in most cases a physician must be physically present in a facility when a PA is providing care, other than some follow-up visits. Another state policy allows PAs to practice in areas where there are a shortage of …

Queuing up early Sunday, hundreds of New Orleans-area residents waited hungrily to take advantage of a week long event offering them free care. The free care is available to anyone from the area, though it's aimed at those who are unemployed, without insurance or can't pay for care. The fair, which expects to see 10,000 patients over the week, is a collaboration between volunteer medical group Remote Area Medical and a charity operated by televangelist Pat Robertson. More than 400 …

Fighting vigorously for his new healthcare proposals, President Bush is traveling the country making pit stops to defend his ideas. In a speech in Missouri, President Bush fought back against critics who've emerged in the light of his State of the Union health proposals. Bush's plan is under fire as a sop for the rich--critics say that its proposal to offer tax breaks for health insurance …

HHS has awarded $103 million to 27 states, supporting programs designed to improve the way Medicaid dollars are used. Congress has approved a total of $150 million for these "transformation grants," which will distributed over fiscal '07 and '08. States will be able to use the funds for a variety of purposes, including development of programs to encourage EMR, clinical decision support tools or e-prescribing; increasing utilization of generic drugs; implementation of a medication risk …

A Pensacola, FL-based industry group that regularly brought healthcare execs and vendors together for cozy--and questionable--networking parties has decided to close its doors. The Healthcare Research & Development Institute, which charged individual healthcare execs $25,000 a year and corporate members (including healthcare publisher Modern Healthcare) $40,000 a year to attend its parties, …

A group of Democratic state legislators are continuing their effort to pass legislation imposing a cigarette tax to fund a Medicaid expansion and drug treatment. Dubbed the "Healthy Maryland Initiative," the group plans to file a bill which would double the tax on cigarettes to $2 per pack. The tax should raise more than $200 million during the first year after inception, and roughly $170 million thereafter. The funds would help to bring coverage to the state's approximately 780,000 …

According to this activist group, it's an open-and-shut case: illegal immigrants are substantially increasing the volume of uncompensated costs hospitals must bear each year. The vast majority of the costs come from immigrants' use of the emergency department, especially for births, according to the Washington, DC-based Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). Emergency care costs for immigrants have hit $1.4 billion per year in California, $700 million in New York, and more …

President Bush joined the national debate on universal healthcare last night with two proposals outlined in his State of the Union speech. In a previous radio address, Bush had revealed his plan to control healthcare costs by tax breaks to help low-income people buy insurance and a tax boost for employees whose health coverage costs more than average. Last night he also announced a policy to support the universal health efforts of several states. The so-called "Affordable Choices …

In a move more typical of national governments than states, Texas has announced plans to invest $3 billion in cancer research over the next 10 years. Not surprisingly, the project draws on some of the state's highest-profile research organizations. The state is already home to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, named after testicular cancer survivor and high-profile athlete Lance Armstrong, the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation and the acclaimed University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer …

A new survey published in Consumer Reports magazine, 78 percent of the physicians surveyed say their patients have asked for drugs advertised on TV. More importantly, however, is the fact that 67 percent admit to prescribing the drug after patients ask for it. The report underscores the impact direct-to-consumer advertising can have on both patients and physicians. Consumer Reports urges patients to ignore the ads. Some doctors think that DTC drug advertising does have some …