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State Eyes Gift Restrictions
New Jersey's Division of Consumer Affairs has called on state lawmakers to take a variety of steps, such as banning pharmaceutical company–sponsored meals for physicians, in an effort to curb doctors' conflicts of interest when they prescribe drugs. The division urged 22 reforms, most to be enforced by the N.J. Board of Medical Examiners, that would forbid physicians from accepting free trips, gifts, or meals and would require them to disclose any industry payments over $200 for consulting. However, the proposed regulations would continue to allow pharmaceutical representatives to distribute free drug samples. The consumer affairs division also urged new restrictions on the mining of prescriber-identifiable data and said it wants the lawmakers to ban the sale of such data.
FDA Told to Strengthen Monitoring
The Food and Drug Administration has begun to address weaknesses in its oversight of the safety of drugs once they're approved and marketed, but it still hasn't staffed the effort correctly, the Government Accountability Office said. Previously, the congressional watchdog agency reviewed the regulatory history of the drug Vioxx (rofecoxib), which was pulled from the market in 2004 after being linked to heart attacks and strokes. At that time, the GAO recommended changes in the FDA's program to monitor drugs after they are approved, including clarification of various offices' roles in that effort. However, the GAO said last month that the FDA still does not have a timetable for making those changes. The report called for a comprehensive plan showing which FDA office is responsible for monitoring approved drugs on the market.
Asthma Projects Are Launched
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has awarded 13 contracts to local organizations to test new evidence-based approaches to managing asthma. The 2-year contracts, worth $1.3 million in total, are part of the National Asthma Control Initiative, which is to strengthen collaborative efforts among patients and families, health care providers, and others involved in managing asthma. The 13 projects include a range of asthma interventions in diverse communities. For example, one will work to reduce asthma triggers in homes and schools, while another will provide Web-based training programs and in-person education for both patients and providers.
Health Centers Get $600M Boost
A total of 85 community health centers in more than 30 states will receive nearly $600 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act awards to support expansion through construction and renovation projects and acquisition of health information technology. The awards should help the centers care for more than 500,000 additional patients in underserved communities, said President Obama, who announced the initiative. At the same time, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will test the impact of the medical home practice model in community health centers, focusing on access, quality, and cost of care for Medicare beneficiaries, President Obama said. Up to 500 centers will eventually participate in the 3-year medical home demonstration, according to the CMS.
Information Tech Gets Funding Too
The recovery act also will fund $235 million in grants to strengthen the existing health information technology (HIT) infrastructure and increase information-exchange capabilities, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The Beacon Community Program will fund 15 initiatives run by nonprofit organizations or government entities that already have HIT systems in place with wide adoption of electronic medical records. The goal is to show how cutting-edge HIT programs can improve quality, safety, efficiency, and population health while maintaining strong privacy and security measures, the HHS said. The results from the grant program will provide guidance for the use of electronic medical records throughout the United States, the primary goal of the federal government's HIT initiative, the agency said.
Transparency Law Falls Short
Uninsured patients in California are unable to obtain information about the cost of medical care at hospitals, despite recent state legislation designed to improve price transparency, according to a study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. For the study, researchers posed as low-income, uninsured patients and asked hospitals for price information. But they received estimates from fewer than one-third of the hospitals approached, and the prices given often were much higher than those allowed under California law, which forbids hospitals from charging the uninsured more for a service than the hospital is paid by a government health plan. In addition, the prices for procedures varied widely. “Few of the estimates we did receive allowed us to make an 'apples to apples' comparison between different hospitals,” said lead author Dr. Kate Farrell of the University of Pittsburgh. The other researchers in the study are with the RAND Corp., the California HealthCare Foundation, and Brown University, Providence, R.I.