News in brief - March 20, 2000

Bliley to step down at end of term

Washington -- The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality recently unveiled a new and expanded Internet site that enables users to get answers in seconds to questions about hospital use, patient outcomes and hospital charges.

The interactive site provides national and regional hospital statistics and, for the first time, allows users to obtain hospital data from several specific states: Arizona, California, Florida, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, South Carolina and Washington.

Washington -- Three new studies lend weight to Republican lawmakers' stance that any Medicare drug benefit should be aimed at low-income beneficiaries, rather than all program participants.

The studies, published in the March-April Health Affairs, found:

• Covered beneficiaries with incomes below the federal poverty line spent an average of $800 in 1996 on prescription drugs, while their uncovered counterparts averaged $368..
• About 35% of beneficiaries with incomes at or below 135% of poverty lacked drug coverage in 1996. These enrollees used 39% fewer medications and spent 48% less on drugs than beneficiaries with prescription coverage..
• Beneficiaries paid 83% more out-of-pocket on prescription drugs if they didn't have drug coverage, which is typically provided by employers, supplemental insurance, HMOs or Medicaid..
• More than 18% of beneficiaries with hypertension failed to purchase any antihypertensive tablets in 1995. The rate was higher among those without drug coverage than those with coverage, 22% vs. 17%, respectively..
• Those with employer-sponsored drug insurance spent almost $1,100 on prescription drugs in 1998. However, beneficiaries with chronic illnesses spent from $1,600 to more than $3,000..

"These studies indicate that, given the Medicare program's limited financial resources, government assistance should be targeted to those beneficiaries most in need," said John Iglehart, Health Affairs editor.

Washington -- Medicare must do a better job of educating seniors and their doctors about colon cancer screenings, said Sen. Charles Grassley (R, Iowa), chair of the Special Committee on Aging.

"Very few older Americans get tested for colon cancer," he said at a recent hearing. "It puts them at unnecessary risk for a detectable, treatable and common cancer. Everybody with Medicare should know that colon cancer screenings save lives and that Medicare covers colon cancer screenings."

The General Accounting Office reported that only 14% of Medicare beneficiaries received any of the covered colon cancer tests last year, and only 9% had the most common, noninvasive screening method, the fecal occult blood test. Reasons for the low numbers include poor patient awareness of the need for screening and of its coverage, and physician reluctance to perform screenings because of the time and complexity involved.