News in brief - Feb. 3, 2003

Ohio tort reform signed into law - Pa. mulls bill on lawsuit award caps - VA freezes some health enrollment - Stark: Hospital oversight plan flawed - Calif. sues pharmaceutical makers over Medicaid drug pricing

Ohio tort reform signed into law

Ohio Gov. Bob Taft in January signed into law tort reform legislation that includes limits on noneconomic damages awarded in medical malpractice lawsuits, a judge's right to review attorney fees and a provision that holds physicians responsible only for their portion of damages.

The Ohio Legislature passed the law in December 2002. The Ohio State Medical Assn. sees the measure as a first step toward making medical liability insurance rates affordable. Ohio is one of 12 states that the American Medical Association identified as being in the middle of a medical liability insurance crisis causing physicians to leave the state, retire early or cut back on high-risk services.

Pa. mulls bill on lawsuit award caps

The Pennsylvania Senate will consider a bill that would amend the state's constitution to make it legal to place caps on noneconomic damages in civil litigation, which includes medical malpractice lawsuits. The measure, introduced by Sens. Jake Corman and Jeffrey Piccola, would need to pass the General Assembly in two consecutive legislative sessions, and voters must approve it in a statewide referendum.

VA freezes some health enrollment

The Dept. of Veterans Affairs announced plans last month to suspend enrollment for Priority Group 8 veterans in its health program as part of a strategy to catch up on a backlog of eligible veterans already waiting to enroll. The one-year freeze affects an estimated 160,000 veterans who are not disabled and have an income above $24,000 to $30,000, depending on local cost of living.

VA Secretary Anthony J. Principi said the department is working with Health and Human Services to let Medicare Part B-eligible veterans enroll in the VA health program through a Medicare+Choice option.

Stark: Hospital oversight plan flawed

Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark (D, Calif.) has taken issue with plans proposed by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations to rely more on self-assessment for its oversight of hospitals participating in Medicare.

In a letter to Janet Rehnquist, inspector general of Health and Human Services, Stark questioned a Joint Commission subsidiary's practice of "aggressively pursuing and obtaining consulting contracts with the very institutions that they are surveying."

The letter further called into question the propriety of more than $750,000 in contributions to the commission from anonymous sources.

Calif. sues pharmaceutical makers over Medicaid drug pricing

The California attorney general in January filed a lawsuit against Abbott Laboratories and Wyeth that accuses the companies of hiding the true cost of their prescription drugs so that the companies could recover more money from Medi-Cal.

For example, in 1966, Abbott reported that a one-gram dose of the antibiotic vancomycin was priced at $55.59. Medi-Cal set its reimbursement rate at that. But a small California pharmacy paid $6.29 for the same amount of the drug, according to the complaint. The lawsuit alleges that the two drug manufactures cost Medi-Cal $27 billion by overstating prescription drug prices.