News in brief - Aug. 18, 2003

Medicare expands lipids testing coverage - Bill offers lawsuit alternatives - Patient safety materials available - Alaska project makes medication available in remote towns - Bill would protect Medicare coverage for disabled workers

Medicare expands lipids testing coverage

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will expand the list of indications for which Medicare will cover lipids testing to include conditions leading to the formation of atherosclerotic disease. The agency also determined that benign essential hypertension is an appropriate indication for lipids testing.

CMS implemented the hypertension expansion with a directive to carriers to approve payment for the testing for claims with the appropriate code as of Oct. 1.

Bill offers lawsuit alternatives

Sen. Mike Enzi (R, Wyo.) on July 31 introduced a bill to create demonstration programs that would serve as alternatives to the current way that medical malpractice lawsuits are handled.

The "Reliable Medical Justice Act" outlines three possible model programs. One would establish a special health care court run by a judge who is an expert in health care. Another would make physicians immune from lawsuits in exchange for making a timely offer to compensate an injured patient. A third would let a state set up classes of avoidable injuries and create a board to resolve claims related to those injuries, either through a fault-based or no-fault model.

Patient safety materials available

The American Medical Association and the American Hospital Assn. have teamed with the Dept. of Health and Human Services on a campaign to distribute patient safety information to health care professionals and patients across the country. The effort, called 5 Steps to Safer Health Care, includes posters and fact sheets that offer evidence-based, practical tips on the role that patients can play in improving the safety of their care.

The AMA and AHA are encouraging hospital leaders and doctors to hang the posters, available in English and Spanish, in waiting and exam rooms to foster dialogue with patients about health care safety. The groups also are distributing posters through mailings and meetings. Information is available online (www.ahrq.gov/consumer/5steps.htm).

Alaska project makes medication available in remote towns

A demonstration project that aims to make prescription medications more accessible to patients in two isolated areas of Alaska through the use of remote drug dispensers has gained government approval.

The Southcentral Foundation at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage will network with clinics in Whittier and Sand Point to dispense medications to patients within the Indian Health Service's Anchorage Service Unit. Health care professionals at the clinics would fax prescriptions to the medical center's pharmacy. A pharmacist would receive the prescription and send a command via computer link to a locked machine in a secure area of the clinics. The machine would dispense the medication into a container. A technician would then pick up the container, attach a label and deliver it to the waiting patient.

The project is part of a government initiative to help certain organizations find creative ways to make prescription drug buying easier for patients.

Bill would protect Medicare coverage for disabled workers

Individuals who qualify for Medicare coverage due to disability would be able to return to work and not lose their health coverage under a bill introduced by Reps. Pete Stark (D, Calif.) and Robert Matsui (D, Calif.).

Under current law, Americans who receive Social Security disability insurance benefits qualify for Medicare benefits but lose that coverage if they return to the work force for more than 8.5 years.

"What the federal government is saying to these people with disabilities is that they can stay home and keep their health insurance or they can go to work and lose it," Stark said.

One in five nonworking adults with disabilities who responded to the National Health Interview Survey said a fear of losing their health insurance discouraged them from working.