News in brief - March 22/29, 2004

Reimportation stance could be stumbling block for CMS candidate - Disease management demo gives HHS unprecedented authority - Calif. judge rules against records release in late-term abortion lawsuit - HHS targets nation's waistline

Reimportation stance could be stumbling block for CMS candidate

Mark McClellan, MD, PhD, is poised to become the next administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services as long as an issue from his old job doesn't trip him up.

At press time, the Senate Finance Committee had voted to favorably report Dr. McClellan's nomination, but senators unhappy about his stance on the reimportation of prescription drugs were still threatening to hold up a vote on the Senate floor.

Dr. McClellan, who has served as the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration since 2002, has been a critic of reimportation provisions. During his confirmation hearing, he said a panel he chairs will examine ways that reimportation could be safely implemented.

Disease management demo gives HHS unprecedented authority

Tucked into the creases of the mammoth Medicare Modernization Act is a provision that may change the way the government conducts health care demonstration projects. The law creates a chronic care demonstration project that for the first time in Medicare's history would allow the secretary of the Dept. of Health and Human Services to expand a demonstration project without asking Congress for permission.

Under the project, HHS will enter into contracts with disease management organizations to offer programs in geographic areas that, combined, contain at least 10% of Medicare beneficiaries. If results of the demonstration are positive, the secretary could expand it.

Calif. judge rules against records release in late-term abortion lawsuit

Planned Parenthood doesn't have to turn over abortion records to Attorney General John Ashcroft, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled in March. The organization last year sued the government to stop a law known as the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, arguing it doesn't include an exception for medical necessity.

Ashcroft argued he needed patient records and charts to prove the government's position that the procedure is never medically necessary.

HHS targets nation's waistline

With obesity bearing down on tobacco use as the leading preventable cause of death, Dept. of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced a national education campaign and a new research strategy to help reduce the number of overweight Americans.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, published in the March 10 JAMA, found deaths due to poor diet and inactivity rose by 33% over the past decade, causing 400,000 deaths in the United States in 2000.

"We need to tackle America's weight issues as aggressively as we are addressing smoking and tobacco," Thompson said.

The education campaign will urge Americans to make small changes, such as using the stairs instead of an elevator or taking a walk instead of watching television. The National Institutes of Health will also develop a strategic plan for obesity research.