News in brief - April 5, 2004

Drug reimportation panel meets - HSA-linked bill introduced - Ohio malpractice panel issues report - Michigan judge says doctor must share pertinent patient records

Drug reimportation panel meets

The federal Task Force on Drug Importation met March 19 for the first of six information-gathering sessions.

The 13-member task force, chaired by Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona, MD, listened to testimony from consumer advocates calling for reimportation measures to go forward in light of rising prescription drug costs and the fact that many seniors already are ordering drugs from the Internet. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Mark McClellan, MD, was supposed to chair the task force, but was demoted once it became clear that the position would act as an impediment to his approval by the Senate to head the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Medicare reform legislation passed last year contained a reimportation provision requiring an analysis and report on the practice by the end of the year.

HSA-linked bill introduced

A group of Republican House members have introduced legislation that would allow individuals to deduct 100% of the cost of catastrophic health coverage purchased in conjunction with a health savings account. The bill mirrors comments made by President Bush in his latest State of the Union address. HSA provisions in last year's Medicare bill went into effect Jan. 1.

"One of the most important steps Congress can take to make health insurance more affordable is to make health savings accounts more accessible," said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Phil Crane (R, Ill.). But critics have charged that HSAs will mainly be attractive as a tax shelter for the young, healthy and wealthy, while sicker and older uninsured patients will still be left without coverage.

Ohio malpractice panel issues report

Ohio needs a screening process to weed out meritless medical malpractice suits, a patient compensation fund to help physicians pay high awards and a medical liability underwriting authority to ensure that physicians have insurance if the climate worsens, according to the state's Medical Malpractice Commission.

In a report issued in March, the commission, which the state Legislature created in 2003, also called for the collection of data such as names, costs and outcomes from the major liability insurance companies in the state.

"These measures will help provide a solid framework where physicians not only have access to coverage, but affordable coverage as well," said D. Brent Mulgrew, the Ohio State Medical Assn.'s executive director and a commission member.

Michigan judge says doctor must share pertinent patient records

A federal judge in Michigan ordered a University of Michigan Health System physician to identify and turn over abortion records demonstrating that the intact dilation and extraction procedure can be medically necessary. But U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn in Detroit in March agreed that UMHS and the physician can send the information to him in a sealed envelope and remove any patient identifying information.

The envelope then will be sent on to a New York judge hearing a case in which organizations are suing the federal government to stop a law known as the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act. The records will be sealed and not available to the public.

The government says the procedure, sometimes referred to as "partial-birth" abortion, is never medically necessary. It is seeking records to disprove claims that the law is unconstitutional because it doesn't include an exception for medical necessity.

Physicians and hospitals in several states have tried to stop the government from seeing patient records. Courts in Chicago and San Francisco have said physicians do not need to turn over records. The Detroit court joins a New York court in ordering doctors to produce the files.