News in brief - Nov. 15, 2004

Court tosses out one of the lawsuits against nonprofit hospitals - Coverage satisfaction waning - Bush signs measure to fight juvenile diabetes

Court tosses out one of the lawsuits against nonprofit hospitals

A federal court in October dismissed one of the proposed class-action lawsuits challenging the way nonprofit hospitals bill uninsured patients.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama ruled that a case against Baptist Health System and the American Hospital Assn. could not go forward in federal court because the bills were part of earlier state court settlements under which patients are paying the hospital for the care they received.

The federal court would have been relying on the same evidence the state court considered to establish both the patients' debts and their obligations, the ruling stated.

The federal court also dismissed part of the lawsuit that related to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, because there were no claims presented to indicate that the plaintiffs didn't receive the appropriate care.

Coverage satisfaction waning

Americans have an increasingly disparaging view of the U.S. health care system, according to the 2004 Health Confidence Survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute. Among the findings: 30% of Americans now rate the health care system as poor, compared with 15% in 1998 when the first annual survey was conducted. Sixty-four percent reported a rise in how much they contribute toward premiums and 54% a rise in how much they pay for prescriptions.

The majority of respondents said that the cost of health care has led them to use generic drugs, take better care of themselves and discuss more treatment options with physicians. But higher costs also forced Americans to spend money that they would have otherwise put aside in savings for future health care expenses.

Bush signs measure to fight juvenile diabetes

President Bush last month signed into law a bill aimed at determining if pancreatic islet cell transplantation could become a standard form of therapy for people suffering from type 1 diabetes. The measure, co-authored by Sens. Susan Collins (R, Maine) and Patty Murray (D, Wash.), calls for an increase in the supply of pancreases for transplantation and improves the coordination of federal efforts and information regarding this issue.

Under the procedure, insulin-producing cells extracted from a cadaver pancreas are transplanted into a person with juvenile diabetes. These transplanted cells then produce insulin just as the patient's did before they were destroyed by diabetes. About 300 people have undergone this treatment since it began in 2001. More than 1 million Americans have juvenile diabetes.