News in brief - Dec. 13, 2004

Boost in drug-monitoring funds - AHRQ budget increased - Visa program on track for extension - MSNJ president says high jury award underscores need for tort reform - Specialty physicians issue 2005 legislative agenda - First woman named neurosurgical chair

Boost in drug-monitoring funds

The federal government is expected to provide more money for state prescription-monitoring programs next year than it did for the previous two years combined.

When Congress passed its budget for fiscal year 2005 last month, it included $10 million for the Harold Rogers Prescription Monitoring Grant Program. Since its beginning in 2002, the program has funneled $16.5 million to individual states and the Alexandria, Va.-based National Alliance for Model State Drug Laws organization, including $6.9 million this year and $2.9 million in 2003.

Grants will be awarded by the U.S. Dept. of Justice, said Mike Robinson, legislative director for U.S. Rep. Harold Rogers (R, Ky.).

AHRQ budget increased

The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is expected to receive a 5% budget increase in fiscal year 2005, but that will still be far lower than the Friends of AHRQ coalition was calling for.

The final 2005 budget approved by Congress last month includes about $319 million for the agency, which is $15 million more than it received in 2004. The Friends coalition, which includes the AMA and 129 other organizations, had lobbied for the agency's budget to be increased to $443 million.

The funds will go to "comparative effectiveness research" authorized by the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, said Jon Lawniczak, director of government relations for the Coalition for Health Services Research, which coordinates Friends activities.

Lawniczak noted that about $80 million of the AHRQ budget will pay for patient safety research and $50 million will go toward health information technology research. He said the coalition is advocating for more money to be used for researching why health care costs are rising and for translating research into practice.

Although the agency has political and professional support, Lawniczak said its budget is not expected to significantly increase unless the government increases its funding for health care research in general. Otherwise, any increase the agency sees will be at the expense of other government-funded research.

"[A significant AHRQ budget increase] will only be accomplished by growing the pie bigger," he said. "Nobody wants to say: 'Stop that cancer research so we can do more health service research.' "

Visa program on track for extension

President Bush is expected to sign into law a bill extending the J-1 visa program for two years. The program is used to recruit international medical graduates to work in medically underserved communities.

The House recently approved a version that reconciles differences between a previous House version and a bill the Senate passed in October.

The visa waiver program exempts qualifying IMGs from the two-year home return requirement of the J-1 student visa. Instead of having to leave the country once their medical residencies are over, J-1 visa holders may stay and apply for the H-1B work visa, if they agree to work in an underserved area for at least three years.

The new bill also exempts those who receive a J-1 waiver from the cap on H-1B visas. Only 65,000 are issued annually -- a limit that was reached the first day of this fiscal year.

Other changes in the program include allowing sponsors to hire either primary care or specialist physicians and up to five physicians to work in regions not designated as underserved but drawn from communities short on health care professionals.

MSNJ president says high jury award underscores need for tort reform

Medical Society of New Jersey President S. Manzoor Abidi, MD, said that a $75 million award in a medical malpractice lawsuit in November, in which two-thirds of the money was for noneconomic damages, shows the state needs further tort reforms.

In June, New Jersey lawmakers passed reforms that included tougher expert witness requirements, shorter times for when a minor would have to file a claim for a birth-related injury, gave judges the authority to reduce awards they believed were excessive and allowed physicians named in a lawsuit who weren't involved in the patient's care to sign an affidavit and be removed from the case.

But Dr. Abidi said the changes won't prevent high jury awards for pain and suffering. The recent award "does nothing to enhance medical care or prevent errors," he said.

"Money that should be spent on preventing systems errors is being diverted," he said. "Society needs to decide if we want better health care or unlimited damages in relatively few cases."

Specialty physicians issue 2005 legislative agenda

America's specialty physicians recently released their legislative priorities for President Bush and the new Congress.

The Alliance of Specialty Medicine, a coalition of 14 national medical specialty societies representing more than 220,000 physicians, issued the following priorities:

Fix the nation's broken medical liability system by enacting reforms that will reduce frivolous lawsuits and stabilize professional liability insurance costs.
Review and revise the formula that determines the yearly update physicians receive for treating Medicare beneficiaries.
Enact and implement important patient safety legislation that protects the confidentiality of doctors and patients in reporting medical outcomes.

"Across the board, candidates who stood up for common-sense health care reforms were the voters' choice in the 2004 election. Now it's time to work with President Bush and the new Congress to develop federal policies that ensure patients will have access to the best medical specialists in the world," Michael J. Wolk, MD, president of the American College of Cardiology, said in a statement. "At both the national and state level during the past several months, health care issues were fully discussed and debated and the American people resoundingly said that they want action. Now it's time to deliver for our patients and their doctors."

First woman named neurosurgical chair

The University of Michigan Medical School appointed pediatric neurosurgeon Karin Muraszko, MD, chair of its neurosurgical department.

Dr. Muraszko is thought to be the first woman in the country to chair an academic neurosurgery department.

As chief of pediatric neurosurgery at the university for the past 10 years, Dr. Muraszko has focused on pediatric brain tumors and congenital anomalies. She is director of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Clinic at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center and has worked to develop new therapies for brain tumors.

In addition, Dr. Muraszko is considered an expert on malformations of the brain and spine such as spina bifida and Chiari I malformations and is the neurosurgical director of the craniofacial anomalies program at the university. Dr Muraszko was born with a mild form of spina bifida, herself, and wears a full-length leg brace.