News in brief - March 28, 2005

Judge dismisses lawsuit disputing translator rule for doctors, hospitals - Mental health parity passed in Washington, debated in Oregon - Funding for reimportation gets budget committee's nod - Uninsured numbers inflated, group claims - Former HHS chief lands in the private sector

Judge dismisses lawsuit disputing translator rule for doctors, hospitals

A federal judge in California dismissed a lawsuit this month that challenged a rule requiring physicians and hospitals to provide translators for patients who are not fluent in English. The Pacific Legal Foundation plans to appeal the ruling. The group filed the complaint on behalf of individual doctors, the Assn. of American Physicians and Surgeons, and ProEnglish, a group that advocates English as the official U.S. language.

The lawsuit accuses the Health and Human Services Dept. of violating doctors' civil rights and interfering with the doctor-patient relationship by imposing the rule. Physicians who receive federal reimbursement are required to abide by the mandate.

U.S. District Judge Barry Moskowitz, based in San Diego, ruled that the plaintiffs did not have standing to present the challenge because they did not demonstrate that physicians had been or would be injured by the requirement.

Mental health parity passed in Washington, debated in Oregon

Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire recently signed into law a mental health parity measure that requires health insurers to treat mental and physical illnesses equally. Under the law, insurers must pay for treatment of mental illness the same way they would physical illness and charge co-pays for drugs and services at the same level.

Oregon is also considering such a measure and would join 25 other states that already have mental health parity laws. Federal legislation has been introduced but failed to pass in the past several sessions of Congress. State parity laws do not apply to health coverage offered by self-insured employers. Their benefits are regulated by the federal government under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

Funding for reimportation gets budget committee's nod

The Senate Committee on Budget recently approved with a voice vote a resolution to put aside funds in case the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions moves forward on legislation to allow the importation of prescription drugs. The budget committee doesn't have jurisdiction over policy, but its move suggests that the Senate is making room for drug importation in the budget on the chance that a reimportation measure passes this year.

Uninsured numbers inflated, group claims

Far fewer than the commonly cited 43 million uninsured Americans actually lack access to coverage, according to an analysis by the Foundation for Health Coverage Education, a California-based nonprofit organization formed to educate people about eligibility for public health programs.

Many of these uninsured people are not poor, they just choose not to purchase insurance, the group said. Millions more are children who should be enrolled in the State Children's Health Insurance Program or Medicaid, said Philip Lebherz, executive director and founder of FHCE.

Lawmakers should spend less effort on setting up new programs to cover people and more on getting eligible people enrolled in existing programs, he added.

Former HHS chief lands in the private sector

Tommy Thompson, who served as Dept. of Health and Human Services secretary during President Bush's first term, has accepted new positions at a law firm and an accounting firm in Washington, D.C.

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP has taken on Thompson as a partner whose responsibilities will include helping to develop a health and life sciences practice. Deloitte & Touche USA has tapped him as a senior adviser and the independent chair of the company's developing Center for Health Care Management and Transformation. Thompson is expected to be involved in strategic decisions regarding clients but is not expected to actively lobby Congress, according to the firms' spokesmen.