News in brief - April 25, 2005

Missouri to cut Medicaid benefits - Medicare seeks opinions on coverage expansions - Calif. doctors to receive Medicare drug program info - HHS awards health center grants

Missouri to cut Medicaid benefits

The Missouri Legislature has signed off on a plan to restructure the state's Medicaid program by cutting benefits, such as dental and hospice care, and ending coverage for such equipment as eyeglasses, artificial limbs and wheelchairs.

State officials estimate that the changes will affect about 50,000 adults. The plan also would affect about 50,000 children, whose families would be required to pay premiums of up to 5% of their incomes to keep the children in Missouri's State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Changes would be instituted only as needed to curtail the growing cost of Missouri Medicaid, which now covers one in six residents at an annual cost of $5 billion, the legislation's supporters said.

Medicare seeks opinions on coverage expansions

Federal officials are seeking input on how they can approve coverage of new medical technology faster in return for physicians submitting data on its effectiveness.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a draft guidance detailing how the agency might authorize what it dubs "coverage with evidence development." The process would kick in when officials feel that such data collection could determine whether an unproven type of technology is medically necessary for certain types of patients.

Medicare already has used this concept in several recent national coverage decisions, most notably the move to expand the number of beneficiaries with heart conditions that are eligible for coverage for implantable cardioverter defibrillators. Physicians can offer the devices to a larger number of seniors in return for enrolling the patients in a national registry to determine whether the treatment works.

The draft guidance is available for review online (www.cms.hhs.gov/coverage).

CMS will accept comments on the document until June 5.

Calif. doctors to receive Medicare drug program info

Physicians in California will soon get educational materials about the upcoming Medicare prescription drug benefit to share with their patients, the California Medical Assn. announced earlier this month.

More than 35,000 physician members in the state will receive an information package about the benefit, which will be open for enrollment this fall in advance of a January 2006 launch. The package will contain a sign with Medicare contact information for posting in offices, as well as booklets designed to explain the benefit to both doctors and patients.

"Many seniors will ask their doctors for help when the drug coverage becomes available under Medicare, and we want them to be ready with answers," said Jack Lewin, MD, the CEO of the association.

HHS awards health center grants

The Dept. of Health and Human Services has approved the opening of 105 new community health centers. In 2002, President Bush launched an initiative to double the capacity of the health centers between 2002 and 2006. He set a goal of 1,200 centers serving 16 million patients annually.

At the beginning of this year, the president announced a new goal of putting a health center in every poor county.

Seventeen of the recently announced health centers will be awarded their grants in May. The other 88 will receive their awards in December.

Since 2002, including these new grants, HHS has funded more than 700 new or expanded health centers.