News in brief - July 4, 2005

Senate health IT bill introduced - Patient navigators will help uninsured - Health spending bill moves forward - Senate might consider stem cell bill - Calls for Medicare disability changes

Senate health IT bill introduced

A bipartisan group of senators unveiled a bill last month that would encourage physicians to adopt electronic medical records systems by relaxing certain federal rules that could pose barriers.

The "Health Technology to Enhance Quality Act of 2005," authored by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, MD, (R, Tenn.), and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D, N.Y.), would allow narrow exceptions to the "Stark" self-referral and antikickback statutes to let hospitals, health plans and others offer health information technology equipment to doctors. Physicians would also receive exemptions from antitrust laws in order to band together to buy EMR systems.

The legislation would provide $125 million annually for five years to help medical professionals and others buy technology products. Dr. Frist said he hopes to pass the bill within 18 months after consulting with the sponsors of other health IT bills.

Patient navigators will help uninsured

The House recently passed a measure to establish a demonstration project to fund "patient navigator" programs that would help chronically ill, uninsured patients access health resources available to them in low-income and rural areas. The bill would provide $25 million over five years to the programs, which would educate these patients about treatment options, find clinical trials and obtain referrals for them.

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and by helping detect illnesses early, this bill will decrease the cost of health care in the country," said the measure's sponsor, Bob Menendez (D, N.J.). A companion bill has been passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee and been placed on the Senate calendar.

Health spending bill moves forward

The House Appropriations Committee recently approved a fiscal year 2006 labor, health and education spending bill that tops $600 billion, the bulk of which would fund entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Under the measure, the National Institutes of Health would receive $28.5 billion, an increase of $142 million over 2005, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would get $6.1 billion, a decrease of $295 million.

Other allocations in the bill include $1.8 billion for community health centers, $890 million for implementation of the Medicare prescription drug benefit, $75 million for health information technology, $75 million for faith-based programs and $115 million for abstinence education. The House committee also added an amendment to the measure that would bar use of funds appropriated in the bill to provide erectile dysfunction drugs to convicted sex offenders.

Senate might consider stem cell bill

Coming under increased pressure from supporters of expanding stem cell research funding, Senate leaders have said they could schedule a floor vote as early as this month on legislation similar to that passed by the House in May. The measures would overturn Bush administration policy, which limits federal research funding to the study of embryonic stem cell lines that were established before August 2002.

The bills allow funds doled out by the National Institutes of Health to be spent on new lines of stem cells that are created following guidelines designed to ensure that the embryos from which they are derived would have been destroyed anyway.

Calls for Medicare disability changes

Disabled people could forego the two-year waiting period for Medicare benefits under legislation introduced last month. The bill, sponsored by Sens. Mike DeWine (R, Ohio) and Jeff Bingaman (D, N.M.), would phase out the waiting period over 10 years. Disabled people who are not eligible for Medicaid currently can receive disability payments from the federal government but must wait to receive health coverage from Medicare. During the phase-out, the Dept. of Health and Human Services could waive the waiting period completely for those with life-threatening illnesses.

In a related development, Bingaman joined Sen. Rick Santorum (R, Penn.) in drafting a letter calling on HHS to change the restriction that only allows Medicare coverage of wheelchairs and scooters that are needed in the home. The lawmakers said that the restriction is outdated and unfair to disabled beneficiaries who do not require a mobility device at home but need one for work, school or other outside activities.