News in brief - Dec. 12, 2005

California conscience-clause bill set to go into effect - AMA offers grant for research on women in medicine - Campaign raises money for rebuilding - $8.25 million grant targets Hispanic obesity, diabetes health disparities - Report: Litigation drives up health costs, damages society - CMS pays $8.85 million to hospitals for quality improvements

California conscience-clause bill set to go into effect

Starting Jan. 1, 2006, California pharmacists must fill all legal prescriptions unless they have voiced objections to their employers in writing. The new law, which California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed in late September, allows pharmacists who believe that the emergency contraceptive pill marketed as Plan B is a form of abortion to refuse to fill a prescription. But pharmacists will need to inform their employers in writing about their beliefs, and the pharmacy would be legally obligated to fill the prescription or refer the patient to another pharmacy.

AMA offers grant for research on women in medicine

Women physicians are changing the way medicine is practiced, experts say, and now that they make up nearly half of the entering class of medical students, their impact on the profession is expected to grow.

In an effort to better understand how women are influencing the medical profession, the American Medical Association Women Physicians Congress is offering a research grant ranging from $8,000 to $10,000.

Sponsored through the Joan F. Giambalvo Memorial Scholarship Fund, proposal deadline is Feb. 1, 2006. Applications are available online (www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/our-people/member-groups-sections/women-physicians-congress/about-wpc/joan-f-giambalvo-memorial-scholarship.shtml). Applicants must be AMA members.

Campaign raises money for rebuilding

The Massachusetts Medical Society & Alliance Charitable Foundation said a matching gift fund-raising effort raised more than $100,000 to help Gulf states physicians rebuild practices hit by Hurricane Katrina.

The foundation created the Disaster Relief Campaign with $10,000 from the medical society and $1,000 from its Alliance. Donations and matching gifts from the medical society and the alliance brought the total to $100,303.

The Baton Rouge Area Foundation, acting as the fiscal agent for the Louisiana State Medical Society, and the Mississippi State Medical Assn. Foundation will identify who needs assistance and determine the amount of money to give each physician.

$8.25 million grant targets Hispanic obesity, diabetes health disparities

Reducing obesity and more effectively managing diabetes in Hispanics is the goal of a new Hartford, Conn., research and education center funded by an $8.25 million federal grant.

Rafael Perez-Escamilla, PhD, a nutrition sciences and public health professor at the University of Connecticut, will run the center. He said the center will work with the Hartford Hospital and the local Hispanic Health Council to develop a peer-counseling program to help patients with diabetes better manage their conditions. The center will also work to eliminate cultural and linguistic barriers that Dr. Perez-Escamilla said exacerbate Hispanics' health care disparities.

Report: Litigation drives up health costs, damages society

Health care litigation not only drives up medical costs in the United States, but it also takes money away from research that could save lives, according to a report released in October by the Manhattan Institute.

The Indianapolis-based organization's Center for Legal Policy offers a critical review of the trial attorney industry in its report. The organization says lawyers target physicians, pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers, leaving in its wake an access-to-care crisis and a lower expected return on research.

The report, "Trial Lawyers Inc.: Health Care: The Lawsuit Industry's Effect on American Health 2005," says trial attorneys' indiscriminate approach to filing lawsuits forces physicians to settle claims despite their professed innocence. Yet, patients typically receive less than 50% in damages because of attorney and administrative fees, according to the report.

Chris Mather, a spokeswoman for the Assn. of Trial Lawyers of America, refuted the report's findings. She said one of its primary sources of information was Tillinghast-Towers Perrin, whose medical liability industry data was "widely discredited by major news outlets."

CMS pays $8.85 million to hospitals for quality improvements

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services paid $8.85 million to hospitals that made quality improvements as part of a pay-for-performance demonstration project. More than 260 hospitals participated in the Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration. They improved by an average 6.6% on 33 quality indicators tracked by a Premier Inc. database, according to a statement released by the nonprofit firm.

The first year of the three-year pilot program saw improvements in five areas: patients with heart attacks, heart failure, pneumonia, coronary artery bypass graft, and hip and knee replacement. Hospitals in the top 10% for a given condition got a 2% bonus in Medicare payments for the condition, while hospitals in the second top 10% got a 1% bonus, CMS said in a statement. The biggest bonus, $326,000, will go to Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey for its performance on quality measures of care for patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgical procedures.