News in brief - June 5, 2006

Health plan bill stymied in Senate - Medical equipment supplier settles charges of physician kickbacks - Nevada launches drug reimportation Web site

Health plan bill stymied in Senate

Legislation enabling businesses to band together to buy cheaper health insurance died May 12 when it fell five short of the 60 votes required to prompt formal consideration.

An array of groups, from the American Academy of Pediatrics to the American Cancer Society, had opposed the bill, sponsored by Sen. Michael Enzi (R, Wyo.). The AMAvoiced concern about the measure. The groups worry that the legislation would have allowed insurers to circumvent state laws requiring coverage of preventive care, including mammograms, diabetic services and colonoscopies.

It is wrong, the AARP argued, to "help one group of people at the expense of others."

The measure's advocates said it would allow small businesses that cannot find affordable health insurance to cover their employees, reducing the ranks of the uninsured by up to 1 million people. The National Assn. of Realtors said it took heart in how close the bill came to victory. "This week was the first time in 11 years that the full Senate took up the issue of small business health plans," said the group's president, Thomas Stevens, in a statement.

Enzi accused the Democrats, most of whom voted against the measure, of denying small businesses any health coverage "until they can get them everything." He said he would work to find a compromise with Democrats and try to bring the bill back up later this year. However, with elections looming, the chances seemed slim.

Medical equipment supplier settles charges of physician kickbacks

Lincare Holdings Inc. in May agreed to pay $10 million to the U.S. government to resolve allegations that the company paid kickbacks in violation of physician self-referral statutes, known as the Stark laws. The settlement is the largest civil monetary penalty for the Dept. of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.

The OIG alleged that Lincare, from January 1993 through December 2000, compensated doctors in money and gifts in exchange for referring their patients to the company, a durable medical equipment supplier.

The Florida-based company did not admit to any wrongdoing in the agreement. No individual physicians were named. Lincare Chair and CEO John P. Byrnes said the company "fully cooperated" with the government and is "pleased to have resolved these matters."

Inspector General Daniel R. Levinson called the settlement "significant" and said that the "OIG will continue to pursue aggressively those who undermine the integrity of the Medicare program."

Nevada launches drug reimportation Web site

A Nevada state Web site allowing residents to purchase prescription drugs from licensed Canadian pharmacies is up and running after the Legislature in early May gave final approval to regulations created by the state Board of Pharmacy.

The Nevada State Medical Assn. supports the state-monitored program and has sent information to its physicians about how to safely direct patients to the Web site, said Executive Director Larry Mattheis.

"Doctors are hopeful," he said. "It's a policy initiative that the government wanted to pursue to make lower-cost prescription drugs available, and we thought we should take advantage of the experiment to see if it will benefit patients." Information can be found at the Nevada Governor's Office for Consumer Health Assistance and Bureau for Hospital Patients (govcha.state.nv.us/CP-index.htm).