GOVERNMENT & MEDICINE

News in brief - May 12, 2008

House adopts bill to block Medicaid cuts - S.D. ballot to include abortion ban question - Paid family leave bill introduced in House - Study finds need for almost 41,000 more health IT staff

House adopts bill to block Medicaid cuts

The U.S. House of Representatives on April 23 voted 349-62 to adopt a bipartisan bill that would prevent seven Medicaid administrative rules from being implemented until April 1, 2009. Two of the rules would reduce hospital Medicaid funding by billions and eliminate federal Medicaid dollars for graduate medical education starting May 25.

The measure, known as the Protecting the Medicaid Safety Net Act of 2008, is under a veto threat by President Bush, but the House easily achieved the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.

The National Governors Assn. praised the House vote. "According to states' own estimates, the impact of these regulations could be up to four times the administration's original five-year $13 billion estimate."

The AMA is concerned about the rules' impact on the health care system but has not endorsed the bill.

Sen. John Rockefeller (D, W.Va.) has introduced a measure that would block the Medicaid rules, but it had not received a committee vote as of press time. Sen. Max Baucus (D, Mont.), chair of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, pledged action on the issue.

The Bush administration says the rules are an attempt by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to limit federal Medicaid funding to what is defined in law.

Congressional opponents say the rules go beyond CMS' authority and that CMS is moving forward with them before the agency knows exactly how they will impact the health care system.

S.D. ballot to include abortion ban question

South Dakota voters will decide on a proposed statewide abortion ban after an anti-abortion group collected enough signatures to put the proposal on the November ballot.

The Vote Yes for Life campaign pushed for the initiative, which would outlaw the procedure except in cases of rape or incest. The measure also includes an exception for medical emergencies that threaten the life or health of the pregnant woman.

Physicians found in violation of the ban would face felony charges.

Officials from the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, an abortion-rights group, said they don't expect the measure to pass, because voters rejected a similar ban in 2006.

Paid family leave bill introduced in House

A bill providing employees with 12 weeks of paid leave to care for a new child, a sick parent or themselves if ill was introduced April 22 in the House of Representatives.

The Family Leave Insurance Act of 2008 would set paid leave at 100% of weekly earnings if an employee earned less than $20,000 a year; 75% of weekly earnings if the employee earned between $20,001 and $30,000 yearly; 55% of weekly earnings for employees earning between $30,001 and $60,000; 45% of weekly earnings for employees earning between $60,001 and $97,000; and 40% of weekly earnings for employees earning beyond $97,000 a year.

Employers and employees each would pay a premium equal to 0.2% of an employee's earnings to finance the new benefit, though employers with fewer than 20 employees would only pay 0.1%.

"It is time for Congress to stop just talking about family values and take action that families will actually value," said Rep. Pete Stark (D, Calif.), who sponsored the bill.

"The Family and Medical Leave Act has been a tremendous success, but many workers cannot afford to take unpaid leave. To make the offer real, the U.S. should take the next step by providing paid leave to all workers," he wrote.

Study finds need for almost 41,000 more health IT staff

Hospitals will need about 41,000 additional health information technology professionals to upgrade their electronic medical record systems to a level supporting computerized physician order entry, according to a report conducted by Oregon Health & Science University Professor William Hersh, MD.

The report, co-authored by Partners Health Care Senior Medical Informatician Adam Wright, PhD, estimated that there are approximately 108,390 IT professionals in the U.S. (not including those who work for health IT vendors or in nonclinical settings).

There are approximately 761,000 hospital beds in the U.S., the study stated. It estimated that hospitals whose EMRs are capable of CPOE typically employ at least 0.196 full-time equivalent IT professionals per bed.

If all hospitals used this staffing level, there would be a need for 149,000 IT professionals, the study's authors concluded. More attention must be paid to the work force that will develop, implement and evaluate health IT, the authors said.