News in brief - April 20, 2009

Emergency bid to halt San Francisco health spending mandate fails

San Francisco's universal health access program has weathered yet another legal storm -- for now. The U.S. Supreme Court on March 30 shunned an emergency request by the city's business community to block immediately a recent appeals court decision that upheld an employer spending mandate underpinning the universal plan.

The program, Healthy San Francisco, relies on a local ordinance requiring businesses with 20 or more workers to spend a certain amount on health coverage or pitch into the program's funding pool.

The Golden Gate Restaurant Assn., which challenged the ordinance, plans to ask the full U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. In court briefs, the trade group said the issue is one of "great national importance" because a proliferation of differing local laws could disrupt employers' ability to offer health coverage widely and uniformly to workers through the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a March 9 decision, rejected that argument for the second time.

Physicians say the universal program has helped relieve the strain of the rising uninsured population on the health care system and would like to see it continue in the absence of federal reform. The California Medical Assn. filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the 9th Circuit and is considering getting involved at the Supreme Court level if justices take the case.

If accepted, the case likely would not be heard until next year.

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AMA releases guidance on FTC "red flag" rules

The American Medical Association has posted guidance for physicians working to get in line with Federal Trade Commission identity theft prevention rules before the May 1 compliance date.

The rules require a variety of business entities to implement a written program for preventing identity theft as well as detecting and responding to warning signs -- or "red flags" -- of such incidents. Physician organizations continue to argue that the regulations should not apply to them, but the FTC insists that doctors who defer payment for services through insurance carriers or other means are considered creditors under the law.

The AMA guidance includes written red flag policy samples that physician practices can adopt to become compliant by May 1. The policies are designed to dovetail with security and privacy policies that practices already have to be compliant with other federal regulations. The guidance is available online (www.ama-assn.org/ama/no-index/physician-resources/red-flags-rule.shtml).

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