News in brief - Nov. 16, 2009

Surgeons oppose Senate health reform bill

Twenty surgical organizations sent a Nov. 4 letter to lawmakers saying they will oppose a Senate health system reform bill if certain provisions approved by the Senate Finance Committee are retained.

The Finance bill would fail to fix Medicare's broken payment system, does not offer meaningful liability reforms and contains pay cuts that could exacerbate a shortage of general surgeons in the work force, the letter said.

"We strongly support health care reform that will expand access to quality surgical and medical care to as many Americans as possible, but we cannot support legislation that puts at risk both quality of care and patient access," said A. Brent Eastman, MD, chair of the American College of Surgeons Board of Regents.

Other organizations that signed the letter include the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the American Urological Assn. and the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

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Calif. governor stumps for liability reform

California's medical liability reforms have helped contain health care costs in the state and serve as a model for comprehensive health system reform efforts.

That's according to an Oct. 27 letter that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote to congressional leaders as the U.S. House was preparing to pass a health reform bill. California's liability reforms center on a $250,000 noneconomic damage cap, a concept that has been rejected repeatedly by federal lawmakers, including in the House-passed measure.

The 34-year-old California law has helped reduce physicians' liability insurance rates to some of the lowest in the nation and saved overall health care costs in the state, Schwarzenegger wrote. "These common-sense reforms should be included in national health reform efforts."

Consumer advocates fired back in a separate letter saying it was state insurance reforms, not caps, that improved California's liability climate. Consumer Watchdog disputed the use of "draconian limits on the legal rights of injured patients as a successful cost containment tool."

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Medicaid updates eligibility and claims data

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced Oct. 29 that its Web site has been updated with new state-by-state Medicaid eligibility and claims tables for fiscal years 2005 through 2008 (www.cms.hhs.gov/medicaiddatasourcesgeninfo/msis).

The Medicaid Statistical Information System Web site now includes links to new "data marts" that will allow users to analyze state Medicaid data by age, race, gender and other beneficiary characteristics. CMS said the data will be updated with additional information from other states.

CMS internal groups and other federal and state government agencies typically use the data, but research organizations and individuals access it as well.

This content was published online only.

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