Medical practitioners presented ardent and disparate views to a Vermont state panel reviewing the merits of free medicine samples provided at doctors' offices, the Associated Press reports. Curbing or even eliminating the free samples could be the next stop for Vermont, a state that already holds drug companies accountable for their marketing efforts. The Vermont attorney general's office held the hearing, part of a broader study to be submitted to the state Legislature in December.
In this post on "Valley PR Blog" about industry-specific PR challenges, Debra Stevens, director of marketing and communications for the Phoenix Children's Hospital notes that communicating about pediatric healthcare means telling stories of children with a variety of health conditions. But federal health privacy regulations under HIPAA laws sometimes restricts the ability to tell these stories, Stevens says.
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid's decision to bring to the chamber's floor a healthcare bill containing a government insurance plan was met with skepticism by moderate Democrats, who said they still do not know whether they could support a public option on a final vote. Democrats expect Reid to attempt to secure commitments from all 60 members of his caucus to allow the Senate to begin debate on the legislation, aimed at lowering healthcare costs, reforming insurance practices, and expanding coverage to about 30 million uninsured Americans.
People have lined up across the country in recent days in the hope of getting a H1N1 vaccine, but a dearth of the vaccine has forced local government officials, hospital workers, and doctors in private practice to be conscripted as ad hoc swine flu police. The goal is to make sure that those Americans with the highest risk for contracting the virus get injected first. But the somewhat haphazard nature of the vaccine's distribution in some areas and the rather large population legitimately considered high risk have brought hundreds of thousands of people to vaccine distribution points, the New York Times reports.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger reiterated his call for Congress to pass a bill this year to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system, while also expressing concerns about the legislation's potential impact on state budgets. In a letter sent to congressional leaders, the governor, who is one of few prominent Republicans supporting the health effort in Washington, said he opposed proposals to expand Medicaid to provide healthcare coverage to the uninsured. Also in his letter, Schwarzenegger said Congress should fund all of the proposed Medicaid expansion, as well as the healthcare provider rate increases that come along with it, the Wall Street Journal reports.
As perhaps the two most powerful health industry lobbyists in Washington, Billy Tauzin and Karen Ignagni illustrates the complexities President Obama faces in the healthcare endgame, the New York Times reports. Tauzin is the chief lobbyist for drug makers, while Ignagni represents insurers. With insurers blaming drug makers for high prices and drug makers blaming insurers for scanty coverage, the two association chiefs have a kind of kind of trust-but-verify relationship, according to the Times.