Democratic senators tried unsuccessfully to override a deal the drug industry struck months ago with the Obama White House and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.). If the deal fell apart, industry allies warned, the drug lobby could pivot from health reform cheerleader to committed opponent armed with a $125 million war chest. It also foreshadowed battles to come as Democrats in both the House and Senate vowed anew to seek larger concessions from an industry that spent $92 million in lobbying in the first half of this year.
The Senate Finance Committee rejected a proposal to require pharmaceutical companies to give bigger discounts to Medicare on drugs dispensed to older Americans with low incomes. The proposal, an amendment by Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, would have required drug makers to provide Medicare with discounts in the form of rebates totaling more than $100 billion over 10 years.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stepped up her push for a publicly run health plan, saying it could "save enormous amounts of money." Congressional aides said including a government-run plan for people under 65 in the health overhaul could save as much as $100 billion, if such a plan were to pay healthcare providers the low rates used by Medicare. The resulting savings would allow Democrats to keep subsidies and other provisions intended to help lower-income people buy health insurance.
Facing criticism from a health workers union, Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians has decided to drop its late-night surcharge for emergency room patients at five Massachusetts hospitals. The doctors group said that it would no longer add $30 to bills for emergency care delivered between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. The fee was attacked by a healthcare union that is trying to organize workers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, with which the doctors are affiliated.
Eleven California hospitals were fined $25,000 each in administrative penalties for violations that, in some cases, led to death or serious injury, according to Department of Public Health officials. Most of the hospitals fined were in Southern California, and about half were cited because doctors or hospital staff had left foreign objects in patients after surgery. Coast Plaza Doctors Hospital in Norwalk and Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center were fined for failing to follow proper surgical procedures.
The potential exists for this year's H1N1 influenza outbreak to be on par with or exceed the severity of pandemic outbreaks of 1968 and 1918, says Sg2 Director Manuel Hernandez, MD. Hernandez suggests that if your facility has not begun to make serious preparations to deal with the potentials of H1N1, that process needs to begin immediately.