FEDERAL HEALTH UPDATE
November 7, 2008Produced by Kate Connelly Theroux in collaboration with the Institute of Federal Health Care (IFHC) To subscribe, please visit http://fedhealthinst.org/subscriber.cfm. Sponsored by
Additional sponsorship by   www.fedhealthinst.org Do Your Civic Duty. Please Exercise Your Right to Vote. |
|||
Congressional Schedule
The department offers myriad resources to service members and their families, from prevention to injury-specific treatments, to ensure military well-being. In addition, each military service has instituted programs to provide personalized medical and non-medical assistance to wounded, ill and injured service members and their families. These include:
To simplify access to care the department has created http://www.WarriorCare.mil to serve as a portal to all warrior care resources. This site describes available resources and links users to the correct sources for additional information. Through it, service members, their families, and those who care about them can easily identify and access care. Throughout November numerous events and educational activities will focus on educating the military community about the different aspects of the continuum of care provided to service members during the recovery, rehabilitation and reintegration process. http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12336
WII service members have varied benefits available to them. The National Defense Authorization Act includes several sections that discuss new or developing benefits designed to address specific needs of service members who may have been severely wounded, ill or injured as a result of supporting contingency operations. Some of these benefits are retroactive. It is important that WII service members pay attention to their benefits as they process out of the military. TMA said it wants to ensure that benefits are easily accessible and prevent service members from losing benefits because of lack of information. For more information about benefits, contact a local TRICARE benefits counselor or log on to http://www.tricare.mil.
The task order, under the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs and TRICARE Management Activity, has a one-year base period with four option years. DRC will provide program management support to the traumatic brain injury and psychological health program, assisting in the coordination of projects, initiatives and activities to implement recommendations and requirements within the scope of the Force Health Protection and Policy Programs Directorate. The TEAMS contract, valued at $5 billion, was awarded to a total of 23 companies. The contract enables the Military Health System to order services for its organizational conflict of interest (OCI) Category 2 non-purchased care support needs. http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1999572/
The congress will include the participation of more than 150 military health care professionals from 25 Western Hemisphere nations who will meet to discuss regional collaboration among military medical practitioners, as well as current practices and scientific advances in the field of military medicine. Topics to be covered during the congress include disease prevention; support to peacetime operations, civilian authorities and contingencies; and the application of emerging technologies in the field of military medicine. The congress participants will also visit San Antonio-based military health facilities during the event. The theme for the committee’s fifth congress is “Partnering to Overcome the Health Challenges of the Americas,” a statement that reflects the organization’s goals to promote cooperation among regional military health professionals and facilitate the exchange of ideas, expertise and information among medical practitioners representing the armed forces of the Western Hemisphere. This year’s event is the first congress hosted by the U.S. Other countries that have hosted PACMM congresses include Brazil, Venezuela, Chile and Argentina. PACMM was established almost a decade ago as a regional branch of the International Committee of Military Medicine and includes 15 member states and two observer states from the Caribbean, as well as North, Central and South America. The committee also includes the participation of Spain, incorporated in 2003 as a “permanent special guest.” Additional information about PACMM and this year’s congress can be found at:
The DoD CIO awards are based on outstanding achievement in at least one of the following seven key areas: acquisition; architecture and interoperability; information assurance; management and standards; applications (technology or process); capital planning and investment; and information management/information technology workforce; and data management/data sharing. The award winners were chosen because of their exemplary performance in improving information delivery, management capability, and process efficiency while reducing costs, saving resources and enhancing the department’s net-centric capacity across multiple mission areas. They were selected among 80 nominations received from around the world. In its eighth year, this award is the only one of its kind in the department. It has grown to be a prestigious and popular program, showcasing the best of the best in information management and information technology management. Team awards were presented to:
Individual awards were presented to:
Tsien, whose work is funded by the Army’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP), received the award for his development of the green fluorescent protein (GFP), which serves as a fluorescent tag that can track movement through cells. He shares the award with two other researchers, Osamu Shimomura, who first discovered and isolated GFP in jellyfish, and Martin Chalfie, who successfully used GFP in other organisms. Tsien built on their work, turning GFP into a tool that can be used by scientists worldwide. Prior to Tsien’s research, GFP was a primitive, unstable green marker. By mutating the protein, he developed it into an easy-to-use, reliable tracer molecule and expanded its color spectrum. Now, researchers can use plum, orange, banana and strawberry along with a host of other GFP colors to monitor multiple proteins within a single cell and track their interactions. GFP is a tool that makes it possible to start the metabolism and reactions inside a living cell without destroying them. This discovery has completely changed the field of biomedicine. The practical applications GFP are playing in modern research laboratories across the country. In HIV studies, for example, GFP can be used to label the code proteins of the virus. After cells are infected with HIV, scientists can watch the virus assemble and follow, in real time, how fast new viruses are being built. With this new technology, researchers hope to be able to discover ways to interfere with the virus’ progression. http://www.health.mil/Press/Release.aspx?ID=403
Often National Guard and Reserve members and families live far from military installations, making it difficult to learn about and access their health care benefits and support services, which often change depending on a member’s status or phase of deployment. The 20-minute video walks National Guard and Reserve families through TRICARE program eligibility for all phases of service; enrollment instructions; costs for care; dental and pharmacy benefits; and direct links to National Guard and Reserve and TRICARE Web sites. Health Net Federal Services developed this video to assist all National Guard and Reserve families regardless of the TRICARE region in which they are located. Customer service contact information for each region is provided in the video. The video may be viewed at www.healthnetfederalservices.com.
The Arizona National Guard Family Assistance Fund helps Arizona Reserve Component service members of all branches and their families, including surviving spouses and children, with rent and mortgage payments, food and utilities and emergency travel, among other things. TriWest will also pay special tribute to Maj. Gen. David Rataczak in honor of his 43-year military career and nearly 10 years of service to Arizona. In October, Maj. Gen. Rataczak announced his retirement, effective Dec. 16 of this year. Maj. Gen. Rataczak was appointed The Adjutant General on April 7, 1999 by then-Governor Jane Dee Hull. His distinguished career includes:
More than 5,000 of the 8,000 Arizona National Guard members have been activated since Sept. 11, 2001 and Arizona currently has more than 300 Guardsmen deployed. TriWest's contribution is part of its holiday "Giving to the Guard" campaign, providing support to the National Guard throughout 21 western states. For more on TriWest's community outreach programs, please visit www.triwest.com, which includes a Guard and Reserve Resource Center.
The HDS Repositories Program is part of VistA, an enterprise-wide electronic health record system used throughout the VA medical system. VistA Repositories support the delivery of care by thousands of VA healthcare providers to millions of veterans seen in more than 150 medical centers, and hundreds of outpatient clinic facilities. Under the task order, SAIC will provide comprehensive software and engineering services to develop, populate, enhance, and maintain these repositories. http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/11-05-2008/0004918621&EDATE=
The award recognizes the medical center’s commitment to the veterans it serves, and its focus on improvements in medical care, research, teaching and back-up support for the Department of Defense. The medical center has won national recognition for its initiatives in medical intensive care unit collaboration and for its Anxiety Interventions Clinic. A panel of judges, including officials from public and private-sector organizations who are recognized as leaders in customer service and quality, also selected five other VA facilities as top-quality achievers:
Other VA facilities receiving special recognition as achievement winners are:
Recipients of the awards were honored in a ceremony Oct. 31 in Washington, D.C. Two previous Carey Award-winning facilities, the Durham VA Medical Center in North Carolina, and the White River Junction VA Medical Center in Vermont, were honored with a “Circle of Excellence” award during the ceremony. The Robert W. Carey Quality Award, presented annually since 1992, is named for the director of the VA Regional Office and Insurance Center in Philadelphia who died in 1990. He led his office in initiating a total-quality management approach to serving veterans and their families. Today’s Carey Awards follows the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria, which provide a model for assessing quality transformation efforts. http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=1612
Widespread adoption of electronic prescribing can eliminate medication errors that result from the misreading of handwritten prescriptions. Medicare beneficiaries may also have reduced out-of-pocket costs as e-prescribing facilitates communication between prescribers and pharmacies on lower-cost generic alternatives. Physicians and other eligible professionals who adopt and use qualified electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) systems to transmit prescriptions to pharmacies may earn an incentive payment of 2.0 percent of their total Medicare allowed charges during 2009. This incentive is in addition to a 2.0 percent incentive payment for 2009 for physicians who successfully report measures under the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) and both incentive payments are in addition to the 1.1 percent fee schedule update required by the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA). Thus, a physician who successfully reports under both the e-prescribing and PQRI initiatives could receive up to a 5.1 percent pay boost for 2009. To participate in the e-prescribing incentive program, physicians will need to have a qualified e-prescribing system with certain required capabilities. Qualified systems must be able to:
To earn the incentive payment, physicians must successfully report one of three codes for the e-prescribing measure when submitting claims for specified types of medical visits, indicating either that:
As part of its e-prescribing incentive program, Medicare will provide information and other educational resources to physicians and their offices about available e-prescribing systems. The e-prescribing incentive program is one of several provisions intended to promote access to higher quality and more efficient health care that is included in a final regulation updating the MPFS, which establishes payment rates for more than 7,000 types of services based on the resources required to furnish them. The rates and policies adopted in the final rule will apply to services furnished on or after Jan. 1, 2009. CMS NR 10-30-2008
The recall applies to the following lot number and product information:
Only ReliOn syringes from this lot number and labeled as 100 units for use with U-100 insulin are the subject of the recall. These syringes are distributed by Can-Am Care Corp and sold only by Wal-Mart at Wal-Mart stores and Sam's Clubs under the ReliOn name. Wal-Mart requests that all users of ReliOn 31-gauge, 1cc syringes return those labeled as 100 units for use with U-100 insulin from Lot Number 813900 to their local Wal-Mart store or Sam's Club pharmacy. Customers will be provided with replacement product. The FDA urges patients and health care professionals to check their syringe packaging carefully for syringes labeled as 100 units for use with U-100 insulin from Lot Number 813900. Consumers and health care professionals who suspect they have the recalled product may also contact Covidien at 866-780-5436 or www.relion.com/recall for more information. ReliOn Insulin Syringes consist of a syringe barrel, a plunger rod, and a hypodermic needle attached to the tip of the syringe. During the packaging process for this lot, some syringes labeled for use with U-40 insulin were mixed with syringes labeled for use with U-100 insulin, then all packaged individually and in boxes as 100 units for use with U-100 insulin. The manufacturer has distributed 4,710 boxes in the recalled lot, which equals 471,000 individual syringes. Wal-Mart sold the syringes at Wal-Mart stores and Sam's Clubs from Aug. 1, 2008, until Oct. 8, 2008. Tyco Healthcare Group LP (Covidien) voluntarily recalled this lot of syringes on Oct. 9, 2008, asking that any units of the affected product be removed from inventory and placed in quarantine. Wal-Mart posted the recall announcement in Wal-Mart stores and Sam's Clubs, as well as on its Web site, and sent letters to more than 16,500 customers notifying them of the recall. The manufacturer has received one adverse report related to a syringe from this product lot.
The study suggests a broad need for screening both men and women for HPV. HPV includes about 100 different variants and is the leading cause of cervical cancer. The virus, transmitted sexually and by skin-to-skin contact, can also cause anal and penile cancers, as well as cancers of the mouth and throat. Some strains of HPV also cause common warts, although they are different from those that cause cancer. Both Merck and Co. and GlaxoSmithKline make vaccines against some of the strains of HPV most strongly linked with cervical cancer. They are recommended for girls and young women who have not begun sexual activity. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the world. About 20 million Americans currently are infected with HPV, according to the CDC. Infection does not always lead to cancer. In addition to the CDC report, a team at the University of California Los Angeles reported that HPV can make a tumor more aggressive by helping it survive, spread and resist the effects of drugs. Last month researchers said their computer model indicated that vaccinating women as old as 45 could prevent some cases of cervical cancer, even though the vaccines do not protect anyone who has already been infected with one of the strains of HPV. An estimated 11,070 new cases of cervical cancer will be diagnosed in 2008 in the United States, and 3,870 women will die of it. Cervical cancer is even more widespread in areas of the globe where regular Pap smear and HIV tests are not available. An estimated 500,000 women globally are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year and 300,000 die of it. The CDC survey of 38 states and Washington, D.C., found nearly 7,400 cancers of the mouth and throat that could be linked with HPV every year — nearly 5,700 among men and about 1,700 among women. There were more than 3,000 HPV-associated anal cancers per year — about 1,900 in women and 1,100 in men. http://www.cdc.gov/media/pressrel/2008/r081103.htm
Toviaz will be available by prescription only, as an extended release tablet in either 4 mg or 8 mg dosage strengths. It is to be administered once daily. The recommended starting dose is 4 mg, which can be increased to 8 mg if needed, based upon individual response and tolerability. Toviaz is only approved for adults. The safety and effectiveness of Toviaz were studied in two, 12-week, randomized controlled studies of the 4 mg and 8 mg doses. Toviaz is not approved for pediatric use. In each of those two studies, the product showed a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in decreasing the number of times patients needed to urinate per day, as well as the number of urine leaking episodes they experienced per day, as compared to placebo. http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2008/NEW01910.html
The Marcy Speer Outstanding Reviewer Award highlights the vital contributions of the 16,000 CSR reviewers who evaluate NIH grant applications. Each year, these reviewers volunteer about 150,000 days to assess the scientific merit of approximately 56,000 applications. Their scientific evaluations help NIH invest more than $20 billion yearly in the most promising research grants paving the path to biomedical breakthroughs that improve public health and save lives. Dr. Sahn, a professor of pediatrics, diagnostic radiology and bioengineering, currently directs the interdisciplinary cardiac imaging program at Oregon Health and Science University. His extensive peer review service includes two four-year terms on review panels for applications related to diagnostic radiology and medical imaging between 1985 and 1989, and 2000 to 2004. Since 1994, Dr. Sahn served on special and regular review panels 34 times as a chairman or a temporary reviewer. The Marcy Speer Award recognizes scientists who demonstrate extraordinary commitment to CSR peer review groups, making it possible for NIH to fund the best applications, and, ultimately, improve public health. The award's namesake exemplified this commitment by continuing to review grants during her treatment for breast cancer, and extending her term as a regular member of one of CSR's genetics review panels to make up for meetings she missed during chemotherapy. She died Aug. 4, 2007. More information on the Marcy Speer Award is available by going to http://cms.csr.nih.gov/AboutCSR/SpeerAward.htm.
|
|||
If you need further information on any of the items in the Federal Health Update, please contact Kate Connelly Theroux at (703) 447-3257 or by e-mail at katetheroux@fedhealthinst.org. To subscribe, please visit http://fedhealthinst.org/subscriber.cfm. To unsubscribe, please send an email to newsletter@fedhealthinst.org with UNSUBSCRIBE as the subject. Back issues availiable at Federal Health Update Archives. |
|||
© Copyright 2007, IFHC 5185 MacArthur Blvd. NW, Suite 104-656, Washington, DC 20016 (202)271-5814 postmaster@fedhealthinst.org |