Reports: Kansas governor Sebelius to lead HHS
The Associated Press is reporting that a White House source says Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius is President Obama’s choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. The New York Times reports that Sebelius will be introduced by Obama on Monday.
Several AHCJ members and staff visited Sebelius in Topeka on April 21, 2008, as part of AHCJ's Midwest Health Journalism Program Fellowships.
According to AP, “Sebelius drew praise for the consumer watchdog role she played as Kansas insurance commissioner for eight years before she became governor.” Sebelius, an early Obama supporter, is in her second term as governor and cannot seek a third term.
Study advocates evidence-based medical guidelines
In USA Today, Steve Sternberg covers a study which found that guidelines used to treat cardiac patients are often not based on conclusive research.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that the use of evidence-based medicine has improved patient care,” says Sidney Smith of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, an author of the study and an expert on medical guidelines. “The trouble is, we need more evidence.”
The study’s authors, Sternberg said, advocate a strong scientific basis for every health-care decision. The American Heart Association, he reports, is starting a “Get with the Guidelines” program to encourage evidence-based treatment.
“Doctors say the study highlights a disturbing lack of scientific evidence underlying complex treatment questions, including how much aspirin to prescribe for heart attack prevention, how best to treat heart valve disease and when to choose angioplasty over bypass surgery.
Research shows that patients do best when doctors follow guidelines based on scientific evidence. This push for evidence-based medicine has come to define a new era in medical care, one in which doctors and hospitals are judged on their performance — and their grade depends partly on how true they are to medical guidelines.”
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Covering health reform and Obama’s proposed budget
Filed under: Health care reform, Health journalism
President Obama has presented his budget outline to Congress, including a proposal for $634 billion for U.S. health care, including money for the FDA to improve food safety, send visiting nurses to the homes of newborns, improve the American Indian health system, to invest in health information technology, cancer research and more. The budget proposal reiterates the president’s comments in Tuesday night’s speech but does not lay out a specific plan for reform. AHCJ has compiled coverage of the budget proposal and offers some tips on localizing coverage of health care reform efforts.
Bedbug complaints proliferate in New York City
Bedbug complaints are on the rise in the Big Apple, reports Adam Lisberg in the New York Daily News. Complaints have increased 34 percent in the most recent fiscal year, Lisberg said. According to Lisberg, the almost-10,000 complaints an advocacy group found through a Freedom of Information request probably understate the problem, because many folks call the exterminator instead of the city.
Several central Brooklyn neighborhoods are among the worst hit, with spikes also hitting parts of the Bronx, midtown Manhattan and Queens.
“Not all exterminators know how to spot and treat bedbugs, and critics say the city doesn’t do enough to stop infected mattresses from being reused. Some victims may be too embarrassed to seek help, and some small landlords may not be able to afford a competent exterminator, advocates say.”
Subsidized programs struggle to attract uninsured
Filed under: Health care reform, Health policy, Hot Health Headline
Lori Aratani reported in The Washington Post on the difficulties officials face when working to draw the uninsured into subsidized health insurance programs. Aratani gives examples from Maryland, Arkansas and Massachusetts and cites a national study (conducted by a nonprofit group underwritten partly by insurers) that found that “about 12 million non-elderly uninsured Americans — about one in four — were eligible for existing state or federal health programs but weren’t enrolled.”
“Even when low-cost health coverage is offered, many people fail to take advantage of it. People don’t think they need coverage, don’t know programs exist or don’t have the money to afford even comparatively inexpensive, subsidized programs.”
Aratani reports that many voluntary health-care programs have struggled to bring in qualified participants and implies that this traditional obstacle may increase the difficulty faced by the Obama administration as it aims to make good on the president’s pledge to extend health coverage to more Americans.
$150 billion of stimulus headed to health care
Filed under: Government, Health care reform, Health policy
Dr. Robert Steinbrook broke down health care’s share of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – also known as the stimulus package – in the New England Journal of Medicine. The article also features an itemized list of the health industry’s share of the stimulus.
Steinbrook said the act’s effects would be felt immediately, with some of the biggest winners being the National Institutes of Health and the movement for the adoption of health-related information technology.
“The spending includes $87 billion for Medicaid, $24.7 billion to subsidize private health insurance for people who lose or have lost their jobs, $19.2 billion for health information technology, and $10 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH).”
According to Steinbrook, “the economic crisis has allowed the Obama administration to undertake far-reaching health care initiatives that it could not otherwise have launched quickly, if at all.”
Sealed Seroquel documents hearing is Thursday
A closely watched hearing will take place in a federal courtroom in Orlando, Fla., tomorrow [Thursday] over the extent to which AstraZeneca should be forced to divulge internal documents filed in connection with product-liability litigation over its Seroquel antipsychotic. About 6,000 lawsuits have been consolidated and allege the drugmaker failed to adequately disclose that the pill can cause serious weight gain and diabetes.
At issue is whether thousands of pages of material should be unsealed. Typically, numerous documents are sealed at the outset of such litigation under agreements between attorneys for defendants and plaintiffs, in part, to speed along the proceedings. Companies also seek to have documents sealed to avoid publicity, investigations and additional lawsuits.
But earlier this month, Bloomberg News filed a motion to have some of the Seroquel documents unsealed, citing ”the public’s right of access to judicial documents.” An AstraZeneca spokesman told BusinessWeek that releasing incomplete information could create a public health risk. However, Bloomberg argued that concerns about health risks are among the very reasons the documents should be unsealed.
Not surprisingly, the controversy is drawing parallels to the litigation over Eli Lilly’s Zyprexa, another antipsychotic linked to serious weight gain and diabetes. However, the Zyprexa lawsuits yielded an unexpected ruckus when David Egilman, a Brown University professor and an expert witness for the plaintiffs, leaked sealed Lilly documents to the media (background here).
Meanwhile, the Seroquel case is generating interest for yet another reason - allegations of sexual impropriety. An AstraZeneca employee, who was responsible for the drug in the United States, allegedly cavorted with a Seroquel researcher in the United Kingdom and a ghostwriter in the United States, according to court documents. You can read more about that here.
Update: AstraZeneca lawyer Stephen McConnell announced at the hear that AstraZeneca would release the documents, according to AmericanLawyer.com.
First chapters of latest sourcebook are online
Filed under: Health data, Health journalism, Health policy
Confused about covering health issues? The Alliance for Health Reform, a nonprofit that bills itself as nonpartisan health policy education group, is in the process of releasing a new guidebook for journalists who want background on the pressing matters of the day.
The 5th edition of Covering Health Issues: A Sourcebook for Journalists will eventually have 12 chapters online that tackle employer-sponsored coverage, individual coverage, children’s coverage, Medicare, Medicaid, long-term care, disparities, public health and mental health, among other things.
So far, three chapters are available: health reform, cost of health care and quality of care. The organization hopes journalists will find useful the various ‘fast facts;’ background information; story ideas; expert contact info; Web site suggestions; opinion polls and tips for understanding congressional budgeting and the appropriations process.
As with previous editions, the latest was funded with underwriting from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Attorneys: Rule stifles nursing home accountability
Cindy Skrzycki reports in The Washington Post on the effects of a Bush administration rule classifying nursing home-related state inspectors and Medicare and Medicaid contractors as federal employees, thus shielding them from providing evidence from either side in court cases. “The practical effect is to force litigants to go to greater lengths, including seeking court orders, to get inspection reports or depositions for cases they are pursuing or defending,” Skrzycki said.
The change, which affects the $144 billion nursing-home industry, was enacted with no public notice or attention.
“This is pretty stunning,” said Mark Kosieradzki, a plaintiff attorney in Plymouth, Minn. “Nobody was told. It was just done.”
Skrzycki reports that the effect of the rule change is being felt across the country, as once-routine information requests have now stalled.
“This change hurts nursing-home residents and their families by allowing bad practices to be kept in secret by nursing homes and inspectors,” said Eric M. Carlson, an attorney with the National Senior Citizens Law Center in Los Angeles. “Government inspectors have the right to go into nursing homes and investigate, and they learn things that residents and families otherwise could never find out.”
The new rule, which was issued in September, generally prohibits state health departments and contractors from participating in private lawsuits involving facilities that are in the federal assistance program without approval by the head of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Grassley list keeps track of press coverage
Filed under: Conflicts of interest, Government, Health journalism, Pharmaceuticals
Chuck Grassley is nothing if not media savvy. The senator from Iowa, who is the ranking Republican on the U.S. Senate Finance Committee and has launched numerous investigations into pharmaceutical marketing and ties between industry and science, is keeping close tabs on press coverage of his efforts.
Sen. Charles Grassley
His staff recently circulated a nine-page list of some of the 70 stories about his various investigations - notably, a string of probes into conflicts of interest involving high-profile academics who simultaneously receive funding from drug makers and the National Institutes of Health. The recitation doesn’t include numerous editorials or mention in the “Boston Legal” television show (see this blog about the episode).
Along with the list is a string of actions taken in response:
- An Emory University professor stripped of chairmanship:
- The head of extramural research at NIH removed;
- A Stanford University professor pulled off an NIH grant;
- An ongoing internal investigation of professors at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital;
- Cancellation of a show that ran on an NPR satellite station;
- New policies on disclosure and physician relationships with industry being enacted at the University of Minnesota; Harvard University; Emory University; the University of Texas; Brown University; the Cleveland Clinic; the University of Wisconsin; the University of Iowa; the North American Spine Society and the American Psychiatric Association.
Not surprisingly, Grassley promises more will follow.
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Spend a week at the CDC studying public health, meeting sources. Apply for the AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellowships today!
- Reporting on the intersection of health, environment
- Tip sheet: Covering cuts to Medicare reimbursements
- Briefing: Reporting on health reform between now and 2014
- Covering high-risk insurance pools: Tips for reporters
- Health care reform has passed: What's next?
- Health and education: Covering these intersecting beats
- Reporting on the business of health care
- Health reporting resources for journalists on state and local government beats
