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On June 20, 2008, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Charles Rangel and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell introduced the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (H.R.6331). Today, in a 355-59 vote, the House passed H.R.6331.

On June 6, 2008, Senate Finance Committee Chairman, Max Baucus, issued a Press Release and a section-by-section summary of the long awaited Medicare reform legislation.

Overview of open access, includes links regarding legislation, history, news.

BACKGROUND: Implementation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule has the potential to affect data collection in outcomes research. METHODS: To examine the extent to which data collection may be affected by the HIPAA Privacy Rule, we used a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest study design to assess participation rates with informed consent in 2 cohorts of patients eligible for the University of Michigan Acute Coronary Syndrome registry. The pre-HIPAA period included telephone interviews conducted at 6 months that sought verbal informed consent from patients. In the post-HIPAA period, informed consent forms were mailed to ask for permission to call to conduct a telephone interview. The primary outcome measure was the percentage of patients who provided consent. Incremental costs associated with the post-HIPAA period were also assessed. RESULTS: The pre-HIPAA period included 1221 consecutive patients with acute coronary syndrome, and the post-HIPAA period included 967 patients. Consent for follow-up declined from 96.4% in the pre-HIPAA period to 34.0% in the post-HIPAA period (P<.01). In general, patients who returned written consent forms during the post-HIPAA period were older, were more likely to be married, and had lower mortality rates at 6 months. Incremental costs for complying with the HIPAA Privacy Rule were $8704.50 for the first year and $4558.50 annually thereafter. CONCLUSIONS: The HIPAA Privacy Rule significantly decreases the number of patients available for outcomes research and introduces selection bias in data collection for patient registries.

The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services recently released a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Medicare Funding Warning Response Act of 2008 to address the Medicare funding warning issued by the Medicare Board of Trustees.

On February 6, 2008, U.S. Senators Mel Martinez and John Cornyn introduced the Medicare Fraud Prevention Act of 2008, which would increase the maximum criminal sentence, double the civil penalties, and quadruple the criminal fines associated with certain Medicare violations.