Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.insur From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: insur Mon, Mar 30 1992 Date: Mon, 30 Mar 92 05:43:33 EST Message-ID: 03-30 0000 DECISIONLINE: Insurance USA TODAY Update March 30, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network BILL ADDRESSES WORKER SAFETY: Rep. William Ford, D-Mich., and two Democratic senators - Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio - are taking aim at worker safety. They are sponsoring the Comprehensive Occupational Safety and Health Reform Act, which would, among other things: Toughen training requirements for those using toxins and toughen criminal penalties for willful violations. SYNAR SPONSORS HEALTH PROPOSALS: Rep. Mike Synar (D-Okla.), co-sponsored a package of health-care proposals Friday designed to help rural areas attract physicians and keep small hospitals alive. Twenty-six hospitals in Oklahoma - including Eufaula's Lakeview Community Hospital - face a reduction in their Medicare reimbursement rates on April 1 when a law providing the present rate expires. (For more, see special Proposals package below.) COVERAGE CLAIMS DISPUTED: A health care official is disputing the Hawaii's claim that just 2% of the population do not have health insurance and estimates that figure at closer to 10%. One count at seven state clinics found the number of uninsured patients was slightly more than 2%. That did not include the neighbor islands, says Virginia Baresch, Hawaii State Primary Care Association executive director. HAWAII DEFENDS ESTIMATE: Hawaii's Health Department defended its estimate of uninsured at a workshop last week about the State Health Insurance Program. The department conducted an extensive survey last year and results are expected by summer, said Peter Sybinsky, deputy director for health resource in the department. Nearly 16,000 people are enrolled in SHIP and 22,000 receive Medicaid, he said. BUSH BACKS HISPANIC PROGRAM: A national initiative aimed at improving the health of the nation's 7 million Hispanic children received an approving nod from President Bush on Friday. The program, "Growing Up Hispanic," provides early-childhood immunizations and preventive care for Latino children. It was developed by the National Coalition of Hispanic Health and Human Services Organizations in 1991. CRUM IN TALKS WITH SCOR: Crum and Forster, Inc. says it is holding discussions with SCOR U.S. Corporation concerning SCOR's possible acquisition of Constitution Reinsurance Corporation, a C&F reinsurance subsidiary. Details of the discussions were not disclosed. CANCER DRUG COMING: Taxol, the experimental drug made from the Pacific yew tree, should be available next year for women with ovarian cancer, officials said Sunday at an American Cancer Society meeting in St. Petersburg, Fla. Current supplies would only provide for the treatment of 12,000 women, the National Cancer Institute's Dr. Michael Friedman said annually, 13,000 women die from the disease. NEW TECHNIQUE CUTS COSTS: With a new technique for treating ovarian cancer, special blood cells with regenerative capabilities are collected from the blood stream before radiation treatment and replaced with the bone marrow. The change can cut regeneration time by 10 days and hospital cost by nearly 40%. The change could lower the cost from $110,000 to $60,000, experts day. FDA TO KEEP TRACK OF DEVICES: Makers of dozens of medical devices, including silicone gel implants, heart valves and respirators, would have to keep track of people who get them under proposed federal rules. The Food and Drug Administration says it has found it difficult to let people know there may be something wrong with the devices upon which their lives depend. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON PROPOSALS: INEQUITIES SEEN IN EXEMPTIONS: Rep. Mike Synar also co-sponsored a proposal to exempt more physicians from a federal law that says physicians beginning private practice be paid less for treating Medicare patients than more senior physicians for five years. Synar said physicians who serve in the armed services are given no credit by Medicare officials for the years they have practiced. SYNAR STRETCHES FOR OUTREACH: Synar also co-sponsored legislation to guarantee continued funding of rural outreach grants, which finance innovative efforts by local governments to find cheaper and more effective ways of providing health-care services. "It permits us to benefit from the creativity of health-care professionals like Brenda Mahoney, who runs the Circle of Love Day Care Center in Muskogee," he said. BILL WOULD HELP HOSPITALS: Another bill Synar has co-sponsored would help urban hospitals who might otherwise lose money as the general Medicare reimbursement rates for all rural hospitals - not just those with a higher-than-average Medicare caseload - are increased at Congress' direction. Those increases over the past year have cost some urban hospitals money for treating Medicare patients. (End of package.) Insurance Editor: Michele Coleman. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM