Wednesday, July 02, 2003
How Not to Fix Medicare New York Times opinion/editorial piece by Jacob S. Hacker, assistant professor of political science at Yale University and a fellow at the New America Foundation, is author of
The Divided Welfare State: The Battle Over Public and Private Social Benefits in the United States - "If this warning seems apocalyptic, that's only because most Americans are under the impression that the measures on the table are centrist compromises that would protect everyone's interests. In reality, neither the Senate nor the House legislation would achieve this. And while the Senate bill is indeed an attempt at compromise, albeit a deeply flawed one, the House bill is a radical measure directly at odds with Medicare's longstanding aims. It threatens to cripple the program for generations to come. Bluntly put, the House legislation is a ruse. The bill delivers a prescription drug benefit, but this benefit is simply the attractive window dressing for the legislation's ultimate aim: fundamentally revamping Medicare to create a competitive system based on private health plans..." [Viewing
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HHS launches new efforts to create paperless health care system July 1 HHS press release - "HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced two new steps in building a national electronic health care system that will allow patients and their doctors to access their complete medical records anytime and anywhere they are needed, leading to reduced medical errors, improved patient care, and reduced health care costs. First, the Secretary announced that the Department has signed an agreement with the College of American Pathologists (CAP) to license the College's standardized medical vocabulary system and make it available without charge throughout the U.S. This action opens the door to establishing a common medical language as a key element in building a unified electronic medical records system in the U.S. Secondly, the Secretary announced that HHS has commissioned the Institute of Medicine to design a standardized model of an electronic health record. The health care standards development organization known as HL7 has been asked to evaluate the model once it has been designed. HHS will share the standardized model record at no cost with all components of the U.S. health care system. The Department expects to have a model record ready in 2004."
NIMH grant program: Research on community integration for people with psychiatric disabilities NIMH press release, which includes links to all required background documents and forms - "The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) invites research grant applications for multidisciplinary/translational research, especially mixed-methods research, that will explore (a) the individual, social, and service system conditions necessary for people with psychiatric disabilities to reintegrate into community life; (b) the organizational and service system conditions necessary to enable service providers to facilitate that reintegration; and (c) the effectiveness of rehabilitation strategies and programs in helping socioculturally diverse individuals who have widely varying goals, material and social resources, and clinical needs. This research has typically been called "disability" or "psychiatric rehabilitation" research. Historically, however, this research has focused fairly narrowly on the use of services; compliance; symptom reduction; easily assessed criteria of social and vocational success; and cost. The goal of this program announcement (PA) is to encourage researchers to think beyond usual assumptions underlying "psych rehab," program fidelity, and outcomes assessment and to encourage a focus on the individuals within and outside rehabilitation programs, who must function within personal, organizational, service system, cultural, and societal boundaries to achieve a return to community life."
Western counties launch mental health reform (North Carolina) Citizen-Times story - " Tuesday morning marked the beginning of a new era for Smoky Mountain Center for Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services. When the lights came on, the center was changed from an area program to a local management entity. ... The center is in the first phase of mental health reform, which was mandated by the N.C. General Assembly in November 2001 and will privatize services across the state in the next year."
