New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) will celebrate its 47th annual commencement on May 18th in Old Westbury, New York. In addition to the more than 4,400 graduates who will be recognized, Fitzhugh Mullan, MD, will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.
Dr. Mullan is the Murdock Head Professor of Medicine and Health Policy at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services and a professor of pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine. He is also a member of the medical staff at the Upper Cardozo Community Health Center in Washington, D.C. He served on both the President's Task Force on Health Care Reform and the Council on Graduate Medical Education. His current research and policy work focuses on U.S. and international health workforce issues. Dr. Mullan graduated from Harvard University in 1964 with a degree in history and from the University of Chicago Medical School in 1968. He is the founding president of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship and the recipient of the American Cancer Society's 1988 Courage Award. Dr. Mullan will deliver the keynote address at the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYCOM) of NYIT hooding ceremony on May 17 at Lincoln Center.
Analysis of the Proposed Rule on Designation of Medically Underserved Populations and Health Professional Shortage Areas
07/05/2008
On May 1, 2008, researchers in the Department of Health Policy at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services issued an update of its earlier report titled "Analysis of the Proposed rule on Designation of Medically Underserved Populations and Health Professional Shortage Areas." That earlier report, prepared by the Geiger Gibson/RCHN Foundation Research Collaborative, analyzed proposed regulations issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that would modify the way in which areas are designated as being medically underserved or health professional shortage areas; designations which safety net and other providers depend on to qualify for federal funding, physician subsidies and placement, and health-related investments
On April 21, 2008, HHS issued a notice that extended the comment period on these regulations to May 29, 2008, as well as made certain clarifications to the regulations and requested comments on additional topics. Our May 1 revision discusses the April 21 notice and corrects and clarifies someearlier technical calculations.
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For more information about the Department of Health Policy, please visit http://www.gwhealthpolicy.org/
Department of Health Policy
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Capital Connection Fund Wraps up Academic Year with Strong Group of Student Awardees
02/05/2008
The most recent Capital Connection Fund (CCF) awards provide fourteen students with excellent opportunities to pursue professional development activities. Four individuals received major awards; three of these students are from the Department of Global Health:
·Kathryn Zoerhoff, MPH candidate in Global Health, is the recipient of the Spring 2008 CCF Research Award. Zoerhoff, who is also an MA student in the Elliott School, will travel to Tanzania to conduct research on the “Effects of Women’s Antenatal Care Experiences on Decisions for Delivery Location.” She will conduct exit surveys of women receiving antenatal care, as well as key informant interviews with women who have recently given birth, to learn about their perceptions of the quality of their antenatal care. Her study’s insights regarding women’s decisions about where to give birth will inform program and policy efforts aimed at increasing safe delivery and improving maternal health status. The project will be the culminating experience for Zoerhoff’s MPH.
·Casey Alrich, MPH candidate in Global Health, has been awarded CCF Fieldwork funds. Alrich will fulfill his Practicum requirement while working with PACT Vietnam, which administers PEPFAR funding to fight HIV/AIDS in Vietnam. He will work with local Vietnamese organizations who have received PEPFAR support to evaluate the success of their HIV/AIDS prevention and care programs and assist them in documenting the findings.
·Ann Mead, MPH candidate in Global Health, also received a CCF Fieldwork Award. Mead leads the public health team for the Valle Bonito, Honduras project of the local Engineers Without Borders group. For her MPH Culminating Experience, she will engage the Valle Bonito community in the development and implementation of a health education campaign addressing hygiene and water use/storage needs. Her fieldwork in Honduras will involve water testing, qualitative observations, focus groups, key informant interviews, training health promoters, holding community meetings, and working with teachers on school health promotion initiatives.
·Michelle Glaser, MPH candidate in Epidemiology, has been honored with a CCF Scholars Award. In April, she presented a poster, “Evaluation of Provider Satisfaction and Patient Outcomes Associated with Use of a Statewide Telemedicine System in Louisiana,” at the American Telemedicine Association Conference in Seattle. Glaser worked with Dr. Manya Magnus and others to develop, conduct, and analyze data on Louisiana’s telemedicine program, which was expanded after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita severely disrupted the operations of public hospitals in 2005. The project was Glaser’s MPH Practicum and Culminating Experience.
The Capital Connection Fund Conference Attendance Mini-Awards have enabled SPHHS students to be well-represented at professional meetings this spring:
·Shaun Reddy,MS candidate in Exercise Science (Exercise, Nutrition, and Eating Behavior), will attend the May meeting of the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity in Banff, Canada. Cindy Lentino, a student in the same program, and Michelle Hering-Kennedy, a recent graduate, will both attend the American College of Sports Medicine meeting this month in Indianapolis. Hering-Kennedy will also present the results of her MS research, entitled “After School Physical Activity Behaviors in Relation to Adult Supervision.”
·Alex Parr, MS candidate in Exercise Science (Strength and Conditioning), is traveling to Las Vegas in July to attend the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s national conference.
·Lauren Sogor, MPH candidate in Public Health Communication and Marketing, used Mini-Award funding earlier this Spring to participate in a webinar on “Incentives and Norm Appeals” and to attend the Women’s Equality Summit/Congressional Action Day.
·Katherine Pier,MS candidate in Biostatistics, was granted a Mini-Award to attend the American Society for Microbiology’s 6th Annual Biodefense and Emerging Diseases Research Meeting, held in February in Baltimore.
·Sarah Schaffer, MPH candidate in Global Health (and an MS student in the Elliott School), attended Unite for Sight’s 5th Annual International Health and Development Conference last month in New Haven, Connecticut.
·Roberta Lilly (MPH candidate in Health Policy) along with Christopher Davis and Meghan Blake (MPH candidates in Global Health) attended the United South and Eastern Tribes 2008 Annual Impact Week in February. Their attendance at the meeting stemmed from their team project in PubH 208 focusing on the development of a health system for the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. By participating, they were able to speak with Mashpee Wampanoag representatives and also learn about how previous Native American health care programs were created, which informed their team’s semester-long proposal development effort.
EOH's David Michaels Authors New Book - Doubt is Their Product: How Industry's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health
01/05/2008
"Doubt is our product," a cigarette executive once observed, "since it is the best means of competing with the 'body of fact' that exists in the minds of the general public. It is also the means of establishing a controversy."
In this eye-opening exposé, David Michaels reveals how the tobacco industry's duplicitous tactics spawned a multimillion dollar industry that is dismantling public health safeguards. Product defense consultants, he argues, have increasingly skewed the scientific literature, manufactured and magnified scientific uncertainty, and influenced policy decisions to the advantage of polluters and the manufacturers of dangerous products. To keep the public confused about the hazards posed by global warming, second-hand smoke, asbestos, lead, plastics, and many other toxic materials, industry executives have hired unscrupulous scientists and lobbyists to dispute scientific evidence about health risks. In doing so, they have not only delayed action on specific hazards, but they have constructed barriers to make it harder for lawmakers, government agencies, and courts to respond to future threats.
The Orwellian strategy of dismissing research conducted by the scientific community as "junk science" and elevating science conducted by product defense specialists to "sound science" status also creates confusion about the very nature of scientific inquiry and undermines the public's confidence in science's ability to address public health and environmental concerns Such reckless practices have long existed, but Michaels argues that the Bush administration deepened the dysfunction by virtually handing over regulatory agencies to the very corporate powers whose products and behavior they are charged with overseeing.
In Doubt Is Their Product Michaels proves, beyond a doubt, that our regulatory system has been broken. He offers concrete, workable suggestions for how it can be restored by taking the politics out of science and ensuring that concern for public safety, rather than private profits, guides our regulatory policy.
Doubt is Their Product will be published by Oxford University Press in May 2008, and is available for pre-order from Amazon.com and Powells.com.
Sara Rosenbaum, JD, chair and Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Law and Policy, appeared on Good Morning America April 25th, in a segment titled "Woman Denied Disability." The story follows the protracted struggles a woman, diagnosed with breast cancer, had to
endure with Cigna to collect her longterm disability benefits, which she had purchased from her employer. The video can be viewed here.
Mike Taylor, research professor, testified on food safety legislative reform before the Health Subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on April 24th, 2008.
Brian Biles, MD, professor, and Christy Ferguson, JD, associate research professor, are quoted extensively in the latest issue brief from the Alliance for Health Reform, titled "Lessons Learned: The Health Reform Debate of 1993-94. The issue brief can be accessed here.
Many Health Plans Will Now Pay for Substance Use Screening and Brief Intervention
18/04/2008
WASHINGTON — Responses to eValue8TM, an annual survey of American health plans conducted by the National Business Coalition on Health (NBCH), indicate that 58 percent of the 150 plans surveyed will pay for substance use screening and brief intervention services (SBI). These services are defined by medical billing codes recently approved by the American Medical Association (AMA) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). In addition, The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently announced that the 5.6 million employees with Federal health insurance will also be covered for SBI services.
Health plans that have committed to paying for screening and brief intervention (SBI), when covered under particular plan documents, include:
· AETNA (nationwide)
· CIGNA (nationwide)
· Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield (Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Maine,
Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Wisconsin)
· Blue Cross of California
· Blue Cross Blue Shield in Georgia
· Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota
· Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield in New York
· Independence Blue Cross
· HealthPlus (Michigan)
eValue8TM is the nation's leading evidence-based request for information (RFI) tool used by coalitions and major employers to assess and manage the quality of their health care vendors. Ensuring Solutions to Alcohol Problems at The George Washington University Medical Center, an initiative sponsored by The Pew Charitable Trusts, works with NBCH to develop the RFI questions and analyze the data collected through eValue8TM.
“One of the purposes of the eValue8TM RFI is to communicate employer expectations to health plans,” said Eric Goplerud, PhD, director of Ensuring Solutions. “This year, health plans understood that early identification and treatment of substance use problems is important to employers. We now have evidence that the plans are stepping up to meet employer expectations.”
“I have been pleasantly surprised by the widespread acceptance of the new SBI codes,” said Dr. Doug Moeller, a medical director with McKesson Health Solutions (a seller of medical claims auditing software). “I expected a longer ramp-up period for new services like these.”
Screening and brief intervention is a standardized medical technique that is effective for the identification of substance use-related problems. In addition, brief intervention has proven effective in reducing alcohol use among non-dependent patients in a wide range of medical settings. Both the AMA and CMS recognized this effectiveness with their approval of new CPT® (99408 and 99409) and Medicare codes (G0396 and G0397). In addition, CMS approved two HCPCS codes in 2007 (H0049 for screening and H0050 for brief intervention) for Medicaid.
Most Americans who engage in risky and problem substance use never receive services that could help them avoid serious health and family problems, including addiction,” said Dr. Richard L. Brown, a family physician and leader of an effort to implement SBI throughout Wisconsin. “SBI prevents more disease and injury than most routine preventive services, such as screening for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and various cancers. Bringing SBI into the mainstream of health care will produce significant economic savings and, most importantly, improve the lives of millions of Americans.”
NOTE: For an interview with Dr. Goplerud, Dr. Moeller or Dr. Brown, please contact Susan Laine at 301-530-6231. For an interview with Andrew Webber, president and CEO of the National Business Coalition on Health, contact Cary Conway at 972-731-9242.
About the National Business Coalition on Health and eValue8TM
NBCH is a national, non-profit, membership organization of 60 employer-based health care coalitions, representing over 7,000 employers and 34 million employees and their dependents across the United States. NBCH and its members are dedicated to value based purchasing of health care services through the collective action of public and private purchasers. eValue8TM is a product of the National Business Coalition on Health and is the nation's leading evidence-based request for information (RFI) tool used by coalitions and major employers to assess and manage the quality of their health care vendors. For additional information, visit www.nbch.org.
About Ensuring Solutions
Ensuring Solutions to Alcohol Problems develops authoritative, research-based information about alcohol-related problems for business leaders, policymakers, and others working to save lives and money by increasing access to treatment. Ensuring Solutions, based at The George Washington University Medical Center, was established by a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts. For more information, go to www.ensuringsolutions.org.
About The George Washington University Medical Center
The George Washington University Medical Center is an internationally recognized interdisciplinary academic health center that has consistently provided high-quality medical care in the Washington, DC metropolitan area for 176 years. The Medical Center comprises the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, the 11th oldest medical school in the country; the School of Public Health and Health Services, the only such school in the nation’s capital; GW Hospital, jointly owned and operated by a partnership between The George Washington University and a subsidiary of Universal Health Services, Inc.; and the GW Medical Faculty Associates, an independent faculty practice plan. For more information on GWUMC, visit www.gwumc.edu.
Health Policy Faculty in the News
18/04/2008
Seiji Hayashi, MD, MPH, assistant research professor, has published two articles in The Maryland Family Doctor. "Reducing the Complexity of Health Care Access: Models of Care Coordination" and "Models of Care Coordination" can be found int he Spring 2008 (vol.44, no.4) edition of the journal.
A new policy brief from the Department of Health Policy and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) titled, Patient Race and Ethnicity Data and Quality Reporting: A Legal "Roadmap” to Transparency, addresses common misconceptions and outlines legal uses of race and ethnicity data in health care. The brief was written by Sarah Kornblet, JD, research assistant, Joy Pritts, JD (Georgetown University), Melissa Goldstein, JD, associate research professor, Tom Perez, JD, MPP, Geiger Gibson Research Professor, and Sara Rosenbaum, JD, Hirsh Professor of Health Law and Policy and chair of the Department.
Peter Shin, PhD, MPH, associate research professor, Leighton Ku, PhD, MPH, professor, Emily Jones, research associate, and Sara Rosenbaum, JD, Hirsh Professor of Health Law and Policy and chair of the Department, have published Analysis of the Proposed Rule on Designation of Medically Underserved Populations and Health Professional Shortage Areas. The report looks at a proposed federal regulation which would alter the way MUA/P and HPSA designations are made - designations which safety net providers depend on to qualify for federal funding. A two-page summary can be downloaded here. The full report can be downloaded here.
Margaret Dunkle, senior fellow, Center for Health Services Research and Policy, was quoted in an April 11 article in the New York Times on the federal government's first ever public meeting to discuss a government-wide research agenda to explore the safety of vaccines. The article can be viewed here.
