New AAD Leadership
Members of the American Academy of Dermatology have elected new leaders. Stephen P. Stone, M.D., professor of clinical medicine at Southern Illinois University in Springfield, was chosen president-elect of the academy. He will assume the presidency of AAD in March 2006 and will hold the same position with the American Academy of Dermatology Association. Dr. Stone said he plans to address the fair valuation of services, the ongoing malpractice crisis, and efforts by other organizations to restrict office-based surgery. AAD members also elected William P. Coleman, III, M.D., as vice president-elect. Dr. Coleman is a clinical professor of dermatology at Tulane University in New Orleans and works in private practice in cosmetic dermatologic surgery in Metairie, La. He will also take over as vice president in March 2006.
Campaign for Psoriasis Funding
The National Psoriasis Foundation has launched a letter-writing campaign to lobby Congress for increased federal funding for psoriasis research. The Foundation added an online advocacy tool to its Web site
Plastic Surgery Growth
More than 9.2 million cosmetic plastic surgery procedures were performed in the United States, an increase of 5% between 2003 and 2004, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). Minimally invasive procedures rose 7% in that period. Top minimally invasive procedures were Botox injections (3 million), chemical peels (1.1 million), microdermabrasion (859,000), laser hair removal (574,000), and sclerotherapy (545,000). Conversely, surgical procedures dropped 2%, according to ASPS. "These statistics show a strong, continued, and healthy increase in cosmetic surgery that mirrors the 4.4% economic growth of the United States," ASPS President Scott Spear, M.D., said in a statement. "However, there is no evidence in the statistics to support [the hypothesis] that TV programs have led to a dramatic surge in the amount of cosmetic surgery procedures."
E-Prescribing Standards
Medicare should adopt a program-wide system of uniform national electronic prescribing standards for its new prescription drug benefit, according to the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA). A uniform national standard is key to maximizing the participation of private plans in the Part D benefit and in helping to reduce regional variations in health care delivery and outcomes, PCMA said in comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on its proposed rule for Medicare e-prescribing standards. "PCMA believes that Medicare e-pre-scribing holds the potential to transform the health care delivery system," PCMA President Mark Merritt said in a statement. "Regrettably, a 50-state patchwork approach would increase costs, decrease efficiency, and severely undermine the promise of e-prescribing." The organization also urged officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to preempt duplicative and conflicting state laws that could increase costs.
Uninsured Projections
The plight of the uninsured isn't likely to be resolved anytime soon. More than one in four American workers under the age of 65 will be uninsured in 2013nearly 56 million peopledriven by the increasing inability to afford health insurance, reports a Health Affairs Web-exclusive article. Because growth in per capita health spending is expected to outpace median personal income by 2.4% every year, coverage will continue to decline as more Americans find it unaffordable. "It is unlikely that we will be able to solve the problem of the uninsured without some form of universal health insurance requiring contributions from some combination of employers, employees, and taxpayers," the study indicated. The researchers based the estimates on federal projections of health spending, personal income, and other population characteristics.
Unreadable Privacy Forms
Privacy forms used by major health care institutions are often lengthy and difficult to read, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (2005;293:1593-4). The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act requires that health care institutions inform patients in detail about the use of information obtained during medical care, through a notice of privacy form "written in plain English." The median length of the forms was six pages. The forms were often set with inappropriately small type and written in complex language that was unlikely to be understood by a "considerable proportion" of the populations served by these institutions, the report said. Privacy practice notices from 185 institutions listed in the 2004 U.S. News & World Report "best hospitals" issue were collected for the study.