Society Endorses Food Bill
The Endocrine Society has endorsed H.R. 3625, the Food Marketing in Schools Assessment Act. First introduced in 2007 by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) and reintroduced last month, the measure would require the Secretary of Education to assess the nutritional quality of foods and beverages marketed in schools and how they're marketed. The “brand and product logos, names, or information on educational materials; book covers; school supplies; posters; vending machine exteriors; scoreboards; displays; signs; equipment; buses; buildings; and other school property” would be the subjects of a report due by July 1, 2011. “This study will provide insight for policy makers, parents, and school administrators to determine whether the messages directed at school children lead to unhealthy choices and if policies need to be changed,” Dr. Robert Vigersky, president of the Endocrine Society, said in a statement.
Obesity Counseling Found Ineffective
Primary care obesity screening followed by a series of counseling sessions failed to improve body mass index, physical activity, or nutrition in overweight or mildly obese children, a study in the British Medical Journal found. A total of 139 overweight and mildly obese children aged 5–10 years underwent four brief consultations with their physicians over 12 weeks. But compared with that of a control group after 1 year, the intervention group's body mass index had not fallen significantly, the study found. Money might be better spent on obesity-prevention activities at the community and population levels, rather than on individual counseling by primary care physicians, the authors concluded.
Agency Calls for Fee Efficiency
Medicare should review and possibly reduce more fees when physicians provide multiple services to individual patients on the same day, the Government Accountability Office recommended. The GAO said that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has reduced payments for some imaging and surgical services furnished together, but even those don't reflect physician time saved. “For example, when two services are furnished together, a physician reviews a patient's medical records once, but the time for that activity is generally reflected in fees paid for both services,” the report stated. Expanding payment policies designed to reflect multiple-service efficiencies could save more than $500 million each year, the GAO said.
Doubts on Effectiveness Research
Although comparative effectiveness research may provide better information about what treatments work best, it's not clear that it will result in better health or less spending, according to the RAND Corporation. Its study concluded that new incentives will be needed to change patient and provider behavior. However, federal law prohibits using the results of federally funded comparative effectiveness research to guide payment policies. So it will be hard to develop incentives for driving down health spending, the study said. In the near term, any spending reduction created from such research would be offset by the costs associated with generating, coordinating, and disseminating the findings. “While increasing research aimed at determining the most effective treatments for a wide array of diseases should have benefits, there is not enough evidence at this point to predict exactly what the result might be for the cost of the nation's health care system,” Elizabeth McGlynn of RAND said in a statement.
Boomers Ring Up Big Hospital Bills
U.S. hospitals spent nearly $56 billion caring for baby boomers in 2007, almost as much as on older patients, according to a report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The agency reported that baby boomers (adults aged 55–64 years) were similar to adults aged 65–74 years in lengths of hospital stays, costs, and percentages of elective hospitalizations. Overall, baby boomers had 4.7 million hospitalizations in 2007 and accounted for 16% of the total hospital costs in the United States. Coronary atherosclerosis was the most common reason adults aged 55–64 years were hospitalized, accounting for 7.8 hospital stays per 1,000 patients. Osteoporosis ranked second on the list, with 6.9 stays per 1,000 patients.