Media Influences Tobacco Use
Media communications—including movies, advertising, and news—play a key role in shaping tobacco use, according to a lengthy report from the National Cancer Institute. It noted that cigarettes are among the most heavily marketed products in the United States, and that most of the cigarette industry's marketing budget is allocated to promotional activities, especially for price discounts, which accounted for 75% of the industry's $10 billion in total marketing expenditures in 2005. Depictions of cigarette smoking are pervasive in movies, occurring in three-quarters or more of contemporary box office hits, the NCI report said, adding that the weight of evidence indicates a causal relationship between exposure to depictions of smoking in movies and youth smoking initiation. The report provides the government's strongest conclusion to date on the media's powerful and causal effect on tobacco use, Dr. Cheryl Healton, president and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation, said in a statement. “This report provides the ammunition to tobacco control advocates around the world who are fighting to keep movies smoke free,” she said.
Tobacco Control Support Drops
Budgets for tobacco control programs in most states are either staying level or declining, despite increases in payments from the 1997 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, designed to compensate states for some of the cost of smoking-related illnesses, the American Lung Association reported. The ALA report blamed the stable or reduced budgets on the poor economy in a number of states on reduced tobacco control budgets. The passage of smoke-free air laws also has slowed down in most states, the ALA found. Only two states this year—Iowa and Nebraska—have approved legislation to strengthen existing laws. And, activity on cigarette tax increases in 2008 has been slower than in previous years, with only two states and the District of Columbia approving increases, the report said. New York's increase in the cigarette tax is the highest, at $1.25 a pack, the ALA said.
'Free' Rx Samples Expensive
Free drug samples provided to physicians by pharmaceutical companies actually could cost uninsured patients more in the long run, because those patients are prescribed brand-name drugs rather than generics, according to a study done by researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Physicians were three times more likely to prescribe generic medications to uninsured patients after drug samples were removed from their offices, according to the study, which looked at a large, university-affiliated internal medicine practice. After the clinic closed its drug sample closet, the percentage of prescribed generic medications rose from 12% to 40%, the researchers found. “It's true that samples can save patients money in the short run, but our study shows that they may end up paying more in the long run when they are given prescriptions for brand-name-only drugs,” Dr. David Miller, an internist and the study's lead researcher, said in a statement.
Grants to Doctors in Hurricanes
The AMA Foundation's Health Care Recovery Fund will provide grants of up to $2,500 to physicians in places that have been declared disaster areas by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the foundation currently is accepting donations to help physicians who have been directly affected by Hurricane Gustav, which affected Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. The foundation provides the grants to physicians in FEMA-declared disaster areas to help them rebuild or restore their damaged medical practices in those locations, according to the AMA.
Tools' Usefulness Limited
Although health plans are developing tools to help consumers compare price and quality information across hospitals and physicians, the tools' pervasiveness and usefulness are limited, according to a study by the Center for Studying Health System Change. The information provided as part of the tools often lacks specificity about individual providers, and its availability often is limited to enrollees in specific geographic areas, the study showed. When providing quality information, health plans generally rely on third-party sources to package publicly available information instead of using information from their own claims, the study found. “None of the health plans we interviewed believed that price and quality information is being used extensively by their enrollees today, in part, because few have incentives in their benefit structures to encourage cost comparisons,” Ann Tynan, HSC researcher and study coauthor, said in a statement.
Many Reach 'Doughnut Hole'
One in four Medicare Part D enrollees who filled prescriptions in 2007 reached the gap in coverage known as the “doughnut hole,” and most remained in the doughnut hole for the rest of the year, according to an analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The analysis suggested that about 3.4 million beneficiaries—14% of all Part D enrollees—reached the coverage gap last year and paid the full cost of their prescriptions for part of 2007. Beneficiaries taking drugs for serious chronic conditions had a substantially higher risk of a gap in coverage under their Medicare drug plan, the study found. For example, 64% of enrollees taking medications for Alzheimer's disease reached the coverage gap in 2007, as did 51% of those taking oral diabetes medications and 45% of patients on antidepressants, the study found. The analysis excluded beneficiaries who receive low-income subsidies because they do not face a gap in coverage under their Medicare drug plan.