Newborn Screening Law Signed
Last month, Congress approved and President Bush signed legislation to establish national guidelines on comprehensive newborn screening. The Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act also provides federal funding to educate parents and health professionals about the importance of newborn screening, and improves the systems for follow-up care for infants with an illness detected through the tests. The American College of Medical Genetics recommends that every baby born in the United States be tested for 29 metabolic and functional disorders, but only 19 states and the District of Columbia currently require such testing. The American Academy of Pediatrics supported the legislation. The new law “expands and improves the supports offered by the federal government to ensure that states have the resources necessary to ensure that all newborns receive the necessary tests and appropriate follow-up care,” said AAP President Renee Jenkins in a statement.
Panel Looking at Vaccine Safety
The National Vaccine Advisory Committee's Vaccine Safety Working Group last month began developing research priorities for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention intended to guide the CDC's scientific direction over the next 5 years in vaccine safety research, selected surveillance, and selected clinical guidance activities. Based on testimony from both external and federal scientists, along with vaccine manufacturers' representatives and members of the general public, the panel is considering recommending enhancements in vaccine safety public health and clinical guidance in seven areas ranging from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System and the Vaccine Safety Datalink Project to genomics and vaccine safety clinical practice guidelines. The committee also will address research needs in the areas of specific vaccine safety questions, vaccines and vaccination practices, special populations, and clinical outcomes.
Foodborne Illness Strategy Needed
A CDC report showed little change in the incidence of some foodborne infections after a period of decline, leading to a call for new foodborne-illness strategies. “The results show that prevention efforts have been partly successful, but there has been little further progress in the most recent years,” Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the agency's Division of Foodborne, Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases, said in a statement. The incidence of Campylobacter, Salmonella, Shigella, and Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157 infections remained highest among children under 5 years old, highlighting the need for targeted interventions, according to the CDC, which noted that identified risk factors for bacterial enteric illness in young children include riding in a shopping cart next to raw meat or poultry, attendance at day care, visiting or living on a farm, and living in a home with a reptile.
Poor Medicaid Dental Access Noted
Children in families with low incomes suffer disproportionately from dental caries, and even though state Medicaid programs are required to provide dental services to eligible children, enrollees' access to care is poor, according to a report. The study from the National Academy for State Health Policy said that in 2006, only one in three children enrolled in Medicaid received a dental service. According to the report, dentists cite three primary reasons for their low participation in state Medicaid programs: low reimbursement, burdensome administrative requirements, and problematic patient behaviors. Rate increases are necessary—but not sufficient on their own—to improve access to dental care, according to the report. Easing administrative processes and involving state dental societies and individual dentists as active partners in program improvement also are critical, the report concluded, and working with patients and their families about how to use dental services is a core element of reforms.
Maryland Approves Dental Law
Beginning Oct. 1, dental hygienists in Maryland will be allowed to provide preventive care such as cleanings, sealants, and fluoride treatments in public health settings without dentist supervision, thanks to a new law. The new law, approved after an uninsured 12-year-old Maryland boy died last year from an untreated dental infection, permits dental hygienists to provide preventive care at public dental clinics, public health departments, public schools, and facilities housing Head Start programs. The legislation does not apply to dental hygienists working in privately owned facilities.
GAO: SCHIP Income Rule Is Invalid
A letter from the Bush administration issued last August that limited enrollment in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) violated federal law because the administration failed to follow the proper rule-making procedure, according to a legal opinion from the Government Accountability Office. Therefore, the SCHIP rule, which places difficult-to-meet restrictions on states that want to enroll children in families with incomes more than 250% of the federal poverty level, is unenforceable, the GAO said in its opinion. Because the letter, issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, amounts to a new rule that changes longstanding policy, it must be submitted to Congress and to the comptroller general before it can take effect. However, a CMS spokesperson said in a statement that the GAO legal opinion has had no effect on the CMS position, and the restrictions contained in the Aug. 17 letter still are in effect.