Zyprexa Among Stolen Drugs
Thieves broke into an Eli Lilly & Co. warehouse in Enfield, Conn., in mid-March and stole some $75 million worth of pharmaceuticals. The company is working with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to recover the products, which included Zyprexa, Cymbalta, Prozac, and Strattera. According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, the theft might have been the biggest ever recorded for pharmaceuticals. Lilly has stopped distributing all of the affected lots. A full listing of the products and the stolen lots can be found on the FDA's Cargo Theft Web site and on Lilly's Web site.
Seeking Parity for Medicare
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) has introduced a bill that would eliminate the 190-day cap on inpatient psychiatric days for Medicare patients. The Medicare Mental Health Inpatient Equity Act (S. 3028) would make coverage for Medicare enrollees on par with that received by people who have private health insurance. There is no lifetime limit on any other Medicare inpatient specialty care. “This arcane and outdated policy runs counter to every battle we've fought to equalize mental health care in this country,” said Sen. Kerry in a statement. The bill is cosponsored by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and supported by 48 national organizations, including the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry and the American Psychiatric Association.
Psych Drugs for Psych Conditions
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) says that a new study indicates that most psychiatric medications are being prescribed for psychiatric conditions. The agency aimed to look into whether antipsychotics, antidepressants, and antianxiety drugs were being used in an appropriate manner. Antipsychotics were prescribed for psychiatric conditions 99% of the time, with the majority for mood disorders and schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders. Antidepressants were prescribed for psychiatric conditions 93% of the time; the nonpsychiatric conditions included headaches, connective tissue disease, and back problems. Antianxiety drugs only were used 72% of the time for psychiatric conditions. They also were prescribed for allergic reactions, back problems, and anxiety related to medical interventions. The study analyzed data from the 2005 National Disease and Therapeutic Index, a survey of 4,000 office-based physicians conducted by IMS Health. It appears in the March issue of CNS Drugs.
HHS Extends Medicaid Relief
The Department of Health and Hu- man Services is giving states a $4.3 billion break on prescription drugs for people who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid. That's how much less the federal government will charge states through this year for Medicare coverage of drugs for “dual eligibles.” “We believe [this] action will help states as they struggle to maintain Medicaid and other budget priorities in these difficult economic times,” HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement. The relief comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which granted a temporary increase in the amount states receive from the federal government for Medicaid. The new action applies the funding adjustment to the period Oct. 1, 2008, through Dec. 31, 2010. In his proposed budget for 2011, President Obama called for again extending the funding break, through June 30, 2011.
PhRMA Urges Web-Ad Standards
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America urged the FDA to work with drug companies to develop standards for them to communicate online about products. The industry group submitted lengthy comments to the FDA, which has been seeking public input on ways it might regulate advertising and other communication appearing on Web sites and social media. PhRMA said the agency could develop an icon for use on “space-constrained media” to take users directly to FDA-regulated risk and benefit information. Such constrained spaces might include company-sponsored links that come up on search engines.
More Quality Reporting Woes
Medical practice leaders continued to cite multiple administrative challenges with Medicare's Physician Quality Reporting Initiative, according to a survey from the Medical Group Management Association. Specifically, the 429 medical practices surveyed said the process for accessing PQRI feedback reports was “unnecessarily arduous” and that the reports themselves were not satisfactory. According to the MGMA, less than half of the medical practices that attempted to participate in the 2008 PQRI were able to access their 2008 feedback reports. For those that did get the data, it took an average of 9 hours to download the report. Sixty percent of practices that got the reports said they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the presentation of the information, and two-thirds said they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the report's ability to guide them in improving patient care outcomes.