Checking Musculoskeletal Injuries
The consumer group Public Citizen is urging the federal government to require businesses to report employees' musculoskeletal injuries more specifically. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration last year proposed an extra box on an OSHA form where employers would indicate any such injuries. This year, OSHA pulled back the proposal while asking for more comments. In a letter, public Citizen urged the requirement for the checkbox, saying it would not overly burden even small businesses and would provide much-needed data on repetitive-stress injuries.
A Vote for Arthritis Data
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.) introduced the Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis Research, Cure, and Care Act of 2011. Their bill (H.R. 2033 in the House and S. 1107 in the Senate) would build on the $1.5 million already given to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2009 for collecting psoriasis-related data. An additional $1.5 million each year would continue the project from 2012 to 2017. The bills would also urge the National Institutes of Health to create a virtual “center of excellence” to share information on psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.
Group Suggests Payment Fixes
An official of the American College of Rheumatology told lawmakers they could fix the ailing Medicare physician payment system by first dumping the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and setting a series of incremental pay increases for the next 5 years. In written comments to the House Ways and Means Committee, Dr. Tim Laing, chairman of the college's government affairs committee, said that repealing the SGR and setting the increases would allow enough time to test, adjust, and implement new payment models. Dr. Laing asked Congress to extend 10% payment bonuses for primary care physicians to rheumatologists and to correct the pay disparity between physicians who perform procedures and those who do cognitive work. “With the additional training rheumatologists and other cognitive specialists receive, they have been lumped together with surgical and procedural specialties even though their patient care aligns more with primary care,” Dr. Laing wrote. “Recognizing the differences in these specialties is important when reforming the physician payment system.”
1 Billion Deal With Disabilities
More than 1 billion people have some form of disability, according to the first-ever World Report on Disability by the World Health Organization and the World Bank. People with mental and physical disabilities are twice as likely as are others to say they lack health care because available providers' skills are inadequate, and three times as likely to report being denied needed health care, according to the report. In a forward, theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who lives with motor neuron disease, said, “We have a moral duty to remove the barriers to participation for people with disabilities, and to invest sufficient funding and expertise to unlock their vast potential.” The report encouraged governments to step up their efforts to make services accessible to people with disabilities.
No, It's Never Healthy
The Food and Drug Administration has warned online retailers to stop marketing tobacco products with unsubstantiated claims that the products can reduce the risk of tobacco-related diseases. In 11 warning letters, the agency cited the online retailers for various illegal claims, including use of terms such as “light,” “mild,” “low,” “less toxic,” and “safer.” Companies cannot make these claims without FDA approval, and the FDA has not okayed any such claim for tobacco products. The agency also cited some Internet retailers for selling flavored cigarettes. “There is no known safe tobacco product,” Dr. Lawrence Deyton, director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, said in a statement. “It is illegal for tobacco companies or retailers, including Internet sellers, to make unsubstantiated claims or statements that imply tobacco products reduce health risks.”
Bill Seeks to Repeal Tan Tax
A Republican congressman and 24 cosponsors have introduced a bill to repeal the 10% “regressive tax” on tanning services that was part of the Affordable Care Act. “The health care law unfairly imposes onerous taxes, like the tan tax, on our nation's business owners and consumers, slowing economic growth and costing jobs,” the bill's sponsor, Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.), said in a statement. The Indoor Tanning Association supports the bill, as does the National Federation of Independent Businesses and the National Taxpayers Union, Rep. Grimm said. The tanning group's president, Dan Humiston, said in a statement, “In reality, this tax takes money out of the pockets of some of those least able to afford it: working women, who are not only customers but also make up a majority of our business owners; and college students, who are both customers and employees.”