OSHA chief John Henshaw recently announced the agency will drop its national emphasis program for nursing homes and personal care facilities, and will cut in half the number of nursing home inspections the agency would have conducted under the site-specific targeting plan in 2004.

A CMS analysis of the House Medicare bill’s plan to subject beneficiary premiums to competition with private plans shows that the constituents of some of the Medicare conferees could face sharp rises in their monthly Medicare fee-for-service premiums by 2013.

The California Academy of Family Physicians this week asked Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-CA) to adopt the Senate Medicare bill’s provisions, which bring rural physicians on par with their urban counterparts for the work and practice expense factors in their Medicare reimbursements.

FDA’s veterinary center has narrowed the criteria for deciding which antimicrobial drugs used in animals are critical to human health.

The Justice Department (DOJ) is urging a federal appeals court to uphold a lower court ruling and reject the pharmaceutical industry’s latest legal bid to block HHS from allowing states to use preferred drug lists and prior authorization requirements to control drug costs.

Medicare conferees have tentatively agreed to blend the House and Senate approaches on durable medical equipment (DME) by implementing a one-year DME rate freeze before moving to a competitive bidding program, according to informed industry sources.

A leading food industry group says FDA’s listeria risk assessment report does not consider recent data from 2003, which shows that the risk of listeria for ready-to-eat foods fell by 25 percent from the years before the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points program was up and running.

FDA plans to collaborate with generic drug companies to research bioequivalence for topical products, according to a senior FDA official.

Oregon Attorney General Hardy Miles has filed a lawsuit against "lifestyle" doctor Steven Moos of the Frontier Medical Clinic in Tigard, OR and one of his employees, Dr. Thomas Holeman, for illegally advertising and selling prescription drugs over the Internet.

FDA for now is not going after Springfield, MA, for reimporting drugs from Canada because the agency wants to first win its case against Rx Depot, giving FDA bargaining power for the more difficult task of taking formal action against states and local governments from doing likewise, according to FDA and industry sources.

Medicare conferees Oct. 24 broke off negotiations until after the weekend, missing their second target date for agreement in as many weeks amid a partisan stand-off on the House bill’s plan to put Medicare in competition with private plans.

Following on the footsteps of Massachusetts’ attorney general, members of the state’s congressional delegation are pressing FDA to explain its concerns over the reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada and outline agency plans to ensure the safety and effectiveness of such drugs.

The American Hospital Association (AHA) and the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH) are hailing a new General Accounting Office (GAO) report as further proof of the negative impact they claim boutique specialty hospitals have on full-service community hospitals.

Rehabilitation providers and patients held a lobby day in Washington this week, adding their voice to a new wave of congressional letters opposing CMS’ proposed rule on classifying inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRF).

Medicare conferees have agreed to embrace the Senate bill’s government-sponsored fallback drug plan but have decided to adopt the House bill’s trigger for its use, making it less likely that the fallback will be implemented, according to informed sources.

On the eve of a targeted Medicare conference deadline, a tripartisan group of Senate lawmakers have called on President Bush to support a bipartisan conference bill and have outlined issues they say must be addressed to gain their support.

The Department of Justice has signed off on new drug patent reform language that erases DOJ’s constitutionality concerns with the “declaratory judgment” provision included in the Senate Medicare bill.

Organized labor is opposing a new agreement between industrial manufacturers and insurance companies on financing for a proposed asbestos compensation trust fund, a move that may jeopardize the Senate’s chances of passing legislation this year to protect industry from asbestos injury lawsuits.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials say the White House has decided to push for a broad scientific review of the agency’s long-awaited dioxin risk review.

The law firm Emord & Associates has filed five health claim petitions askingFDA to approve a total of 26 claims about the benefits calcium can have in reducing the risk of cancer, hypertension, kidney stones, fractures and depression associated with premenstrual syndrome.