The HHS Emergency Care Coordination Center has issued a request for information (RFI) that will be used to help development demonstration programs that design and evaluate innovative models of regionalized, coordinated and accountable emergency care and trauma systems. Responses to the RFI will be accepted until September 30, 2009.
A new GAO report on emergency department overcrowding concludes that emergency department crowding continues to occur in hospital emergency departments, with about one-fourth of hospitals reporting diverting ambulances at least once in 2006. Wait times in emergency department have increased nationally, and in some cases exceeded recommended time frames. Boarding of patients in the emergency department while awaiting transfer to an inpatient bed or another facility continues to be reported as a problem, but national data is limited. Based on articles and interviews, the GAO concludes that a lack of access to inpatient beds continues to be the main factor contributing to emergency department crowding.
The OIG has issued a report on Medicare Part D payments to community pharmacies. Among other things, the OIG found that Medicare Part D payments (excluding dispensing fees) exceeded the pharmacies’ drug acquisition costs by about 18.1 percent when drug wholesalers rebates to pharmacies were included. Excluding rebates, Part D payments exceeded drug acquisition costs by an estimated 17.3 percent, with a much larger difference for generic drugs than for brand-name drugs. A separate OIG report addresses the ability of physician-owned specialty hospitals to manage medical emergencies. The OIG found that about half of all physician-owned specialty hospitals have emergency departments, with the majority having one emergency bed. Not all physician-owned specialty hospitals had nurses on duty and physicians on call during the review period, and 66 percent use 9-1-1 as part of their emergency response procedures. In addition, the OIG has issued a report entitled "National Institutes of Health: Conflicts of Interest in Extramural Research," which includes a series of recommendations to increase oversight of grantee institutions to ensure their compliance with federal financial conflicts-of-interest regulations.
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