News Briefs
News Briefs
Coram, Aetna file opposing lawsuits
Coram Healthcare recently filed suit against Aetna US Healthcare alleging fraud, misrepresentation, and breach of contract. Coram charges that Aetna led Coram into an agreement to provide services to Aetna enrollees by misrepresenting and understating the utilization of home health care services by its enrollees. Coram is seeking damages in excess of $50 million.
Before filing the complaint, Coram and Aetna were involved in negotiations over the disputes. However, during the negotiations, Aetna filed suit against Coram that would in part prevent Coram from terminating the agreement. Aetna did not disclose to Coram that it was filing a suit during the negotiations.
Industry experts say no need to stockpile supplies
A group of 65 senior health care executives recently took part in the Health Industry Distributors Association (HIDA) 1999 Y2K Summit. Representatives from the entire spectrum of the health care continuum, developed the "Y2K Inventory Initiative Guideline."
In addition to creating the guideline, the participants in the summit concluded that there is no need to stockpile medical supplies — as such hoarding could cause artificial shortages that would degrade the quality of patient care. The best plan of action is to work closely with supply chain partners and develop a contingency plan.
The "Y2K Inventory Initiative Guidelines" is available through HIDA’s Web site at www.hida.org in the Y2K Resource Center.
More states follow CA’s lead in needlesticks
In recent weeks, Maryland, Tennessee, and Texas have followed the lead set by California in passing needle safety legislation into law to protect health care workers. And other states aren’t far behind. In New Jersey at press time, Gov. Christine Todd Whitman was expected to sign a bill that would mandate the use of safe needles within 30 days of her signing the law. And in New York, a needle safety bill unanimously passed the house and has moved on to the senate.
The California law that started it all went into effect on July 1, and requires all health care institutions provide workers with safety needles designed to prevent needlesticks.
Baxter plans to spin off cardiovascular company
Deerfield, IL-based Baxter International recently announced that it will spin off its cardiovascular business to shareholders, creating a new publicly traded company. Baxter will continue to focus on critical medical therapies for patients with life-threatening conditions.
The spinoff should see shares distributed to Baxter shareholders in the first six months of 2000 and will allow both companies to have greater financial flexibility to invest and grow. As a result, Baxter will invest more resources in its blood therapies, IV systems/medical products, and renal businesses. The cardiovascular company, to be headquartered in Irvine, CA, will focus on heart-valve therapies, mechanical cardiac-assist systems, cardiac-monitoring systems, perfusion products and services.
Nesiritide shows promise for some heart patients
In a recent test conducted at the University of Florida in Gainesville, intravenously administered nesiritide was shown to dramatically improve signs of heart failure in certain patients.
In the test, patients with congestive heart failure showed marked improvement in measures of heart function compared to patients who received a placebo infusion of sugar-water. The improvement lasted as long as nesiritide was infused. Once the administration of nesiritide was stopped, measures returned to their previous values within four hours. Other than low blood pressure and some nausea, there were no other adverse reactions.
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