News Briefs: Week of Jan. 11-15

This roundup includes the following news briefs:

The FDA has approved Fluzone High-Dose (3-page PDF; About PDFs), an inactivated seasonal influenza vaccine for people ages 65 years and older.

Each 0.5 mL dose of Fluzone High-Dose contains 60 mcg of influenza virus hemagglutinin of each of the three influenza virus strains in the vaccine, for a total of 180 mcg. Other seasonal influenza vaccines for adults are formulated with 45 mcg of influenza virus hemagglutinin (15 mcg of each of the three influenza strains per dose).

"As people grow older, their immune systems typically become weaker," said Karen Midthun, M.D., acting director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, in a Dec. 23 news release. "This is the first influenza vaccine that uses a higher dose to induce a stronger immune response that is intended to better protect the elderly against seasonal influenza."

Under the terms of the FDA's accelerated approval process, vaccine manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur is required to conduct further studies to verify that the vaccine decreases seasonal influenza disease among those who receive it.

The FDA has awarded a contract to Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Inc. to develop a pilot of the agency's Sentinel Initiative, which will use automated health care data to evaluate medical product safety.

The Sentinel Initiative is the FDA's response to a 2007 mandate from Congress to establish an active surveillance system for monitoring drugs after they've reached the U.S. market. The agency said Sentinel will provide the FDA with the ability to analyze information collected during the course of health care, including data from electronic health record systems, administrative and insurance claims databases, and medical registries.

The one-year contract with Wellesley, Mass.-based Harvard Pilgrim includes an option for four renewable years, for a total of $72 million.

HHS' Office of Minority Health is seeking input as it finalizes its National Plan for Action, which seeks to eliminate health disparities among minority groups.

The plan (48-page PDF; About PDFs) was developed as part of the office's National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities campaign. The campaign's objectives include drawing national attention to racial and ethnic health disparities, as well as fostering community involvement and broad-based partnerships to improve the coordination and utilization of relevant research and outcomes evaluation data, with the end goal of shaping strategies and actions to address disparities.

Physicians and the public can submit comments on the plan online until Feb. 12.

U.S. health care spending grew 4.4 percent in 2008, the slowest rate of growth since CMS started officially tracking health care expenditures in 1960. Despite the slower growth, however, health care spending increased faster than overall economic growth, which grew by 2.6 percent, according to a CMS report on health care expenditures.

The report also notes that physician and clinical services spending increased 5 percent in 2008, a decrease from the 5.8 percent rate in 2007. However, total health care spending by public programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, grew 6.5 percent in 2008, the same rate as in 2007.

U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, M.D., M.B.A., was officially commissioned the country's 18th surgeon general during a Jan. 11 ceremony in Washington. She vowed to make prevention and wellness the cornerstone of her tenure as the nation's top doctor.

"This is a doctor's dream job, but for me it was more important and more personal because many of my family members are not sitting here today because of preventable diseases," said Benjamin, a family physician and an AAFP member since 1987.

Benjamin has been on the job since November, but HHS could not spare her for an official swearing-in ceremony until Jan. 11 because of pressing national health concerns, said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Sebelius administered the oath of office to Benjamin during a ceremony attended by more than 600 family members, friends and other well-wishers, including AAFP President Lori Heim, M.D., of Vass, N.C.

An amendment that would have postponed a new CMS rule eliminating Medicare payments for consultation codes for one year was not included in the final Senate health care reform bill.

The CMS rule, which went into effect on Jan. 1, eliminates Medicare payments for consultation codes and redistributes the savings to office visits and selected other evaluation and management services. This will result in an average 6 percent increase in the work relative value units for office visits in 2010 and will serve as part of a projected overall average increase of 4 percent in Medicare-allowed charges for family physicians contained in the 2010 Medicare rule.

Coverage of AAFP member Timothy Alford, M.D., of Kosciusko, Miss., carrying the Olympic torch will be broadcast live via streaming video from Calgary, Alberta, on Jan. 19 at 2:17 p.m. MST. Coverage is being provided by CTVOlympics.ca and Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium.

Alford was selected as a torchbearer for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, because he promotes a healthy, active lifestyle and encourages civic engagement in his community, according to a press release from the AAFP.