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Senate GOP Could Use Procedural Tactics To Delay Sotomayor Hearings
Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Thursday said that the GOP has not ruled out the use of procedural tactics, such as a Republican boycott, to attempt to delay Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor"s confirmation hearing, Roll Call reports. Republicans have complained that the scheduled July 13 start date for the hearing does not give them enough time to review Sotomayor"s record. Kyl said that Republicans will try to negotiate with Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) for more time if they feel they cannot meet the July 13 deadline (Stanton, Roll Call, 6/11). Leahy said that Sotomayor is entitled to be confirmed on the same timetable as Chief Justice John Roberts, who appeared before the Judiciary Committee less than two months after his nomination (Kivlan, CongressDaily, 6/11).Republican Senate aides say Judiciary Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is not likely to make a final decision for several weeks on whether the GOP will try to delay the nomination. According to Roll Call, Sessions has sought to approach the issue "in a careful, measured way," though he has been critical of some of Sotomayor"s public statements. Roll Call reports that Republicans are apt to display an impartial stance on Sotomayor until the hearing starts, meaning that they likely will delay a decision on whether to stall the nomination until the last minute (Roll Call, 6/11).Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said that Republican senators are stalling to give conservative groups more time to organize a campaign against Sotomayor that they hope will taint her nomination. Feinstein said that there are "groups out there who need more time for attacks and sound bites." She added, "This is a woman who is qualified, who is brilliant, and who worked her way up" (CongressDaily, 6/11).

BMI Doesn't Tell The Whole Story, Health Risks Begin In Overweight Range
Being overweight is a health concern, and using only body mass index (BMI) to determine weight classification may not give an accurate picture of a person"s health, according to an advisory published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
News of the day
New Therapy Enlists Immune System To Boost Cure Rate In A Childhood Cancer
A multicenter research team has announced encouraging results for an experimental therapy using elements of the body"s immune system to improve cure rates for children with neuroblastoma, a challenging cancer of the nervous system.
Endocrinology

Mass. Panel Recommends Scrapping Doctors, Hospitals Payment System

The Boston Globe: "A state commission recommended yesterday that Massachusetts dramatically change how doctors and hospitals are paid, essentially putting providers on a budget as a way to control exploding healthcare costs and improve the quality of care. The 10-member commission, which includes key legislators and members of Governor Deval Patrick"s administration, voted unanimously to largely scrap the current system, in which insurers typically pay doctors and hospitals a negotiated fee for each individual procedure or visit. That arrangement is widely seen as leading to unneeded tests and procedures. Instead, the group wants private insurers and the state and federal Medicaid program to pay providers a set payment for each patient that covers all that person"s care for an entire year and to make the radical shift within five years" (Kowalczyk, 7/17). The New York Times adds: "The recommendations, if approved by the legislature and Gov. Deval Patrick, would make Massachusetts the first state to end the practice of paying health care providers for each office visit, laboratory test or procedure." The recommendations come as changes to the national payment system are debated in Washington, but so far, "those discussions have focused more on providing financial rewards for high-quality preventive care than on demolishing the fee-for-service system" (Sack, 7/16). "In 2006, Massachusetts adopted a health-care law that has attained near-universal health-insurance coverage -- much of which has become a model for national plans now being debated in Congress," the Wall Street Journal reports. "But the plan has done little to control costs, which now are 33% higher than the U.S average and projected to grow faster than the rest of the country, the commission says." Though the panel"s vote was unanimous, some members expressed reservations, with the state"s top doctor representative urging the legislature to proceed "carefully, deliberately and thoughtfully" (Shishkin, 7/17). "Proponents... say the current system encourages the misuse and overuse of medical services, driving up costs... Skeptical health care providers say they want to see more details of the plan, major elements of which must be filed as legislation and approved by lawmakers and the governor before taking effect," the Associated Press/Washington Post reports (LeBlanc, 7/16). This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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