March 15, 2004
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MHA's Monday Executive Briefing
March 15, 2004
In this week's edition...
- State News -
1. Chamber may back candidates
2. Kerry mounts Miss.campaign despite strength of GOP
3. Senate confirms Guirola for federal court in Mississippi
4. MHAP posts memo on SB 2436 on Web site
5. House Medicaid plan meets deadline
6. Carlson kicks off campaign for court seat
7. LeSueur, Lott win primaries
8. Gov. Haley Barbour announces members of Judicial Appointments Advisory Committee
- National News -
9. Candidates narrow focus to 18 states
10. Kerry Talks Health Care in Two States
11. Official Says He Was Told To Withhold Medicare Data
12. Conference committee to resume reconciling pension bill after recess
13. Senate finishes budget resolution...focus now shifts to House
14. Medicare Marketing Within Legal Bounds, GAO Says
15. AHA supports bill to expand research on premature births
16. CMS publishes hospital occupational mix data for review
17. Good news from MedPAC
- State News -
1. Chamber may back candidates
Because the U.S. Chamber of Commerce wants to make Mississippicourts friendlier to business, it may repeat its efforts this year to influence Supreme Court elections as it did in 2000 and 2002 with varying success. "We have not made any decisions yet," Lisa Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber's Institute for Legal Reform, said last week.
But she hopes to raise $40 million this year to lobby Congress and state legislatures on changes to the legal system. The money from some of the chamber's big business members, including Aetna, Home Depot, Ford, General Electric and Johnson & Johnson, also will be spent on television and other ads aimed at influencing voters to choose candidates the chamber favors in state Supreme Court races.
Mississippi has four Supreme Court races this year. They are contests for the seat of retiring Chief Justice Edwin Pittman and the re-election bids of Justices James Graves Jr., William Waller Jr. and George Carlson Jr. At least two of them, the race for Pittman's seat and the re-election race of Graves, are likely to attract the chamber's attention.
Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, who supports the chamber's campaign to make it harder to sue businesses, will appoint a replacement for Pittman, but that person must run for election to keep the seat. Pike County Circuit Judge Keith Starrett, former Hinds County Circuit Judge E.J Russell and Hattiesburglawyer Mike Randolph are reportedly on Barbour's short list. The chamber is likely to support any of the three candidates. The White House also has interviewed Starrett, Russell and Randolph as possible candidates to replace Judge Charles Pickering on the U.S. District Court in Hattiesburg. In January, President Bush appointed Pickeringto a federal appeals court in New Orleans.
Mississippi's secretary of state, Eric Clark, has waged a battle against the chamber's involvement in Mississippielections. In 2002, he sued to try to force the chamber to disclose the groups in Mississippi it was giving money to. This year, Clark and Attorney General James Hood are pushing the state Legislature to approve a law that would require the chamber to disclose how it spends its money on political ads.
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2. Kerry mounts Miss.campaign despite strength of GOP
With Mississippi's primary over, Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's campaign is mobilizing in the state. The senator does not necessarily need the South to win, however. Nor is it likely he will see any of Mississippi's six electoral votes from a state that has not voted for a Democratic president since Jimmy Carter in 1976.
But Democrats here say Kerry's campaign, if nothing else, will be an opportunity to strengthen their party in the state and promote their philosophies in the months leading to Election Day on Nov. 2. Gov. Haley Barbour will be the president's campaign chairman in the state, he said. Kerry's Mississippiorganizers are shaping a technology-driven campaign, relying heavily on e-mail and direct marketing lists. Signs and buttons are already being distributed, and the campaign has begun soliciting comments from supporters over a group e-mail address, asking who Kerry should pick as a running mate.
There is a chance Kerry may return to the state, possibly to visit the northern and southern parts of Mississippi, as part of his effort to drum up support in the South, said Johnnie Patton, a Kerry campaign co-chairman for the state. The campaign also hopes to mobilize groups to back Kerry, including veterans, women and teachers.
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3. Senate confirms Guirola for federal court in Mississippi
The U.S. Senate on Friday approved the appointment of U.S. Magistrate Louis Guirola Jr. to the federal bench in south Mississippi. President Bush nominated Guirola last year to fill the upcoming vacancy left by U.S. District Judge Walter Gex III, who is planning to seek senior judge status.
Guirola, 52, has been a magistrate since 1993. Guirola graduated from WilliamCareyCollegein 1973 and worked for the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics for four years. He attended the University of Mississippi Law School in 1977. He worked for the Jackson County Public Defender's Office and later became an assistant district attorney. Guirola moved to Texaswhere he was named a U.S.magistrate, three years before moving back to Mississippito take his current position on the bench.
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4. MHAP posts memo on SB 2436 on Web site
The Mississippi Health Advocacy Program (MHAP) recently released a memo about legislation passed by the Mississippi Senate (Senate Bill 2436) that would end Medicaid eligibility for the 65,000 people in the poverty-level aged and disabled (PLAD) category. The memorandum discusses who the PLADs are, what benefits they receive and the impact of the loss of coverage. To read the memo, click here.
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5. House Medicaid plan meets deadline
With a deadline looming, a House committee on Tuesday approved a Medicaid proposal that is similar to Gov. Haley Barbour's plan for the program. The main difference is that the House bill would not remove 65,000 disabled and elderly people from Medicaid rolls. Barbour's proposal, which passed the Senate recently, would abolish the category of poverty-level aged and disabled recipients. However, officials said 59,000 of those former Medicaid recipients would qualify immediately for Medicare.
Rep. Steve Holland, D-Plantersville, chairman of the House Public Health and Human Services Committee, said the House needed more study on the PLAD group. The House Appropriations Committee had to get its Medicaid bill out of committee by Tuesday, the deadline for committees in each chamber to act on their own general bills. It was first major deadline of the four-month legislative session that started Jan 6. The House Medicaid bill included bulk purchases for prescription drugs and an increase from $4 to $6 on the assessment for nursing home beds for Medicaid patients. Both are similar to provisions in the Senate bill.
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6. Carlson kicks off campaign for court seat
Mississippi Supreme Court justice George Carlson launched his campaign to a full term on the high court last Monday. The Batesville native and former circuit judge is the first to announce for the Northern District seat he has held since his appointment in November 2001. May 7 is the qualifying deadline for the non-partisan race. Carltonmade a campaign stop Monday at the LeeCountyJusticeCenterin Tupeloand was greeted by a small crowd of supporters.
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7. LeSueur, Lott win primaries
Clinton LeSueur will again face Democratic incumbent Bennie Thompson in the fall. And State Rep. Mike Lott of Petal easily won his Republican primary in the 4th Congressional District, and now will prepare to take on U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor, a Democrat who has served since 1989. LeSueur, of Greenville, will face Thompson in November for a second time. He won 44 percent of the vote against the congressman two years ago. He says he will hit the campaign trail promoting his conservative beliefs, including his objection to gay marriage.
In the 4th District, Lott, a small business owner, said he plans to campaign on making President Bush's recent tax cuts permanent. In the Nov. 2 general election, Reform Party candidate Barbara Dale Washer of Hattiesburgis challenging Wicker. Confederate flag activist Jim Giles, an independent from Pearl, and Reform Party candidate Lamonica Magee of Foxsworth are challenging Pickering.
U.S. Sen. John Kerry, who has already locked up the Democratic presidential nomination, won the primary in Mississippi. Because there is no Republican candidate contesting President Bush, there was no GOP presidential primary in Mississippi.
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8. Gov. Haley Barbour announces members of Judicial Appointments Advisory Committee
Governor Haley Barbour announced last Monday his 31 appointees to the Judicial Appointments Advisory Committee, which will review and recommend all judicial appointments during his administration. The members of the Committee will include a chairman, Eddie Brunini, and ten attorneys from each of the state’s SupremeCourtDistricts.
District 1: Larry Douglas Wade, Greenville; Mary Libby Payne, Pearl; Rufus Gene Parker, Vicksburg; LaVerne Edney, Jackson; Crymes G. Pittman, Jackson; John G. Corlew, Jackson; Stephen L. Thomas, Jackson; Don Leland Kilgore, Philadelphia; Charles W. Wright, Meridian; Jim W. Snider, Jr., Jackson.
District 2: J. Shannon Clark, Waynesboro; Billie J. Graham, Laurel; Collette Oldmixon, Poplarville; John H. Ott, McComb; Deborah Ann McDonald, Natchez; Frank Douglas Montague, Jr., Hattiesburg; Harry R. Allen, Gulfport; Ronald R. Peresich, Biloxi; Raymond L. Brown, Pascagoula; Joe Harold Montgomery, Poplarville.
District 3: Ron Louis Taylor, Southaven; Grant M. Fox, Tupelo; Lenore L. Prather, Columbus; Guy W. Mitchell, Tupelo; Will O. Colom, Columbus; Robert G. Krohn, Corinth; Alec B. Gates, Sumner; J. Niles McNeel, Louisville; Karen O. Green, Grenada; Bob Q. Whitwell, Ashland.
The committee will review all applications for judicial appointments and make recommendations in case of a vacancy in the Mississippi Supreme Court, Chancery and Circuit Courts, and the County Courts. Members of the Committee will serve a two-year term and any member can be eligible for reappointment. No member of the Committee can be eligible for an appointment to judicial office while serving on the Committee. An Executive Order establishing the Committee was issued January 13, 2004.
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- National News -
9. Candidates narrow focus to 18 states
The election-night mapmakers created an indelible image of political Americain 2000: red states for Republicans, blue states for Democrats, and a handful of states, crowned by disputed Florida, that remained competitive until the very end. Campaign 2004 begins where 2000 left off. For the full story in The Washington Post, click here.
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10. Kerry Talks Health Care in Two States
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, arguing that voters "are hungry for a real discussion," promoted a health care plan that he said would save consumers $1,000 each as he focused attention Sunday on a pair of important Rust Belt states that have been battered by the steady drain of manufacturing jobs. For the full story in The Washington Post, click here.
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11. Official Says He Was Told To Withhold Medicare Data
The government's longtime chief analyst of Medicare costs said yesterday that Bush administration officials threatened to fire him last year if he disclosed to Congress that he believed the prescription drug legislation favored by the White House would prove far more expensive than lawmakers had been told. To read the full story in the Washington Post, click here.
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12. Conference committee to resume reconciling pension bill after recess
A conference committee charged with reconciling House and Senate bills to relieve hospitals and other employers of rising pension fund contributions plans to meet March 23. Committee staff will continue to work through the recess next week to resolve remaining differences between the bills after the committee met earlier this week. While both bills would replace the 30-year Treasury bond rate used to calculate pension contributions with a corporate bond index for two years, the Senate bill also contains provisions that would provide extra funding relief for multi-employer plans and the steel and commercial airline industries. In a letter on March 11, seven senators urged conferees to exclude those Senate provisions from the final bill, saying they will "worsen under-funding in America's pension plans." The AHA, hospitals and other employers are pushing for a reconciled bill as soon as possible, so that rate replacement can be enacted before April, when many employers will be required to make contributions to their pension plans.
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13. Senate finishes budget resolution...focus now shifts to House
The Senate Thursday approved its fiscal year 2005 budget blueprint before leaving town for a week-long recess. The action now shifts to the House Budget Committee, where Chairman Jim Nussle's (R-IA) budget package has been the subject of debate as Republicans seek to spend less money and reduce the deficit faster than the President's proposed budget. Nussle's panel is expected to take up its debate again on Wednesday. The debate has been complex, but the bottom line is that potential cuts to Medicaid are still part of the discussion.
The Senate accepted an AHA-backed amendment by Sens. Craig Thomas (R-WY) and Kent Conrad (D-ND) that would restore $100 million in funding to the Rural Hospital Flexibility Grant (FLEX) Program. An amendment introduced by Sen. John D. Rockefeller (D-WV), which would have carved out space in the Senate resolution for state fiscal relief, was introduced but did not receive a vote; Rockefeller said he plans to push the measure later in the year. And the Senate budget resolution does include Sen. Max Baucus's (D-MT) amendment that strikes from the resolution a requirement that the Senate Finance Committee achieve a net savings of about $3 billion when it crafts the Senate's actual budget, which would likely have forced cuts to Medicaid.
The budget resolutions set ceilings for revenues and expenditures, but are non-binding. However they are important because they do set out the intentions of each house before work on actual spending changes begins.
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14. Medicare Marketing Within Legal Bounds, GAO Says
The Bush administration did not overstep legal boundaries in its $12 million marketing campaign promoting the virtues of a new Medicare prescription drug package, according to a legal opinion issued by the General Accounting Office. For the full story in the Washington Post, click here.
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15. AHA supports bill to expand research on premature births
The AHA voiced its support for the Prematurity Research Expansion and Education for Mothers who Deliver Infants Early Act, S. 1726, in a March 8 letter to the bill's sponsors. "This legislation recognizes that it is time -- if not overdue - to authorize the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to 'expand, intensify, and coordinate' research related to premature births," said AHA Executive Vice President Rick Pollack in a letter to Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-TN, and Blanche Lincoln, D-AR. "Our premiere biomedical research and epidemiological agencies and our nation's talented researchers need the support this legislation would provide in order to maximize their efforts to identify the causes of preterm and premature birth." The national hospital bill for premature babies totaled about $11.9 billion in 2000, nearly half of hospital charges for all infants. "But the emotional price paid by parents and families of premature infants cannot be estimated - at birth, infants dependent upon technology for life cannot be held and cuddled as their parents long to do and infant survivors of premature birth can face chronic health and developmental disabilities," the letter notes. The legislation would fund educational grants to authorize family support programs intended to respond to the emotional and informational needs of families during hospitalization, the transition home and in the sad event of a newborn's death.
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16. CMS publishes hospital occupational mix data for review
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has made available the occupational mix survey data submitted by hospitals through March 1, which will be used to calculate an occupational mix adjustment to the wage index for the inpatient prospective payment system in fiscal year 2005. The so-called occupational mix public use file excludes critical access hospitals, consistent with the wage index database. CMS has indicated that hospitals will have two weeks to review and submit any corrections or revisions to their data. During the review period, CMS also will give hospitals a one-time opportunity to complete and submit the occupational mix survey if they missed the earlier Feb. 16 deadline. Hospitals must submit all requests for changes to their occupational mix data, and any newly submitted survey data, to their fiscal intermediary by March 22. They can view the public use file here. The inpatient proposed rule, expected out this spring, will indicate how CMS plans to use the survey data to adjust Medicare payment rates to reflect the occupational mix of hospital employees beginning Oct. 1, as required under the Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000.
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17. Good news from MedPAC
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) sent its annual report to congress last week and included its recommendation for a full market basket increase for inpatient and outpatient services in FY05. This recommendation reflects action taken by congress in the Medicare Modernization Act, which provided a full market basket update in FY 2005, 2006 and 2007 for hospitals that submit quality data and an update of market basket minus 0.4 percent for hospitals that do not submit quality data. The report is available at www.medpac.gov.
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