HIPAA HARMS QUALITY IMPROVEMENT EFFORTS, STUDY SHOWS

Researchers at the University of Michigan’s Cardiovascular Center say the changes needed to comply with HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) have hindered research. In a paper published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers report how their work on heart attack cases has been hampered by the national medical privacy regulations under HIPAA, which took effect two years ago last month.

Researchers noted a drastic drop—from 96 percent pre-HIPAA to 34 percent post-HIPAA—in the proportion of heart attack survivors and chest pain patients who take part in follow-up surveys after they leave the hospital.

HIPAA changes also have dramatically boosted the cost of performing the surveys, with increases noted across the board, in computing time, staff hours, office supplies and postage.

“We won’t solve safety, quality and cost issues in healthcare unless we do quality research, and our findings show that HIPAA, as currently written, has the potential to hinder that effort,” says Kim Eagle, clinical director of the center and an author of the paper.  To read the paper, visit http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/165/10/1125.

Nurses believe the Johnson & Johnson Campaign for Nursing’s Future is having a positive impact on the public’s image of nursing, as well as on the number of applicants to nursing schools, according to a recent study.

The campaign was launched in 2002 with the goals of enhancing the image of the nursing profession, recruiting new nurses and nurse educators, and retaining nurses currently working.

The study, which appears in the July/August 2005 issue of Nursing Economic$, found that 81 percent of nursing students and nursing officers reported the campaign had a positive impact on their feelings about being a nurse. RNs were split between those who felt the campaign had a positive impact and those who reported it had no impact on their feelings about being a nurse. To learn more about the campaign, visit www.discovernursing.com.

One-third (33 percent) of uninsured children in America went without medical care for an entire year, according to “Going Without: America’s Uninsured Children,” a new report for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The report, released as part of the foundation’s Covering Kids & Families Back-to-School Campaign, said that uninsured children are 10 times more likely not to receive necessary medical care, compared with children who have insurance.

“Everyone in America needs access to affordable health coverage, but when the health of a child is at stake, the need is all the more urgent,” says Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the foundation, which launched a nationwide effort in August to enroll eligible children in public healthcare programs.

“Back-to-school season is an ideal time to make sure that children have the health coverage they need, because it’s easier to do well in school when you feel well,” says Lavizzo-Mourey.

Despite the decrease in overall numbers of uninsured children, more than seven in 10 uninsured children are eligible for low-cost or free healthcare coverage through Medicaid or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, but are not enrolled. Because most eligible children come from working families, their parents may not realize their children could be eligible.

To find out if a child is eligible for low-cost or free healthcare coverage, parents of uninsured children can call toll-free 877/KIDS-NOW.