Document 7RJaoXkdyxY5r2mVXRemOr5Jj

fjJ \Z' o / <o> 58^ URGE OVERCHARGE GY HOSPITALS FOUND An audit of 665 hospitals in all geographical areas by American Claims Evaluation, Inc. of Jericho, N.Y., showed that 11 percent of all U.S. hos pitals studied charged nearly a half million dollars to private industry for services never delivered, an article in the American Medical Associa tion's American Medical News reported. If those results held true for the rest of the hospitals in the country, the claims evalua tion service estimated the total money spent on undeliv ered services could add up to as much as $5 million. June Novak, the director of American Claims, said the largest errors had been fpi^nd in bills coming from southern California, southern Florida , New York, Texas and Massa chusetts. She said that teach ing hospitals were the greatest offenders. American Claims has been in the business (^/evaluating claims for two years, using nurses based throughout the country tb aid in their audits. American Claims conducts its audits for the benefit of insur ance companies, third-party payers, self-funded companies and self-insured companies. DIALYSIS MAY HELP POISONING VICTIMS Two University of Illinois doctors concluded that put ting cyanide-poisoning victims on kidney dialysis machines may increase their chances of survival after using the tech nique to save the life of one such victim. The artificial kidney machines, which are used to purify the blood of patients with chronic kidney disease, buys time while doctors can administer the proper anti dote, according to Dr. Richard J. Foley, now at the Univer sity of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. Dialysis is especially useful in reducing poison levels in the body while doctors attempt to identify the poisoning agent, Foley said. OSHA TO CONTINUE EXEMPTION PROGRAM The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has extended an experimental exemption program in seven states which was due to end Jan. 1. The program provided for general inspection exemp tions for companies using comprehensive on-site consult ation services. Under the program, a company located in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi or Texas is exempted from general sched ule inspections if it requests comprehensive on-site consult ation and takes action to cor rect hazards found in the con sultation. The experimental program began in 1982 and was originally scheduled to end January 1983. The dead line was extended to July 1983, January 1984, and now July 1,1984. In October, OSHA pro posed revisions to its-.on-site consultation requirements that would establish a nation wide program similar to the experimental program. NICOTINE GUM APPROVED BY FDA The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved a prescription chew ing gum containing nicotine to help people stop smoking ciga rettes, according to a Chicago Tribune article. Studies show the chewing gum, called Nicorette, can double the success rate for people trying to quit smoking. Nicorette does not eliminate the desire for a cigarette but can provide a short term alter native source of nicotine for people dependent on ciga rettes, FDA said. Nicorette contains two mil ligrams of nicotine per piece. The gum was developed in Sweden 12 years ago and is marketed there as well as in Britain and Canada. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Cincinnati will import the gum from a.Swedish pharmaceuti cal company and market it in the U.S. Charles Rogney, a spokes man for Merrell Dow, said the gum will sell for about S20 for a box of 96 tablets and is likely to be-in stores by March. NI08H IMPROVES ASBESTOS SAMPLING A new method for analyz ing and sampling for asbestos which increases the sampling sensitivity by a factor of four over the phase contrast count method currently in use, has been developed by NIOSH. According to a Bureau of National Affairs report, the new Method 7400 is capable of analysis of-asbestos with sta tistical reliability below 100,000 fibers per cubic meter of air, the worker exposure limit now recommended by the institu tion. The new procedure has increased the flow rate of sampling to four liters per -jninute in personal air moni toring and has decreased the filter size from 37 millimeters diameter to 25 millimeters diameter. The smaller area on which fibers are deposited allows the method to be twice as sensitive as the old proce dure, according to David -Tay lor; chief of the Inorganic Methods Development section of NIOSH. NIOSH has also standard ized the microscope graticule which defines the area in which fibers are measured so that it is consistent in all microscopes. A test slide was added which enables fibers only 0.25 micrometers in diam eter to be seen. The Method 7400 is a revi sion of P&CAM 239 and is scheduled to be printed Feb. 15. Copies should be available from the Government Printing Office within three months of that date, according to the report. FOREIGN, U.S. GRADS VIE FOR RESIDENCIES Increases in the number of U.S. citizens graduating from foreign medical schools and the number of foreign nation als graduating from foreign medical schools and seeking residency in the U.S.,'have resulted in a shortage of resi dency positions. According to figures pub lished in the New England Journal of Medicine, applica tions to the National Resident Matching Program from U.S. citizens who graduated from foreign medical schools increased 273 percent between 1981 and 1984. The number of foreign graduates of foreign medical schools who applied to the program increased 312 percent over the same period. The percentage of unmatched U.S. graduates trained abroard increased to 51 percent in 1983, and in both 1976 and 1983 three quarters of the foreign nationals trained abroad were unmatched for residency in the U.S. SWEDISH SYSTEM PROVIDES DRUG DATA An information service in Sweden, which has been called the most advanced informa tion system for the registra tion of drugs and drug control in the world, may be used by the-U-S.' -Food-and Drug Administration (FDA) accord ing to an article in Sweden Now. Per Manell, head and founder of the Swedish Drug Information System (SWEDIS) visited the U.S. and met with officials from FDA about using the system, the article stated. SWEDIS is a joint effort of the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare's pharma- 14 OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & SAFETY