Healthcare links

Drug Lobby's Tax Filings Reveal Health Debate Role:

It’s official. The drug industry’s chief lobbyists - the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America - raised and spent at least $101.2 million in 2009 on advocacy efforts during the contentious health care debate, according to IRS documents the group filed in mid-November. 

Former PhRMA CEO Billy Tauzin says the lobby used the money - special contributions from member companies - for broadcast and print advertising, grassroots and direct lobbying, polling and consulting. Tauzin, who has a two-year contract to advise PhRMA's new leader, recently opened his own DC-based lobbying shop with his son Tom. 

The former Republican Louisiana lawmaker was sweetly rewarded. He pulled down a $2.1 million salary, as well as a bonus of $2.3 million in 2009, according to the tax filing. Including other benefits, Tauzin’s total compensation was $4.6 million, just up from his $4.4 million the year before.

A Man From Whom Viruses Can’t Hide:

Dr. W. Ian Lipkin was spending the afternoon prowling his empire of viruses. The Center for Infection and Immunity, which he directs, occupies three floors of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. Rather than wait for the elevator, Dr. Lipkin ran up and down the back stairs to move from floor to floor, leaning into the doorways of labs and glass-walled offices to get updates from a platoon of scientists.

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“We get 10,000 samples a year easily,” Dr. Lipkin said. “We’ve discovered at least 400 new viruses since I came to Columbia in 2002, and the process is accelerating.”

Over the past 20 years, Dr. Lipkin has built a reputation as a master virus hunter. He has developed ways to quickly identify familiar viruses and ways to search for new ones.

Union Drops Health Coverage for Workers’ Children:

One of the largest union-administered health-insurance funds in New York is dropping coverage for the children of more than 30,000 low-wage home attendants, union officials said. The union blamed financial problems it said were caused by the state’s health department and new national health-insurance requirements.

The fund is administered by 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union. Union officials said the state compelled the fund to start buying coverage from a third party, which increased premiums by 60%. State health officials denied forcing the union fund to make the switch, saying the fund had been struggling financially even before the switch to third-party coverage.

The fund informed its members late last month that their dependents will no longer be covered as of Jan. 1, 2011. Currently about 6,000 children are covered by the benefit fund, some until age 23.

Acupuncture, Real or Fake, Eases Pain:

Fake acupuncture appears to work just as well for pain relief as the real thing, according to a new study of patients with knee arthritis.

The findings, published in the September issue of the journal Arthritis Care and Research, are the latest to suggest that a powerful but little understood placebo effect may be at work when patients report benefits from acupuncture treatment, which involves inserting thin needles deeply into the skin at specific points on the body.

The study, from the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, tracked 455 patients with painful knee arthritis who received either traditional Chinese acupuncture or a sham treatment. A control group of patients was put on a waiting list for acupuncture treatment. Patients were told only that the study was comparing a traditional versus nontraditional form of acupuncture.