UCI Researchers Link Hormone to Healthy Hearts
Hospitals in Orange County and the rest of California could see around $1.17 billion from a Medicare funding package signed into law by President Clinton late last year, according to the California Healthcare Association.
The money is a restoration of some funds lost when Congress passed the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which was projected to slash Medicare funding by $116 billion over five years. State hospital associations, including California’s, complained about the cuts and claimed that the cuts threatened institutions’ financial strength and health.
Specifically, the final package includes the following provisions:
n Medicare inpatient payments will go up 3.4% in fiscal 2001 and 3.05% in fiscal 2002 and 2003. California hospitals stand to receive $330 million.
n Outpatient payments will go up 4.4% in fiscal 2001. For California, that means $60 million.
n No more budget cuts in the MediCal disproportionate share program for fiscal 2001 and 2002. That is expected to add $108 million to California hospitals’ coffers.
n Changes in reimbursement for home healthcare services, bringing California hospitals an additional $123 million.
In addition, the law allows California to keep 60% of its unused federal funds for the Healthy Families program, which provides coverage to selected low-income children. The California Healthcare Association noted that the state had earlier missed a deadline for spending its allotment of such funds and would have had to return all its unspent money to the government sans that provision.
Hormone and Heart Disease
A group of researchers at the University of California, Irvine’s College of Medicine recently found that a hormone similar to insulin prevents the heart muscle from dying by initiating a series of cellular biochemical interactions. The findings, researchers said, suggest that gene therapy might help retard various heart diseases as well as stop heart damage that is common among people with diabetes.
Dr. Ping Wang, an associate professor of medicine and biological chemistry, and his team found that the IGF-1, or insulin-like growth factor hormone, kept heart muscle cells from dying by suppressing the activation of “assassinator” molecules that kill cells. The study suggested that inserting genes for the chemicals mediating IGF-1 actions could help reduce heart muscle cell death that ultimately leads to heart failure. Researchers are now working on genetically manipulating IGF-1 and signaling proteins within cells that activate it to reduce heart muscle death.
The group’s study was supported by grants from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association.
Results of the team’s study appeared in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Other research team members were Weihua Wu, Wen Lieng Lee, Yvonne Wu, Daniel Chen, Tsun-jui Liu and Andy Jang, all of UCI, and Prem Sharma of University of California, San Diego.
Bits and Pieces:
Nationwide Health Properties, Newport Beach, defaulted two master leases with Balanced Care Corp., a Mechanicsburg, Pa.-based operator of assisted living facilities, after it was told it would only receive a partial rent payment for December. Nationwide, a real estate investment trust, owns 10 assisted living facilities in six eastern states that it leases to Balanced Care Micro Therapeutics Inc., Irvine, said it received Shonin approval from the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare to market its Rebar micro catheters in that country. Shonin approval is similar to a clearance that a medical device would receive from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in this country I-Flow Corp., Lake Forest, said the U.S. Health Care Financing Administration rescinded its approval for payment of I-Flow’s pain management systems for outpatient Medicare reimbursement for budgetary reasons. I-Flow is going to appeal HCFA’s decision and press for reinstatement in 2001 Cardiac Science Inc., Irvine, was awarded a U.S. patent for disposable defibrillation electrodes that are designed to alleviate skin irritation and patient discomfort resulting from multi-day wear. The patent was originally applied for in 1997 by Cadent Medical Corp., and was assigned to Cardiac Science after it acquired Cadent last July Sangui BioTech International Inc., Santa Ana, said its common stock is now listed on the FWB Frankfurter Wertpapierborse in Germany Trimedyne Inc., Irvine, told the Securities and Exchange Commission that it would be late in filing its annual report for its fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30. Trimedyne said in documents that it had encountered difficulties in reconciling its year-end physical inventory with book balances, among other things Life Science Industry Council, Irvine, said it is planning to initiate a series of semi-annual career fairs, quarterly chief executive roundtables and ongoing educational programs with industry experts and members of academia. The council also formed an advisory board intended to strengthen the life science industry’s voice and establish council priorities Dr. W. Randolph Chitwood, a surgery professor at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine in Greenville, N.C., demonstrated robotics’ use in mitral heart valve repair at the New Era Cardiac Care: Innovation and Technology conference, which ran Jan. 4-7 in Dana Point. Chitwood was considered the first doctor to get a Food and Drug Administration-approved clinical trial for using the da Vinci robotic system for valve repair.
