On August 28, 1997, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) convened the Laboratory Technical Advisory Committee (LTAC) to review the status of the HCFA Demonstration of Competitive Bidding for Clinical Laboratory Services. HCFA's new Center for Health Plans and Providers is now responsible for completing the data foundation and designing and implementing the competitive bidding demonstration project for Medicare laboratory services (Part B). The congressionally approved HCFA demonstration project is slated to start on January 1, 1999 and be completed in three years. The exact number of sites has not been determined but HCFA officials indicated that rural counties would be exempt. In addition, at this time, microbiology services are also exempt from the demonstration project. After an evaluation period, HCFA will determine if the demonstration project warrants nationwide implementation. Representing the ASM on the LTAC is Alice Weissfeld, Chair, Committee on Professional Affairs, Public and Scientific Affairs Board.
The Clinical Laboratory Management Association (CLMA) hosted the second annual meeting of the Laboratory Liaison Network on August 18, 1997 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at the site of CLMA's annual meeting. Representatives from the College of American Pathologists, American Association for Clinical Chemistry, American Clinical Laboratory Association, American Medical Technologists, American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science, Association of State and Territorial Public Health Laboratory Directors, National Laboratory Training Network, and the NCCLS met to share ideas and strategies on serving its membership of clinical laboratory professionals. Impacts of reduced reimbursement levels for clinical laboratory tests were discussed. A number of the groups have begun working on outcome studies looking at the cost-effectiveness of laboratory medicine. Representing the ASM at the meeting was Amy Melnick, Public Affairs Manager.
On 12-13 August, Janet Shoemaker, Public Affairs Office Director and Brian Gottlieb, Public Affairs Manager attended the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies Conference on Countering Biological Terrorism: "Strategic Firepower in the Hands of Many?" The Potomac Institute is a non-profit think tank concerned mostly with issues related to national security. The conference focused on addressing several issues: why is biological terrorism more likely than in the past; what is the emerging threat environment; countering terrorist groups; consequence management; and advanced countermeasures. Presenters at the conference included Richard Crowell, past President of the ASM, Lee Buchanan, Deputy Director for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Stephen Morse, Program Manager at DARPA, Ambassador Morris Busby, former Ambassador for Countering Terrorism, Timothy Sample, Deputy Staff Director, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Bertram Brown, former Assistant Surgeon General of the U.S., Gordon Oehler, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency's Counter Proliferation Center, and others. Dr. Crowell's presentation entitled "Likely Threat Pathogens in Biological Terrorism" reviewed the most likely threat pathogens to be used by terrorists against their targets.
On 2 September, Stanley Falkow, ASM's President, and Gail Cassell, Chair of the Public and Scientific Affairs Board sent a letter, on behalf of the ASM, to members of both the House and the Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Foreign Operations regarding funding provisions for international infectious disease programs contained within the proposed budget for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The ASM strongly endorsed the Child Survival and Diseases Programs Fund (CSDPF) and urged Congress to support the House level for the Communicable Disease Initiative which would provide at least $50 million in additional funds to strengthen global surveillance and control of infectious diseases, bringing the overall funding level for the CSDPF to $650 million for FY 1998.
The ASM also urged that Congress explicitly include the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the group of agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), that USAID should consult with prior to obligating the funds for their infectious disease programs. The ASM believes that including the NIAID in the consultative/collaborative process will ensure that the strong international research infrastructure supported by the NIAID and its critical efforts to develop new strategies to prevent and control infectious diseases can be leveraged to further advance USAID's work in surveillance and control. A copy of the letter is available on thePublic Affairs Home Page.
On 4 September, Ronald Atlas, Chair of the ASM's Public and Scientific Affairs Board Committee on Environmental Microbiology sent a letter, on behalf of the ASM, to both the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Veterans Affairs (VA), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Independent Agencies. The ASM urged Congress to accept the House language on the Environmental Protection Agency's Graduate Fellowship Program and fully provide for the President's request of a $7 million increase, funding the program at a level of $15 million for FY 1998. Additionally the ASM urged Congress to provide $36 million for Safe Drinking Water research, giving priority to research on microbial contamination, as contained in the Senate bill. The Appropriations Subcommittees on VA, HUD and Independent Agencies have jurisdiction over the Environmental Protection Agency's budget. You can obtain a copy of ASM's letter to the Congressional appropriators on the Public Affairs Home Page.
In September, ASM's Public and Scientific Affairs Board met with key Congressional leaders to discuss international infectious disease control and surveillance programs. These meetings provided the opportunity for ASM to educate Members of Congress on the public health threats of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases. On 3 September, Gail Cassell, Chair of the ASM's Public and Scientific Affairs Board, Janet Shoemaker, Public Affairs Director, and Brian Gottlieb, Public Affairs Manager, met with Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) and his Chief of Staff, Tom Young. Senator Shelby, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, also has a seat on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, a Subcommittee that has jurisdiction over these international infectious disease programs. Similarly, on 11 September, Cassell, Shoemaker, and Gottlieb met with Congressman Sunny Callahan (R-AL), Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs to discuss these issues. Chairman Callahan's Subcommittee also has jurisdiction over important international programs to control the spread of disease. As Chairman, Mr. Callahan has seniority on the Conference Committee that will work out differences between the House and Senate versions of the Foreign Operations bills and decide the FY 1998 budget for these programs.
On 3 September, Gail Cassell, Chair of the ASM's Public and Scientific Affairs Board, Janet Shoemaker, Public Affairs Director, and Brian Gottlieb, Public Affairs Manager, met with both Todd Schultz, Chief of Staff, and Bob Cook, Special Projects Director for the House Science Committee. The meeting was arranged to discuss the Committee's agenda for the rest of the year and the Committee's development of a national science policy. The House leadership has requested that Congressman Vernon Ehlers (R-MI), Vice Chairman of the Science Committee, work with the science community to develop a national science policy, setting national scientific priorities, as the nation moves into the 21st century.
Gail Cassell, Chair of the Department of Microbiology at the University of Alabama, Birmingham and Chair of ASM's Public and Scientific Affairs Board, has been selected to serve on the Committee for the National Research Council's (NRC) upcoming study of personnel and training needs in the biomedical and behavioral sciences. This study is the eleventh in the ongoing series of congressionally mandated studies conducted by the NRC for the National Institutes of Health since 1975. It is designed to assess the nation's future needs for biomedical scientists and make recommendations for how the National Research Service award program can best play its mandated role of training researchers to meet those needs.
Janet Shoemaker, Director of the Office of Public Affairs, attended the August 13 meeting of the Biological Weapons Control Working Group which was convened by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). The meeting afforded the opportunity to meet with representatives of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) to discuss the ongoing process to develop a verification protocol for the Biological Weapons Convention.
[ Journal Contents | ASM News Issues | ASM News | ASM Journals | ASM Programs, Products and Services| ASM Home Page]
Copyright © 1997 American Society for Microbiology
All rights reserved.
Created: November 6, 1997
URL: http://www.asmusa.org