Bush Administration Planned Release of Medical Privacy, Drug Discount Card Regulations for This Summer, Rovner Says

In an effort to "quell opposition" to changes in the medical privacy rule and to proposed final regulations for a Medicare prescription drug discount card, the Bush administration used the "time-honored political traditio[n]" of announcing both policies on Friday afternoons, when news cycles are the "least-read and least-watched," Julie Rovner writes in her "Health Matters" column in CongressDaily/AM. The White House announced the privacy rule changes at about 4 p.m. on Aug. 9, and the drug card proposal on Friday, Aug. 30. But even though the administration has "tried to walk a tightrope" on the issues, its efforts "have not proven entirely successful," Rovner writes. Patient advocates complained that the new privacy rule "eliminate[es] what amounts to a requirement that patients and providers discuss privacy issues up front" and changes marketing regulations to "allow such activities as sending letters to patients" to remind them to refill prescriptions or try new treatments. In addition, pharmacy groups "remain unimpressed" with the discount card proposal, saying it will achieve savings by asking drug stores, rather than pharmaceutical companies, to provide discounts, according to Rovner. Larry Kocot of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores said that the Friday-afternoon announcement of the discount card program is a "virtual acknowledgment" that the proposal will fail. "I've never seen any major policy initiative with the full backing of the White House released on the Friday before Labor Day," Kocot said (Rovner, CongressDaily/AM, 9/5).