Insurer argues no one hurt by drive-through deliveries
Newborn babies discharged in 24 hours are no more likely to suffer complications than babies who stay in the hospital longer, according to research by one of the HMOs that has been a proponent of the quick discharge policy.
"Drive-through deliveries" were the subject of considerable controversy recently, with tales of exhausted, bewildered mothers being pushed out the hospital doors with their new babies. Several states enacted legislation requiring insurers to provide coverage for 48-hour hospital stays after normal deliveries, and the federal government recently followed suit. Now the Prudential Center for Health Care Research in Atlanta argues that there was no reason for the fuss.
The research arm of Prudential Insurance Company studied 14,000 1994 health care claims for vaginal births and found that 2.2% of HMO newborns were readmitted within 28 days of discharge, compared to 2.8% in traditional fee-for-service plans. Most infant readmissions occurred after three days, so Prudential researchers surmise that a 48-hour requirement will have little effect. t
Valid informed consent requires date, FDA says
A final rule issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Rockville, MD, makes clear that an informed consent document for participation in drug and device clinical trials must be dated prior to the tests. The rule went into effect Dec. 5, 1996, and was published in the Federal Register Nov. 5, 1996.
Previously, informed consent documents for drug and device clinical trials were not necessarily dated, and that sometimes led to doubts that the consent was obtained before the fact.
The new FDA rule clarifies that the date must be noted in order for the consent to be valid, and it also requires that the patient’s case history include a notation that informed consent was obtained prior to participation in the study.
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