The 70-plus drugs covered include several diabetes drugs and some of Pfizer's top money makers, from cholesterol fighter Lipitor and painkiller Celebrex to fibromyalgia treatment Lyrica and Viagra for impotence. The list includes drugs from several other popular classes, including antibiotics, antidepressants, antifungal treatments, several heart drugs, contraceptives and smoking cessation products. Cheaper generic versions are available for quite a few of the drugs.
(11-03-2009)
HCM CITY — The municipal Health Department and the HCM City Preventive Medicine Centre will inspect bottled-water plants and ice-making factories from now until the end of the month.
Health Department deputy director Le Truong Giang said health inspectors working with relevant agencies would examine water sources in 24 provinces to ensure an acceptable standard of bottled water.
The work would include the collection of samples for further tests.
Violators of health ministry regulations would be punished and offending factories closed if warranted, he said.
"Those who fail to meet the required standards and damage people's health will have their work immediately suspended."
Health department inspector Nguyen Minh Hong said inspections were made two or three times each year depending on the prevalence of complaints.
In Ha Noi, Health Department chief inspector Nguyen Viet Cuong said unannounced checks of production in the city's plants and factories would be made during summer.
"Samples of the Ha Noi Water Trading Company's Hapuwa and Sai Gon Pure Water Joint Stock Co's Sapuwa bottled water had undergone health and safety checks," he said.
Both had been granted a licence.
The chief inspector said 241 licensed plants and more than 20,000 agents would be checked during summer to avoid contaminated water in the city's markets.
Inspectors of the HCM City's Department of Health (DoH) have suspended the operations of two more bottled water factories for violating safety and hygiene standards.
The two companies are Ke Ba Co Ltd in Binh Tan District and Lien Phu Phat Co Ltd in District 8, according to inspector Nguyen Thi Huynh Mai.
The certificate of sanitary inspection and quality registration for Ke Ba, which produces bottled water with the brandname of E-Ba, had expired in 2007, Mai said.
Lien Phu Phat Co's quality registration certificate had also expired, and none of the inspected bottles had expiration dates.
Bottled water with the brand name of Aquaran was manufactured in an environment that did not ensure sanitary conditions, the city said.
Last week, the DoH suspended the operations of five other bottled water factories.
On March 3, the department recalled bottled water of three companies: Tam Dang Pharmaceutical Co Ltd in District 6, which produces Aquaphar; Tan Tan Duc Co Ltd in District 7, which makes Golf; and Thuan Huy Co Ltd in District 1, which manufactures Aguavida. — VNS
(Source: http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=04ECO110309)
The Idaho Legislature passed a bill during the 2006 session intended to define balance billing under the workers compensation statute and to clarify that balance billing is not permitted.
The legislation, which amended Title 72-102, states that "balance billing" means charging, billing, or otherwise attempting to collect directly from an injured employee payment for medical services in excess of amounts allowable in compensable claims as provided by rules promulgated by the Industrial Commission.
The Medicare Balance Billing Program works to protect Medicare beneficiaries from being billed by health care practitioners for amounts beyond those approved by Medicare. The program investigates complaints and takes action against those practitioners who violate the law.
New regulations will soon prevent doctors and hospitals from billing patients when their health plan doesn’t pay enough to cover their bills for emergency room care, a practice that hammers unsuspecting patients but helps providers recover millions.
The regulations by the state Department of Managed Health Care that ban the controversial practice of “balanced billing” are expected to take effect by Oct. 15 if approved by the Office of Administrative Law and not stopped with a lawsuit.
The new rules, more than five years in the works, make the practice illegal and allow state regulators to take action against providers who bill insured patients.
