Health Highlights: April 25, 2007

"Increasingly, scientific evidence reveals that disability results, in large part, from actions society and individuals take. The sobering reality, however, is that over the past two decades, far too little progress has been made in adopting major public policy and practice advances to reduce disability in America," Jette said.

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Hospice Inspections Lagging in Some States

A U.S. federal report released Tuesday found that some Medicare hospice programs had not been checked by state inspectors for many years and were long past their date for certification, theAssociated Pressreported.

The report was issued by the inspector general's office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Hospices give care to terminally-ill patients. The report looked at data on 2,537 Medicare hospice providers across the country and found that 14 percent were past due for certification. On average, they hadn't been checked for nine years.

Three states -- California, Illinois and Michigan -- accounted for 41 percent of the past-due certifications, theAPreported.

Inspections by state officials are the federal government's main way of monitoring the quality of care in Medicare-funded hospices. In 2004, Medicare payments to hospices that were overdue for inspection averaged $2.7 million each.