Health Highlights: Jan. 16, 2006

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

White House Orders Insurers to Help Ease Medicare Drug Plan Woes

Widespread problems with the new Medicare drug plan have prompted the Bush administration to tell insurers that they must provide a 30-day supply of any drug that a Medicare beneficiary was previously taking and that poor people can''t be charged more than $5 for a covered drug, The New York Times reported.

Tens of thousands of people are unable to get medicines promised by Medicare, and several states have declared public health emergencies since the new drug plan went into effect at the start of the year. A number of states have said they will pay for prescription drugs that should have been covered by the federal Medicare program.

Problems with the new program have prompted severe criticism of the federal government, the Times reported.

The glitches include: insurers who say they aren''t able to identify poor people entitled to extra help with their drug costs; people who signed up for coverage and then found they weren''t on the government''s list of subscribers; pharmacists who have to spend hours on the telephone trying to reach insurance companies that administer the drug benefit under contract to Medicare.

The White House sent a notice to all Medicare drug plans over the weekend. It told them they must take immediate action to ensure that low-income beneficiaries were not charged more than $2 for a generic drug or more than $5 for a brand-name drug.

The directive also said insurers must provide a 30-day emergency supply of drugs that beneficiaries were taking prior to the start of the new Medicare drug plan, the Times reported.

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Gene Variation Linked to One-Fifth of Type 2 Diabetes Cases

Variations of a newly identified gene may play a role in about 21 percent of type 2 diabetes cases in the United States has been identified by scientists in Iceland.

The function of the TCF7L2 gene isn''t clearly understood, but it appears to play a role in the regulation of other genes involved in hormone secretion, the Washington Post reported.

The researchers examined genetic markers in 1,185 Icelanders with type 2 diabetes and 931 people without diabetes. They identified the TCF7L2 gene and found that it has several variations. Two variations increase diabetes risk while one variation offers partial protection against the disease.

Among the diabetics in study, 33 percent had one of the risky variations of the gene, compared with 26 percent of the people without diabetes. A sample of mostly white Americans found risky variations of the TCF7L2 gene in 39 percent of those with type 2 diabetes and in 25 percent of those without diabetes, the Post reported.

The study authors calculated that, among white Americans, Icelanders and Danes, about 21 percent of type 2 diabetes cases could be attributed to the risky variations of the TCF7L2 gene.

The study appears online in the journal Nature Genetics.

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Turks Confirm Girl''s Death From Bird Flu

Preliminary Turkish tests have confirmed that a 12-year-old girl who died was infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, raising Turkey''s death toll to four, health officials said Monday.

Fatma Ozcan died Sunday in the eastern city of Van, but initial tests had been negative for H5N1. The Health Ministry ordered a new round of tests after her 5-year-old brother, Muhammet, tested positive Sunday, and officials said those confirmed her infection, the Associated Press reported.

To date, 19 people in Turkey have tested positive in preliminary screenings for the H5N1 bird flu virus. Three of those people have died, the AP reported.

The Turkish Cabinet met Monday to review the crisis and to discuss further measures to control the disease. The country has slaughtered more than 700,000 domestic fowl as part of its efforts to control bird flu outbreaks in different parts of the country.

Meanwhile, a two-day international bird flu conference that begins Tuesday in Beijing is expected to collect at least $1 billion to fight the spread of the disease, says the World Bank.

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Inspectors Often Fail to Spot Problems in Nursing Homes

Life-threatening problems and other serious deficiencies in U.S. nursing homes are often missed by state inspectors, says a new report from the federal Government Accountability Office.

The report also questioned data used by the Bush administration to tout the role of its policies in creating "significant improvements" in nursing homes, The New York Times reported.

Much of that apparent improvement was due to the fact that state inspectors missed serious problems (including fire-safety violations) or understated their severity, the report concluded. It said there was pervasive understatement of "serious deficiencies that cause actual harm or immediate jeopardy to patients."

Examples of the harm cited in the report included severe weight loss, "multiple falls resulting in broken bones and other injuries, and serious, avoidable pressure sores."

In order to participate in Medicaid and Medicare, nursing homes must meet federal standards. The nursing homes are inspected by state workers under contract to the federal government

The report was requested to Sens. Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin) and Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), the Times reported.

"If state surveyors are missing serious deficiencies in the quality of care, then the federal government has not yet achieved the necessary level of improvement in oversight of the inspection process," Grassley said.

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Israel''s Sharon Said to Move Eyelids

Relatives of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he moved his eyelids and got teary after he heard the voice of his grandson on Monday, but doctors at Hadassah Hospital couldn''t say whether this indicated Sharon was making any progress in recovering from a massive stroke on Jan. 4.

Hospital officials couldn''t confirm reports that Sharon briefly opened his eyes and seemed to recognize people around him, the Associated Press reported.

The news about Sharon''s eye movement came a day after he had a tracheotomy to help wean him off a respirator. He''s reported to be in critical, but stable, condition.

He hasn''t regained consciousness since the stroke and that bodes poorly for his recovery prospects, experts said.

On their own, eye movement and eye opening wouldn''t be a dramatic breakthrough, but would be more significant if they occurred in response to voice commands, Dr. Anthony Rudd, a stroke specialist at St. Thomas'' Hospital in London, told the AP.

Last Updated: Jan. 16, 2006