March 2005

Volume 4, Number 1

A report from the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools on the policies, politics and financing of health programming in schools

In This Issue

Worth Noting CDC Reports on Smallpox Immunizations  Thompson Suggests Changes in Medicaid  HHS Expected to Set Procedures for Enforcing Privacy Regs  Research Notes SBHCs Reduce Asthma Hospitalizations  February News Alerts

States Lack Data on Children’s Use of SCHIP, Medicaid Services 

States focus more on setting requirements for providers and networks under Medicaid and SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program) than on monitoring compliance with those requirements or analyzing beneficiaries’ use of services, according to a report released in February by the U.S. General Accounting Office.

Consent for Emergency Medical Services for Children and Adolescents 

The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a new policy statement concerning pediatric patients who seek treatment in hospital emergency rooms unaccompanied by a legal guardian.

The Other Inflammatory Disease—Skin Ailments in Children 

Guidelines for asthma care first issued in 1991 have had "a tremendous positive impact" on many aspects of asthma treatment, including heightened awareness that asthma is a disease of chronic inflammation. It may now be time to develop similar guidance for another childhood ailment with many of the same attributes as asthma—atopic dermatitis—say physicians on a panel representing dermatology, allergy, asthma, immunology, and pediatrics.

Dietary Supplement Under Scrutiny 

The federal Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to ban a dietary supplement generally sold as "ephedra," which is alleged to have been implicated in the heatstroke death of a major league baseball pitcher during spring training.

Credits: Virginia Robinson, Editor, robinsoneditor@attglobal.net

Health & Health Care in Schools is a monthly journal published in html and PDF versions by The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools. Support for Health & Health Care in Schools is provided by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.