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Emergency policy changes ease access to health care
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently announced a series of emergency policy changes to accommodate the needs of displaced Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program beneficiaries who have fled Hurricane Katrina and need urgent medical attention in their new host states. Special evacuee status will be granted to all those who fled states because of Hurricane Katrina. The designation will allow those persons to apply for the full range of federal benefits administered by the states without having to produce the normal forms of documentation to verify eligibility. 

HHS provides e-mail logistical help for Katrina health care providers
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has established an e-mail address at katrinalogistics@hhs.gov where physicians, medical societies and clinics can contact for logistical help if, for example, a shelter experiences a shortage of a particular drug, or if patients experience problems using Medicaid cards in states to which they have been evacuated.

Patients with IBD at greater risk for asthma
Patients with inflammatory bowel disease are 1.5 times as likely to have asthma as people in the general population, says a study in Gastroenterology. In addition, patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, collectively designated inflammatory bowel disease or IBD, also were more likely to have arthritis, bronchitis or psoriasis than people without IBD. Researchers at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg compared 8,072 patients with IBD to a control group of patients matched by age, sex and geography. Patients with ulcerative colitis were 1.5 to 1.7 times more likely and Crohn's disease patients were 1.3 to 1.4 times more likely to have asthma than the general population.
 

Father’s asthma history linked to airway hyperresponsiveness
Children with asthma whose fathers have a history of the disease are at a greater risk of developing airway hyperresponsiveness than children whose fathers never had asthma, according to a study in The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston examined data on 1,041 children from 5 to 12 years old, who were enrolled in the Childhood Asthma Management Program. The team found that the 208 children whose fathers had a history of asthma demonstrated a history of more severe airway hyperresponsiveness, and the paternal-child connection existed regardless of nongenetic factors, such as smoke exposure, or socioeconomic or educational status.

College donates $50,000, helps mobilize allergists to aid Katrina victims
In support of the people of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama whose lives were devastated by Hurricane Katrina, the ACAAI donated $50,000 to the American Red Cross.

“In addition to its financial donation, we sent personal appeals to 50 U.S. pharmaceutical company contacts, urging them to provide medications and other health care products for patients with asthma, rhinitis and other allergy disorders, in support of the disaster recovery,” said ACAAI President Myron J. Zitt. “We also provided them with contact information for the medical centers that specifically requested assistance.”

Assistance was requested by Drs. John Moffitt and Gailen Marshall at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Miss., and Dr. John Erffmeyer at Ochsner Clinic of Baton Rouge, La.

“We applaud the efforts many pharmaceutical firms have notified us they have undertaken to aid the relief effort, by providing much needed medications, financial assistance and humanitarian support,” Dr. Zitt said.

All ACAAI members are urged to send a check for $500 or more to one of the leading relief agencies or organizations, such as the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, or America's Second Harvest. The addresses for these relief agencies are:

American Red Cross
Disaster Relief Fund
P.O. Box 37243
Washington, DC 20013
(800) 435-7669

Salvation Army
Disaster Relief
P.O. Box 4857
Jackson, MS 39296
(800) 725-2769

America's Second Harvest
Disaster Relief
35 E. Wacker Drive, Suite 2000
Chicago, IL 60601
(800) 344-8070

Register for Anaheim meeting by Sept. 18 for lower rate
There's still time to register at the lower rate! Fees increase by $50 at 11:59 p.m., Central Daylight Time, Sunday, Sept.18, 2005, for the ACAAI Annual Meeting in Anaheim, Nov. 4-9.

View the Preliminary Program online to schedule your plans for a successful event. Scan the scientific program for up-to-date sessions and speakers. Jot down the social events in your calendar and make those last-minute tour reservations.

Don’t miss the first ever state-of-the-art pre-meeting Rhinosinusitis Collegium on Thursday, Nov. 3, sponsored in conjunction with the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI), designed especially for clinicians.

Order your tickets today for the Annual Fundraising Dinner with Jay Leno on Sunday evening, Nov. 6.

Please visit the ACAAI Web site or contact the ACAAI by e-mail at meetings@acaai.org, by telephone at (847) 427-1200 or by fax at (847) 427-1294.

Allergy Practice Tip: Manage Back to School
Advice from The Patient-Centered Allergy Practice
Fall means more allergies – and back to school. Accommodate your busy school-age patients with extended hours through the fall. For more advice, visit www.PatientCenteredAllergyPractice.com

These tips are drawn from The Patient-Centered Allergy Practice, a CME Series in Practice Management, supported through an educational grant from sanofi-aventis Group and endorsed by the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.