Home Health & Hospice Week

In advance of the presidential election, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it expected to secure about an extra 6 million doses of flu vaccine for Americans.

That's another 1 million doses of the live virus vaccine FluMist, produced by MedImmune, and 5 million doses acquired from manufacturers in Canada and Germany. These foreign vaccine are acceptable, even though the government bans drug reimportation, because "we're sending our inspectors to those facilities," HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson clarified.

The addition of those vaccines should bring the total available doses to 66 million - still shy of the originally expected 100 million doses. The government expects FluMist to be used by high-priority people between the ages of 5 and 49 - many of them likely health care workers.

The Visiting Nurse Associations of America has secured 500,000 doses of the supply for its members to vaccinate high-risk patients, the trade group says. VNAA obtained the doses by working as a member of the National Influenza Vaccine Summit.

Meanwhile, HHS and the Department of Justice filed a brief Oct. 22 supporting a Florida lawsuit against Fort Lauderdale, FL-based Meds-Stat for price gouging. Prosecutors accuse Meds-Stat of selling a flu vaccine vial for $900. Meds-Stat argued in court it wasn't price gouging, reports the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

And New Jersey passed a bill implementing a $500 fine each time providers vaccinate people not in the high-risk category, press report say.

Finally the Victoria Clipper ferry, which had been transporting people from Seattle to Victoria, British Columbia, to receive flu vaccinations, ended the practice, saying it was "irresponsible," according to press reports. Two home care powerhouses have reported their earnings for the most recent quarter, with mixed results. Baton Rouge, LA-based Amedisys Inc. had a 58 percent surge in revenues for the quarter ended Sept. 30, to $58.5 million. And its net income skyrocketed 117 percent over the same quarter last year, to $5.2 million.

Amedisys' admissions grew 30 percent over last year's quarter, and the company is opening 12 new locations in 2004. Amedisys plans 15 new locations next year.

Melville, NY-based Gentiva Health Services Inc., on the other hand, reported net income and revenues that fell a bit from last year's quarter. Gentiva's net income for the quarter ended Sept. 26 was $4.4 million on $198.1 million in revenues, compared to a $4.5 million profit on $199.7 million in revenues for the same period in 2003.

Expected revenue declines from CIGNA Healthcare and local government business led to the sagging numbers, even though Medicare business grew, Gentiva says. Another culprit: the hurricanes that rocked Florida during the quarter. Due to storm-related costs, Gentiva has lowered its earnings expectations for 2004. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has relented [...]