Word: shalala
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...standards of last year's high-rolling presidential race, Donna Shalala's appearance at a Democratic dinner for business executives seemed like just another effort to lend star quality to one of Bill Clinton's ambitious fund-raising ventures. But to Alan Solomont, a Massachusetts nursing-home mogul who was host to the June 3 event in Washington, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shone brightest of all. A few weeks before the dinner, Solomont had visited Shalala with a team of lobbyists to press for less stringent enforcement of nursing-home regulations. Solomont, a leading Democratic fund raiser...
...approached not only Shalala but also Medicare- and Medicaid-programs administrator Bruce Vladeck, whose office had written the sharper guidelines and who offered to consider revisions. Solomont says he was the "impetus" for at least two meetings with Vladeck and an exchange of letters. In one memo, Solomont asked Vladeck to review suggested changes: "Put it in your own words and send it back to us in a letter [to show] our mutual direction." To consumer advocates such as Toby Edelman of the National Senior Citizens Law Center, "it's disturbing they had access that ordinary people don't have...
Vladeck, while acknowledging that industry lobbying was influential, says he would "comfortably defend each change on its merits." He also notes that the industry did not get all it asked for. Shalala, who was traveling in Europe, could not be reached for comment. Solomont, meanwhile, says that with his new job as finance chairman, the pressure increases "not to create an impression I was using that role in a way that was self-serving" and "not to be seen as representing any particular group." But then he adds, "Having said that, I'm not about to check what I believe...
...DONNA SHALALA U.S. SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES...
...last year--a 3.1% drop. Even more encouraging, that trend seems to be accelerating. Experts predict that within 20 years, deaths from cancer could easily be cut an additional 25%, and with luck they could be cut in half. As Health Secretary Donna Shalala proudly declared last week, "We are starting to win the war on cancer...