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<p>In a blunt rebuke to the American hospital industry, the nation's top health regulator said hospitals can immediately slash the prices they charge to needy uninsured patients without fear of government reprisals.</p> <p>In a letter last December, the nation's 4,800 hospitals told Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson that federal rules blocked them from cutting prices for the nation's nearly 44 million uninsured.</p>

This weekend the entire national media reported that due to "arm-twisting" on Republicans in the House, the Medicare bill passed in the House after an unprecedented three-hour delay between the original vote and when the vote was gaveled to a close. If everyone is saying this, it must be true, right? Wrong. You cannot necessarily trust what you read in the papers, or see on network TV. At 3 a.m., the original voting time on the bill, the tote board on C-SPAN showed that the bill would lose, 216-218. In that tally, which was not final until the gavel fell,...

Fri November 7, 2003 10:39 AM ET BERLIN (Reuters) - U.S. Health Secretary Tommy Thompson said Friday he did not expect analysis to confirm the presence of anthrax at a U.S. Navy mail handling center shut down in a security scare. Thompson, attending a health ministers' conference in Berlin, told Reuters: "Our preliminary analysis is: 'Underwhelmed."' But Thompson said he was giving his personal opinion and it would take another day for experts to be sure. Asked if "underwhelmed" meant confirmation of anthrax was unlikely, Thompson said: "I think (so), but I'm not a scientist." He added: "They've closed down...

A hypothetical matchup between the state's most enduringly popular Republican politician, former Gov. Tommy G. Thompson, and Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold would result in a dead heat, according to new poll results released Tuesday. While there is no sign that Thompson might run for Feingold's seat, the head-to-head measure using the former governor and Bush cabinet secretary was done as a way to test Feingold's strength against a well-known Republican, said Jim Miller, executive director of the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. Feingold, first elected to the Senate in 1992 and re-elected in '98, is up for re-election next year. The...

The heads of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) cautioned last week that another outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) is possible in the United States or elsewhere. CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding and HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson said at a Sep 26 news conference that the federal agencies are preparing for the possible re-emergence of the virus. Gerberding said, "We don't know whether this virus is going to come back or not, but as an infectious disease expert, I can say in my experience I've never seen...

Obesity is a big problem in the U.S. Some say it's an epidemic, with statistics revealing that as a nation we are heavier now than we've ever been. The impact on our health care system and our economy make curbing obesity everyone's concern. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and WebMD's weight management expert, Kelly Brownell, PhD, joined us to discuss the heavy cost of obesity. The opinions expressed herein are the guests' alone and have not been reviewed by a WebMD physician. If you have questions about your health, you should consult your personal physician. This event is...

BEIJING - The World Health Organisation (WHO) is worried about a possible surge in the Sars epidemic during China's annual summer floods as overloaded sewerage systems back up, a spokesman for the agency said yesterday. The Sars virus does not appear to be transmitted by water but it can survive for days in faeces, which might be spread by overflowing sewage, said Mr Bob Dietz, a spokesman in Beijing for the UN agency. Areas throughout southern, central and north-eastern China suffer deadly flooding every year. Thousands of homes are inundated by waters laced with sewage that also can contaminate drinking-water...

Whether you know it or not you now have a medical identification number. I just received a copy of an in-house memo from an employer concerning HIPAA Compliance. It states, "Attached is a privacy notice that (name of company) is required to provide to you based upon a new health privacy law entitled the (print following in bold) Health Insurance Portabality and Accountability Act or HIPAA for short. If you have acquired medical services or filled a prescription in the past two days, you have probably been given a similar notice by the provider. You do not need to take...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - People are likely to die from the SARS disease in Europe and the United States later this year, U.S. Health Secretary Tommy Thompson said Tuesday. Severe acute respiratory syndrome has so far killed more than 600 of the almost 8,000 people known to have been infected. The vast majority of deaths have so far been in China and Hong Kong, with none reported in the United States or Europe. Asked by reporters in Brussels how confident he was there would be no deaths in his country or Europe, Thompson said: "I am not confident at all. I...

<p>Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson stunned global health advocates yesterday by announcing that the United States was dropping its objections to a global anti-tobacco treaty and would support the pact.</p> <p>"I'm going to support it. Much to the surprise of many around the world, I'm going to be supporting the tobacco treaty," Mr. Thompson told reporters attending ministerial meetings of the World Health Organization this week.</p>

Feingold barely won in 98, which was a good year for Democrats. He's clearly vulnerable, but so far I haven't heard that ANYONE in Wisconsin is going to challenge him. Tommy Thompson has said no, Mark Neuman, who nearly defeated Feingold, says no, and Paul Ryan says no. If we can just find even a decent candidate we should be able to take him out BUT we need a candidate and so far we've got zero. So is anyone familiar with Wisconsin politics out there who can give us an idea of what the situation with your state? Right now...

Bush’s man acknowledges ‘deviations“ from church teaching One of the most senior Roman Catholics in the Bush administration says that despite a recent Vatican document insisting that Catholic politicians must align their policy choices with church doctrine, he can’t do his job “by solely relying on Catholic teachings.” “I have got to wherever possible adhere to [church teaching],” said Tommy Thompson, secretary of Health and Human Services, during a Rome news conference April 18. “But in some places there will be deviations.” Thompson, 61, is a Republican, former governor of Wisconsin, and was briefly a candidate for president in 1996....

Republican strategists are looking to a small group of less than a dozen potential Senate candidates who could make or break their party's chances of retaining the GOP'S razor-thin Senate majority in the 2004 election. If the potential GOP candidates decide to run, they could force otherwise safe Democratic incumbents like Minority Leader Tom Daschle (S.D.) and Minority Whip Harry Reid (Nevada) to invest heavily to defend their seats, and curtail their campaigning for other Democratic Senate hopefuls. But if they opt not to run, races in about a dozen states will likely fall into the noncompetitive column. "A universe...

Republican Party officials are holding out hope that three Cabinet secretaries will give up their jobs in the Bush administration in order to run for the Senate in 2004 against Democratic incumbents in California, Florida and Wisconsin. But the three officials most frequently mentioned as Senate candidates, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez of Florida, and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, don't appear to be interested in testing their electoral appeal. That's bad news for the GOP, which has not recruited any big-name candidates to take on Sens. Russ Feingold...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The federal government has rejected a plan that would raise the federal cigarette tax by $2 a pack to fund programs that would help smokers quit, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said on Wednesday. The plan, approved by the Health and Human Services' Interagency Committee on Smoking and Health, would have set aside half the money raised for initiatives to help people stop smoking. But Thompson said the idea of raising the tax from the current 39 cents went against the basic philosophy of the administration of President Bush, which is both against raising taxes...

The US warned on Sunday night that a bioterrorist attack that could kill thousands was inevitable and urged industrial and developing nations to spend tens of billions of dollars more to gear up medical systems to cope with the threat. "There is going to be an attack. Whether it is in western Europe, the US, Africa, Asia or wherever, you have got to anticipate that there is going to be a bioterrorism attack and the only way to defend yourself is by getting prepared," said Tommy Thompson, health secretary. In an interview with the Financial Times, he said the wave...

<p>MONTEREY PARK, Calif.(AP) - Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson and actor Bruce Willis were on hand as hundreds of children got new parents Saturday in a celebration of National Adoption Day.</p> <p>The third annual nationwide event springs from a Los Angeles County program developed five years ago to attack the region's adoption backlog.</p>

Filed at 8:53 p.m. ET MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said Friday he is not committed to staying in his job past February and is entertaining offers to return to the private sector. Thompson, who was Wisconsin's governor for 14 years before taking the Washington job in February 2001, told President Bush when he took the job he would stay for two years. ``I certainly will comply with that,'' Thompson said after a health event at Madison's Meriter Hospital. ``If he wants me to stay after the election, we'll sit down and talk. But...

BARCELONA, July 9 – Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson was shouted down, but not off the stage, today by AIDS treatment activists as he addressed delegates to the 14th International AIDS Conference. The protesters began blowing whistles and shouting "Shame! Shame! and "No more lies!" as Thompson came to the podium and continued until he finished his address, which was unintelligible to the audience. There was no violence or attempt to stop the demonstration, and there were no arrests.

<p>BARCELONA, Spain (AP) --  Shrieking protesters at the AIDS conference in Spain drowned out U.S. health secretary Tommy Thompson as he attempted to speak about American global AIDS programs on Tuesday.</p> <p>About 40 people who demanded more U.S. funding clambered onto the lecture platform as Thompson tried to address the 14th International AIDS Conference; some waved placards declaring "Wanted: Bush and Thompson for murder and neglect of people with AIDS."</p>