Clearly, AHRQ needs a more kid-friendly approach to fit in with its new neighbors.
Naturally, if the Republicans add control of the Senate or the presidency, the AHRQ outlook worsens.
The AHRQ is a section of HHS devoted to writing medical guidelines.
In the past year AHRQ became a lightning rod when one of its task forces on prevention recommended that women get fewer mammograms.
Congress should clarify that AHRQ may disclose which doctors they are approaching and require the reporting of this information both to FDA and to the public, just as pharmaceutical companies must.
FORBES: A Lack of Government Transparency: The Devil In The Detailing
Of the ten fastest-growing diseases identified from the AHRQ data and ranked by percentage increase in cost, only one-- hemorrhoids--was caused by an apparent increase in the cost of care per patient.
The health policy community has tried to tell itself that the AHRQ elimination vote was meaningless political theater, since there was no realistic chance the bill would be approved in anything close to its original form before the election.
Of course, if none of this works for AHRQ, I have another suggestion for the agency, which has faced the threat of elimination or near-elimination on more than one other occasion: change your name and move to Sesame Street.
In fact, cuts to programs like public TV and the Jobs Corps may even hurt AHRQ, since a Democratic Senate (if it remains that way) would be more likely to spend political capital on a compromise that saves higher-profile funding victims.
Yet in contrast to the onerous regulatory burdens on industry drug reps, AHRQ has conveniently excused itself from reporting which doctors it contacts or what they are being told, citing as its rationale a privacy law that Congress intended to protect patients (but not doctors).
FORBES: A Lack of Government Transparency: The Devil In The Detailing
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