Prescription coverage in indigent patients affects the use of long-acting opioids in the management of cancer pain.

Purpose: We tested the hypothesis that prescription coverage affects the prescribing of long-acting opiates to indigent inner city minority patients with cancer pain.

Materials And Methods: We conducted a chart review of 360 patients treated in the Oncology Practice at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey University Hospital, who were prescribed opiate pain medications. Half the patients were charity care or self-pay (CC/SP), without the benefit of prescription coverage, and half had Medicaid, with unlimited prescription coverage.

Examination of genetic polymorphisms in newborns for signatures of sex-specific prenatal selection.

Success rate in human pregnancies is believed to be very low and sex-specific mechanisms may operate in prenatal loss. Assuming a sex-differential in prenatal loss exists, we examined genetic markers in biologically plausible targets in the HLA complex, other immune system-related and iron-regulatory genes in 388 healthy newborns from Wales (UK) using one sex as a control group for the other. Genotyping of 333 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 107 genes was achieved mainly by TaqMan assays.

Influence of prescription benefits on reported pain in cancer patients.

Objective: To identify associations between prescription coverage and cancer pain and its sequelae in indigent patients.

Design And Setting: A retrospective chart review at UMDNJ-University Hospital.

Patients And Outcome Measures: Charts from 20 patients with Medicaid and 20 patients categorized as Self-pay/Charity Care were analyzed for the influence of insurance coverage on reported pain at the time of a hospital discharge and at three subsequent clinic visits.