European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 12, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Saturday september 12. 1987 the stars and stripes p champs patients at . Hospitals will come under fixed payment plan by Chuck Vinch my in inc t Hall us Panui Dun s. He wind. Vinci Washington Bureau Washington patients admitted to almost All . Hospitals after oct. 1 under champs will be covered by a payment system thai will Cut costs for beneficiaries while saving the defense department about is so million a year. Under the diagnostic related group payment system. Inc civilian health and medical program of the uni formed services would pay hospitals a fixed rate for treating beneficiaries with the same diagnosis a champs official said wednesday the plan covers hospitals in 49 slates the District of Columbia and puerto Rico. The Only exception is. Maryland which requested and received an exemption from champs. The fixed Price would be paid to the Hospital regardless of the actual Cost of the care they provide the champs official said. The Rale is an amount based on the average of what it Cost to treat patients to each diagnostic category no matter How Long they a i i he Paivi iils Are classified into groups bust d on age Icax the principal diagnosis and the discharge stains which indicates whether a person has been released been transferred or died in the Hospital generally the new payment system will result in lower payments to hospitals for care provided under champs the official said. And when Overall hos Pital charges arc lower the beneficiary s share of those costs is champs officials originally envisioned that beneficiaries other than Active duty family members mainly retirees and their families would pay a fined daily fee for each admission to a Hospital under the system. That has been revised the official said. Those Best fit ii Wilt pay 25 percent of Iota costs they used to pay or a fixed daily feet j 175, Hichew is less x the Chance was made to protect Cadi diaries from having Lopi More than they to Trad under current Nimal u Pri Iii dirt a Active duty family members will continue lip in Toni time fee nf$25 or the daily fut eir$7.5u, whichever is greater for each Hospital admission the new system encourage hospitals to provide Quality care in an economical Way the a Miami us Ollida said. If the Hosn Ifal s costs exceed the pro amount. less than the drug amount the save Money the i loses Money he said. If the costs arc but of famous patients who need a longer stay bccau�1hcy Are sicker than the average patient won t be tent Home before they arc ready the official said. The Dro system would make allowances for More serious illnesses he said. The system would not affect certain services such As psychiatric and substance abuse services kidney acquisition costs and heart and liver transplants additionally certain hospitals such As psychiatric Long term care rehabilitation end cancer hospitals would not be affected the official said. Aids pane head As is for . Paf ence on report Washington map the chair Man of president Reagan s aids com Mission is calling for Public patience Ashe controversial 13-Membcr panel Gath ers information for a preliminary report next month. The panel which heard from the fed eral government1 leading health expert son wednesday scheduled testimony thursday from representatives of other major Cabinet agencies including , Justice education labor and housing and Urban development. Although primarily a health Issue aids has become a government wide concern the defense department far example tests All new recruits for til aids a True and the stale department requires the lest for foreign service personnel assigned to overseas Posu. Demonstrators questioning the makeup of the commission which contains few members who have specialized in aids milled on the sidewalk outside the building where wednesday s hearing was held the panel chairman or. William Mayberry look Tacil note of Zhav activity As Well As questions raised of a string of Public witnesses when of asked thai the commission be Given Chance to arrive at its recommendations before receiving Public Jui Don t Begiev. Any commission could be App Oij a to try to address this Issue that world be totally acceptable to everyone maybe Rry said at a news Confer ence near lie end of wednesday s session. We want desperately 10 be of help. We believe that we have the capacity to be of help or we would t be Here. Plea give us a try. You May find you la like Mayberry acknowledged that neither he nor Many other members of the panel have specialized in aids but he insisted that each member brings Broad experience and represents a Cross sect Ion of society. The members include a former chief of Navy operations the head of a major health insurance company the Indian slate health chief a sex therapist the Dean of a nursing school and numerous physicians. Mayberry who Heads the Mayo foundation of the Mayo clinic in Rochester,minn., also sought to Issue a reassurance that the panel will not ignore the body of aids knowledge developed in and out of Golem meet. We a going to try to build on the information that s present he said. We re not Gorff to try to reinvent the wheel unless Hermis some controversial Issue in which Case it s necessary that we try to readdress the Issue. "1 believe perhaps naively that what Ever this commission is Goir to do is going to have a significant Public Impact having that belief makes it very important that we Don t stub our toe. We have to look very carefully at what we do. We have too big a responsibility to make a mistake Al wednesday s Daylong session the commission received an overview fro top government health officials including surgeon general a Everett Koop Aswelt As a panel of people representing private organizations which Deal wit patients suffering from acquired immune deficiency syndrome and a string of pub Lic witnesses Given five minutes each to present their views. The private witnesses ranged from a Gay rights activist who criticized govern ment research efforts loan associate of political extremist Lyndon Larouche to a businessman pushing membership in a club for people who want to carry embossed cards attesting that they have tested negative for the aids virus. Koop urged the panel to be courageous in developing its recommendations. A major concern he said is the threat of racial intolerance undercutting the fight against aids because the disease is be coming the particular Scourge of people who Are Young Black and we have finally extended to All Ameri cans. The Birthright to Freedom that is theirs he said. Will aids by itself re verse this trend of history i certainly Hope and Pray that that Don not occur but Hopes and prayers May not be enough Weill need courageous leadership at ail Levels of government and throughout the social and political institutions of America to reinforce those Hopes and rate of Young never married doubles in . Washington a the percentage of Ameri cans in their Early 30s who have never married has More than doubled since 1970, increasing the prospects that a growing minority will stay single All their lives the census Bureau reported wednesday. Among men Between the Ages of 30 and 34, those who had never married totalled 23.1 percent according to estimates made last March. That was up from 9.4 percent in a 1970 census Bureau report. Among women in the 30-34 age group 14.6 percent had never been married according to the 1987 report compare with 6.2 percent in 1970. In other age groups 61 percent of women aged 20 to 24 had not married in 1987, compared with 36 percent in 1970. For women aged 25 to 29, the figure was 29 percent in 1987 against 11 percent in 1970. For men 61 percent aged 20 to 24 had not married this year compared with 36 percent in 1970. Among men in the 25-29 age group 42 percent were not mar ried compared Wilh 19 percent in 1970. The percentage that remains single throughout their lifetime is Likely to be higher than in the past in View of the increases in never marrieds among today s Young adults the report said. The vast majority however eventually Are Likely to Steve Rawlings of the census Bureau said that historically All but 5 percent of americans have Bee married at least once by the time they reach age 50. He said that figure is Likely to double to 10 percent base Don the trends on delayed marriages observed Over the past two decades. There has been quite a significant increase in the number of people who have never married in their 20sand Early 30s," Rawlings said in a Telephone interview our Best guess is that something on the order of 10 age and living alone Fly Hou hold Ine Eim l h a mtg two nov a try no Dluhi incan i1i.tm 10 30-19 Siml Cut go try Buie grape percent will never marry. But nine out of 10 people will get married in 1987, inc median age for an american Bride was 23,6 years compared with 20.3 years in 1950. The median age Means that half the women have married by this age. The 1987 figure was the highest age since record keeping began in 1890. For men the median age for the first marriage climbed to 25.8 years this year the highest it has been since 1900, when it was 25.9 years. The median age for first marriage had been de Clining for most of this Century until the 1960s, when it started to Rise As the Post War baby Boom generation chose to pursue educations and careers postponing marriage and family obligations. The statistics on marriage were contained in the census Bureau study manat status and living arrangements March 1987," among other findings of the report there were s9.5 million households in march1987, an increase ofs.7 million since 1980. Married couple families with children under the age of 18 declined to 27.s percent of All households in 1987, compared with 40.3 percent of All households in 1970.the report attributed this decrease to postponement of marriage and child bearing and increases in divorce Rales. The number of americans living alone accounted for 23.6 percent of american households in March 1987, up from 17.1 percent in 1970, but the increase in this category has slowed dramatically during this decade. The report Suid increases in single person households had accounted for 42.4 percent of total growth in House holds from 197010 1980. But this category accounted for just 32.5 percent of the increase from 1980 to 1987. Rawlings said the slowdown in growth in the num Ber of persons living alone reflected the fall off in the number of Young people moving away from Home into their own places. The other Large category of people living along elderly women has continued to grow. There has been a decline in the number of persons under the age of 25 who Are choosing to live alone Rawlings said. More persons in this category Are choosing to live at Home with their parents rather than setting up their own Homes Given the Cost of
