The Government Accountability Office (formerly the General Accounting Office) is seeking information from hospitals on the cost of drugs used in hospital outpatient departments to help guide Medicare payment setting for 2006, as required by the Medicare Modernization Act. The law directs GAO to gather data on outpatient drug costs from “a large sample of hospitals” and share it with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Medicare’s previous method of setting rates for hospital outpatient drugs was criticized for relying on data from only 27 hospitals. On Sept. 28, GAO sent a letter to a random sample of 1,400 hospitals asking for data on a specific list of drugs. The agency said it knows “many hospital staff feel stretched” but emphasized that hospitals will benefit from more accurate payment rates for drugs. The agency also pledged to “be as flexible as possible” and provide technical assistance so that the data submission process runs smoothly. For more, go to https://www.hopd.org/scripts/default.asp.