GAO issues report on Medicare call centers
Medicare customer service centers provide correct and complete answers to health-care providers' policy questions only 4 percent of the time, according to a survey by the Government Accountability Office. A recent report from the GAO, "Call Centers Need to Improve Responses to Policy-Oriented Questions from Providers," indicates that in 300 test calls made to 34 call centers, the Medicare customer service representatives provided inaccurate or incomplete answers in all but 12 cases. GAO testers posed as health-care providers and asked the same four policy-questions, all related to billing processes and procedures. GAO is using the results of this report to recommend changes to the way these call centers are operated. For more information, visit http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04669.pdf.

NIH fellowship program seeks applicants
The National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center is seeking applications for a program that offers one-year clinical research training experiences for graduate-level students in the health professions. The program is managed by the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Association of Schools of Public Health, with support from the Ellison Medical Foundation. The fellowship program provides U.S. students the opportunity to experience mentored research training at NIH-funded research centers in developing countries, such as Bangladesh, Botswana, Haiti, India, Mali, Peru, South Africa and Thailand. Applications for the one-year term beginning July 2005 are now available; the deadline is Jan. 7. For more information, visit http://www.aamc.org/overseasfellowship.