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To the Editor.
With reference to the commentary by Binns et al,1 the message regarding immigrant populations is a critical one. (We here in the Pacific Northwest include migrants from Boston and Baltimore among our population!) However they really present a mixed message regarding universal versus targeted screening. The rules of the Health Care Financing Administration (now known as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services [CMS]) are quite explicit; universal screening is mandated for all Medicaid recipients with the threat of nonreimbursement for failure to comply. The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDCs) Advisory Committee on the matter encouraged HCFAs action several years ago and despite our requests to CDC to publically modify its position more than a year ago, no action whatsoever has taken place. CDCs Advisory Committee apparently has the matter under study.
We here in Washington have a monitoring program that finds our rate of