The number of tuberculosis cases in Manhattan increased by 11%, to 182, in 2007, up from 164 the year before, health officials reported yesterday.

Officials said an ongoing “outbreak” of tuberculosis in Harlem led to the increase.

The increase was reported even as the number of citywide infections dropped 4% in 2007, to 914, compared to 953 in 2006.

But officials said the citywide rate of tuberculosis, 11.4 cases for each 100,000 people, is double the national rate, 4.4 cases for each 100,000 people.

“Many challenges remain — especially among New York City’s immigrant communities,” the city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Frieden, said in a statement. Immigrants living in New York City accounted for 71% of new cases, officials reported.

Health officials said there were nine cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in 2007, down from 15 the year before.

At a separate event yesterday, health experts convened at Columbia University for a roundtable discussion on tuberculosis.

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REPORT: NO EVIDENCE THAT MEDICAID MANAGED CARE INITIATIVE IS SUCCEEDING

New York’s Medicaid managed care initiative has failed to achieve some of its underlying goals, such as controlling cost, a new report says.

The report, published by the United Hospital Fund, found that numerous beneficiaries visit hospital emergency rooms for primary care and “too many” beneficiaries “churn” on and off the Medicaid rolls. Despite some achievements, including enrolling 2.5 million beneficiaries in managed care plans, “there are still surprisingly few efforts to examine how well the program is achieving its basic goals,” the report concludes.

Statewide, 4.3 million New Yorkers are enrolled in the state’s $47 billion Medicaid program. The managed care initiative was started in the 1990s as a way to control cost and improve patient care.

“No independent evidence exists that the managed care initiative has lowered health care costs,” the report’s author, Michael Sparer, who is a professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, writes in the report.

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GROUP: MENTAL HEALTH FUNDING NEEDED

Amid state budget negotiations, a health care advocacy group is calling a proposal to cut funding for mental health services just the opposite of what is needed.

“These cuts are completely contrary to the clear need for more investment in these services,” the president of the Healthcare Association of New York State, Daniel Sisto, said yesterday in a statement.

The executive budget proposal would cut funding to hospital detoxification programs by $70 million. The budget also proposes a $4 million reduction in funding for outpatient mental health services.

A recent report by HANYS, based on a survey of 60 hospitals, found that 87% of the hospitals reported break-even or negative operating margins.

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DOCTORS AWARDED RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP

Two New York City doctors have been awarded research fellowships from the College of American Pathologists Foundation.

Dr. Eldad Hod, a physician at Columbia University Medical Center, and Dr. Stephen Rohan, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, will each receive a $25,000 grant to pursue research projects.

Both projects focus on kidney disease. Dr. Hod aims to develop new diagnostic tests and therapies for kidney transplant patients. Dr. Rohan seeks to evaluate aims to evaluate mutations of a gene associated with kidney tumors.

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LENOX HILL APPOINTS EMERGENCY MEDICINE DIRECTOR

Lenox Hill Hospital has named a Michigan doctor, Dr. Robert Femia, as chairman of the hospital’s Department of Emergency Medicine.

The position is new to the Upper East Side hospital, which opened the $20 million Anne & Isidore Falk Center for Emergency Care last year. The department treats more than 43,000 patients annually, hospital officials said.

Dr. Femia, who received a medical degree from the University of Connecticut, previously served as medical director of emergency services at the Sparrow Health System in Lansing, Mich.

In a separate appointment, the hospital named Dr. Molly Poag as chairwoman of psychiatry. Dr. Poag served as acting chairwoman of the department for more than a year, after serving as associate chairwoman of psychiatry since 2002.

esolomont@nysun.com