Short of auditing individual companies or administering truth serum to the reporting parties, no real measure of actual revenues will emerge soon.
In his directive, Mr. Ashcroft said that "prescribing, dispensing or administering federally controlled substances to assist suicide" violated the act, which was passed by Congress in 1970.
The doctor is also banned from prescribing, supplying or administering barbiturates, benzodiazepines or opiates without being authorised to do so in writing by a palliative care doctor.
Dutch doctors have helped thousands of terminally ill people die during the last decade, usually by supplying or administering lethal doses of barbituates.
In between these extremes are compensation for inserting links to a certain Web site, attending an event or administering a product giveaway.
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing developed the leadership curriculum to address patient safety issues, like keeping infections at bay or administering the correct medications.
Rectal feeding is of limited application in actually keeping a person alive or administering nutrients, since the colon and rectum cannot absorb much besides salt, glucose and a few minerals and vitamins.
Hearing specialists have long urged family physicians to check the hearing of patients over 60 at every annual visit by doing a whisper test in each ear or administering a short written quiz.
But in discussing ways to reduce child mortality, Mr. Natsios emphasized health measures such as immunization and "biofortification," or adding vitamins and minerals to products like flour, or administering them to people directly.
"If your organization is holding or administering charitable assets of any kind and/or conducting charitable activities in this state, it must register with the attorney general," the letter said.
That study recently made headlines by reporting that 46 percent of the nation's 42 million caregivers handle medical and nursing tasks such as giving injections, caring for wounds or administering I.V.s.
