Under President Obama’s budget proposal, about half of the money required to fund his $634 billion “reserve fund” for health reform would come from changes in Medicare and Medicaid spending. Jacob Goldstein of the WSJ Health Blog has dug up a detailed list of these projected savings from 2010-2019 in the budget plan. The biggest savings ($176.6 billion) would come from changing the...
Health Care Industry Archive
February 2009
Fifty-three percent of Americans say that they or someone in their family reduced their use of health care in the past year because of the cost, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll. Thirty-five percent used over-the-counter drugs or home remedies instead of seeing a physician. More than one in four people or someone in their household did not obtain medical care they really needed. Of...
The Obama Administration’s effort to get healthcare providers to acquire EHRs is certainly much bolder and more ambitious than anything that came before it. More than $19 billion is being thrown at the problem, of which about $17.2 billion consists of direct incentives that will be paid through Medicare and Medicaid. Physicians who show “meaningful use” of qualified EHRs will be eligible...
A new national coalition of physician groups and independent practice associations (IPAs) has been formed to lobby for an unfashionable vision of health care reform. Spearheaded by the California Association of Physician Groups (CAPG), Physician Groups for Coordinated Care (PGCC) is trying to make the case to Congress that coordinated care in large physician organizations is the best hope for...
A grand bargain on healthcare reform is being shaped behind the scenes, The New York Times reports. Sen. Ted Kennedy’s office has hosted meetings among the major national stakeholders, and a consensus has emerged that all Americans should be required to purchase insurance. But James P. Gelfand, senior manager of health policy at the United States Chamber of Commerce, is reported as saying:...
As the result of the merger of three large nurse unions, hospitals may find themselves under more financial pressure from labor. But whether this will help patients or ameliorate the nursing shortage is unknown. The three unions that merged are the United American Nurses, the California Nurses Association, and the Massachusetts Nurses Association. The new organization, an AFL-CI0 affiliate...
The company that puts out the Zagat guides to restaurants and leisure activities licensed its name to WellPoint, one of the largest U.S. insurers, about a year ago. Now WellPoint is posting reviews of physicians by WellPoint members for the use of its other members across the country, plus members of one other plan. WellPoint’s Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans include about 35 million people...
Private medical practice has been declining at an annual rate of about 2 percent a year for the past 25 years, according to a review article in The New England Journal of Medicine. In 2001, the latest year for which overall figures are available, the AMA estimates the percentage of physicians who owned their practices at 61.5 percent. The Center for Studying Health System Change put the...
In health care, the change we’re supposed to believe in this year depends on something called the “advanced medical home.” Under this approach, which is being investigated by both public and private payers, primary-care physicians would receive monthly capitation payments in return for better care coordination. Since these payments would be in addition to the fee-for-service reimbursement...
An IRS report finds that a small percentage of not-for-profit hospitals provide the bulk of uncompensated care. Based on a survey of 489 hospitals of varying sizes, this report is likely to increase pressure on Congress to require tax-exempt institutions to provide a certain level of charity care. Even before the IRS report was released, Sen. Charles Grassley (D-Iowa) was considering the...
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