Health Care Reform News – May 21, 2010

TOP STORIES

Congressional Dems Push ‘Doc Fix’; Politico – May 21, 2010

Democrats in Congress have proposed easing a planned cut in payments to doctors under Medicare in an effort to stem an expected shortage of primary care doctors and address the top issue for physicians who backed health reform. 

House Poised To Consider COBRA Subsidy Extension, Medicare Payment ‘Fix’ ; Kaiser Health News – May 21, 2010

Caught up in the congressional politics swirling around a pending tax bill are two proposals to extend — once again — subsidies for COBRA health insurance and a “fix” of Medicare payments to doctors. Without action by the end of the month, those laid off after June 1 would have to pay the entire cost of continuing their health insurance and doctors could see their Medicare payments slashed by 21 percent.

Transparency/Safety

NIH Proposes New Funding Rules to Prevent Conflicts of Interest; The Washington Post - May 21, 2010

The National Institutes of Health proposed new guidelines Thursday to prevent financial conflicts of interest among thousands of researchers who receive federal funding, a move long sought by watchdogs of scientific research concerned about the influence of the drug industry and others.

Wellness/Chronic Care

When Patients Don’t Fill Their Prescriptions; The New York Times – May 21, 2010

As Dr. Pauline Chen writes in her Doctor and Patient column, the issue of “nonadherence” with medication is a growing problem in medicine.

The Vermont Accountable Care Organization Pilot: A Community Health System to Control Total Medical Costs and Improve Population Health; The Commonwealth Fund – May 21, 2010

This report describes the efforts of three health care provider organizations in Vermont that are planning pilot tests of accountable care organizations, to be launched next year as part of a national learning network.

Two Drugs Can Make Cancers Less Fatal ; The Wall Street Journal - May 21, 2010

New uses for two established cancer drugs significantly increased the time patients survived without their disease progressing, in studies that provide fresh evidence of how cancer is often becoming a chronic disease.

State news

FL: Medicaid Pilot Hearings Begin; Health News Florida – May 21, 2010

A massive overhaul of Florida’s Medicaid system is on the shelf — at least for now. But get ready for three more years of debates over the pilot managed-care program that former Gov. Jeb Bush left behind, with hearings starting Friday. 

MA: Doctors in Texas to Aid Area Hospitals; The Boston Globe – May 21, 2010

A group of community hospitals in Southeastern Massachusetts has taken the unusual step of partnering with doctors from an out-of-state academic medical center to provide cancer treatment — instead of one of Boston’s prestigious hospitals. Southcoast Health System has signed an affiliation agreement with doctors from MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Medicare/Medicaid

Health Reform’s Changes In Medicare; Health Affairs – May 20, 2010

An overview of the Medicare provisions that will take effect over the next five years.

Implementing the Legislation

Poll: Schedule Fails to Sway Public; Politico – May 21, 2010

A new poll, released this morning by the Kaiser Family Foundation, suggests the accelerated implementation schedule has failed to sway a skeptical public — or even keep health reform’s most ardent supporters on board.

The Prevention Dilemma ; Kaiser Health News – column by Robert Gould, President & CEO, Partnership for Prevention – May 21, 2010

There will never be enough federal money to address every prevention need.  What Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius needs to decide is whether there is sufficient political courage to concentrate early prevention funding to deliver a knockout blow to the leading cause of premature death in the country: tobacco. 

The Impact of Health Reform on Health System Spending; The Commonwealth Fund – May 21, 2010

New estimates released today by The Commonwealth Fund and the Center for American Progress (CAP) show that the health reform law passed in March could reduce annual growth in health care spending from 6.3 percent to 5.7 percent over the next decade—a savings of $590 billion—while lowering annual premiums by nearly $2,000 for the typical family and extending coverage to 32 million previously uninsured individuals by 2019. Click here to read the issue brief.

Employers

Survey: Employers See Health Care Hikes in 2011; AP/Google News – May 20, 2010

More than 40 percent of employers surveyed by the consulting firm Mercer expect health care reform to raise health care costs by a modest 2 percent or less next year.

National Restaurant Association, UnitedHealth Team Up on Insurance for Restaurant Workers; The Chicago Tribune – May 21, 2010

The National Restaurant Association and insurance giant UnitedHealth Group Inc. are teaming up in an attempt to make coverage more accessible to millions of restaurant workers without health benefits, three years ahead of when the health care overhaul would require everyone to have insurance.

Goodbye, Employer-Sponsored Insurance ; The Wall Street Journal – op-ed – May 21, 2010

John Goodman, president and CEO of the National Center for Policy Analysis, writes that “Millions of American workers could discover that they no longer have employer-provided health insurance as ObamaCare is phased in. That’s because employers are quickly discovering that it may be cheaper to pay fines to the government than to insure workers.”

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