A partisan battle over changes to Medicare stalled a bill that would prevent a 10.6% doctor pay cut and trim Medicare Advantage, private insurer’s version of Medicare, reports The Wall Street Journal’s blog on health.
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From Medical Economics magazine, more on Medicare/Medicaid ...
No one has to remind you that Medicare fees are set to automatically decline by 10.6 percent on July 1. In a move to stave off the big cut, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) introduced legislation late Friday afternoon, legislation that could set the stage for a clash with the White House and Senate Republicans.
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From Medical Economics magazine, more on Medicare/Medicaid ...
The health plan touted by Senator Hillary Clinton would force people to buy something they cannot afford and then impose a heavy fine on them when they don’t buy it, says John G. Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a public policy research organization with offices in Dallas and Washington, DC. It’s Goodman’s view that at the end of the day healthcare consumers will be worse off than they were at the outset. In response, Clinton says that she’ll limit the amount people have to pay in premiums to 5 or 10 percent of their incomes. To read Goodman’s 10-point rejoinder, click here.
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From Medical Economics magazine, more on health insurance ...
Physicians deserve higher Medicare fees, but they may have to keep enduring annual statutory pay cuts restored at the last second by congressional action, says Neera Tanden, the chief policy director for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. That pattern won’t end, Tanden adds, until universal coverage is achieved. “Hillary has supported the annual increases in pay when they come before Congress and is a strong advocate of better reimbursement for providers. She hasn’t proposed any specific steps to deal with the sustainable growth rate, but believes that universal health coverage will relieve some of the pressure on Medicare and physicians.”
Clinton’s health plan, which she estimates would cost $110 billion a year, would require all Americans to have health insurance. She would pay for the plan by eliminating waste and inefficiencies and rolling back the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy.
Clinton Believes Physicians Deserve Higher Medicare Fees [Via MedPage Today]
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From Medical Economics magazine, more on Medicare/Medicaid ...
The push to prevent impending Medicare physician pay cuts is being advanced by a new bill that would block such reductions for 18 months.
The legislation, called the Save Medicare Act of 2008, would continue a 0.5% physician pay update for the last six months of 2008 and would institute a 1.8% update for 2009. Physicians are slated to receive a 10.6% cut starting July 1 and an additional cut of about 5% in 2009.
Medicare pay bill: Raises to replace cuts through 2009 [Via American Medical News]
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From Medical Economics magazine, more on Medicare/Medicaid ...
Yesterday, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed HR 1424, the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007 by a vote of 268-148.
Supporters say the bill will help end discrimination against patients with mental illnesses. continues…
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From Medical Economics magazine, more on health policy ...
Last month, New York became the latest state to confront a problem that other states have been wrestling with for some time—increasing the supply of physicians in their underserved areas.
New York, like other states with large swatches of rural land, has reason to act. One-quarter of the state’s population—roughly 4.9 million people—lives in areas with more than 3,500 people per physician. According to the state Department of Health, it would require an additional 300 primary care physicians or more in each of these Health Professional Shortage Areas to begin to right the imbalance. Many of these same areas are also short of specialists. Eight New York counties, for instance, have no gynecologists practicing obstetrics. And Western New York is hemorrhaging surgeons at an alarming rate. continues…
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From Medical Economics magazine, more on health policy ...
The Food and Drug Administration’s ability to protect the public from unsafe drugs and medical devices has radically deteriorated, expert witnesses told a congressional committee on Tuesday, January 29. “Without urgent action,” Gail Cassell, an Eli Lilly vice president and head of an internal FDA scientific advisory board, testified, “injury and death are certain.” continues…
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From Medical Economics magazine, more on drugs ...
In the debate over healthcare reform, organized medicine, led by the AMA, has long favored a pluralistic approach, long on private involvement, short on government intervention.
Now the American College of Physicians has strayed from the established orthodoxy. In a paper released online in early December (and in the pages of the Annals of Internal Medicine this month), the ACP has put forth a number of recommendations, including one calling for universal health insurance coverage, either through a revamped pluralistic system—something along the lines of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHB)—or, more controversially, a single-payer system. continues…
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From Medical Economics magazine, more on health policy ...
The Supreme Court has declined to consider whether dying patients have a right to be treated with experimental drugs that haven’t yet been approved by the FDA. Without comment or recorded dissent, the Court let stand a US Court of Appeals ruling that said the terminally ill have no constitutional right to drugs the agency considers safe enough only for additional testing. continues…
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From Medical Economics magazine, more on drugs ...
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