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A Deep Dive Into 4 GOP Talking Points On Health Care

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http://khn.org/news/a-deep-dive-into-4-gop-talking-points-on-health-care/

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Republican leaders have a lengthy list of talking points about the shortcomings of the health law. Shortly before his inauguration last month, President Donald Trump said that it “is a complete and total disaster. It’s imploding as we sit.” And they can point to a host of issues, including premium increases averaging more than 20 percent this year, a drop in the number of insurers competing on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces and rising consumer discontent with high deductibles and limited doctor networks.

Yet a careful analysis of some of the GOP’s talking points show a much more nuanced situation and suggest that the political fights over the law may have contributed to some of its problems. Here is an annotated guide to four of the most common talking points Republicans have been using. 

 

Building Rapport Shows Employees You Care – How to Get Started

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Building Rapport Shows Employees You Care – How to Get Started

rapport

If you’re a senior leader in your organization, chances are the vast majority of employees don’t view you as a real person.

Research by Nathan T. Washburn and Benjamin Galvin shows employee perceptions of senior leaders are governed by mental models they form through incidental interactions with the leader, such as emails, videos, speeches, or other impersonal means of communication.

So what should you make of that? First, it should make you question the level of trust people have in you. Second, you should know that without trust it’s virtually impossible to influence and inspire your team to follow your lead. And third, it should prompt you to consider ways to build a more personal relationship with those you lead.

But where to start? Start at the beginning. Start with building rapport.

Merriam-Webster defines rapport as “a friendly, harmonious relationship; especially a relationship characterized by agreement, mutual understanding, or empathy that makes communication possible or easy.”

Rapport is a fundamental component of having a connected relationship with someone, and the lack of personal connection is the reason people view their leaders as impersonal avatars. Research has shown the importance of warmth as a critical factor in building trust. Your team members are wanting to know that you care about them as individuals and not just nameless worker bees showing up to do a job.

People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

What will become of MACRA, Obamacare, health IT? HIMSS boss weighs in (podcast)

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What will become of MACRA, Obamacare, health IT? HIMSS boss weighs in (podcast)

HIMSS Chicago 2015

The annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference gets under way Monday in Orlando, Florida, with numerous preconference activities starting Sunday.

As more than 40,000 people descend on Central Florida for the grueling event, MedCity News talked to HIMSS CEO and President H. Stephen Lieber for what has become an annual ritual, at least for this reporter. As usual, it’s on tape.

HIMSS17 is the last HIMSS conference with Lieber in charge; he announced in December that he would retire at the end of 2017.

Lieber is preparing to depart at a time when health IT is at a crossroads.

Healthcare organizations in the U.S. have spent the better part of the last 10 years installing and now optimizing electronic health records, though they continue to lag when it comes to sharing data across systems. And they continue to gripe about EHR usability and Meaningful Use requirements.

Providers in recent years also have grappled with updates to HIPAA regulations and the conversion to ICD-10 coding. Now, they face some new regulations affecting health IT.

Notably, the 2016 Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) is coming into force for ambulatory care. The rise of accountable care is “certainly having an impact already in terms of how care is not only delivered,” as well as how payers calculate reimbursements, Lieber noted.

They also face the uncertainty that comes with a change in administration in Washington.

Still, some things do remain relatively constant in health IT.

“The ongoing challenge in dealing with security, there is going to be an even greater focus this year as we try to bring more attention, more focus on what it takes to make sure that we’re handling data in a secure way,” Lieber said.

Clinical analytics has become a normal course of business in the field as well, though it has changed from merely clinical decision support and retrospective analytics to predictive analytics and machine learning. “As the field evolves, we’re evolving the programming with it.” Lieber noted.

Policy seems to be where a lot of intrigue is right now. It’s easy to make assumptions about what the new Trump administration might do, but assumptions are just that.

GOP Medicaid Block Grants Cut Costs … and Care

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http://www.realclearhealth.com/articles/2017/02/20/gop_medicaid_block_grants_cut_costs__and_care_110453.html?utm_source=RealClearHealth+Morning+Scan&utm_campaign=43886a5bc1-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_02_20&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b4baf6b587-43886a5bc1-84752421

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Most people have heard the aphorism, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Referring to the GOP’s cure for Medicaid, “If it sounds too good to be true, it might be true; but guaranteed, it won’t be good.”

A Feb. 6, 2017 report on Medicaid makes this point perfectly. The GOP commissioned a study by Avalere Health, a health care consulting group, to assess the fiscal impact of federal block grants to state Medicaid programs. They evaluated two funding approaches: a lump sum to be negotiated and a per capita, i.e., per enrollee, formula.

Their study showed that block grants could save Washington between $110 billion and $150 billion over five years depending on which formula was used. Roughly half the states would get a small increase in their federal contribution and half would get less, sometimes a lot less. The biggest loser, Arizona Medicaid, would receive 62 percent less than it is currently receiving from Washington.

With the present Medicaid state-federal matching scheme, the more a state spends, the more money it gets from Washington. This produces a classic perverse incentive: rewarding the outcome you don’t want. We want states to reduce spending, yet Washington rewards them—with federal dollars—when they spend more! With a block grant, this perverse incentive goes away. This is a good thing.

Medicaid block grants could save $110-150 billion and would eliminate the perverse incentive. Sounds like a great idea. It makes wonderful sound bytes, and the GOP seems to want to run with it.

There is just one teeny, tiny problem with block grants as proposed: no health care.

Where Are All the New Diabetes Drugs?

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http://www.realclearhealth.com/2017/02/20/where_are_all_the_new_diabetes_drugs_275278.html?utm_source=RealClearHealth+Morning+Scan&utm_campaign=43886a5bc1-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_02_20&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b4baf6b587-43886a5bc1-84752421

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As oncologists race forward with new treatments verging on science fiction and biotech companies press on with drugs for once-hopeless rare disorders, one of the world’s most pervasive diseases looks like it’s been left behind.

There are few new drugs on the horizon for diabetes, which affects about 29 million Americans. Most of the treatments in late-stage development are simply improved versions of what’s out there — taken weekly versus daily, or orally instead of by injection.

So has pharma run out of ideas in diabetes?

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/320286-kasich-house-gop-medicaid-plan-very-bad-idea

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Kasich: House GOP Medicaid plan ‘very bad idea’

Kasich: House GOP Medicaid plan 'very bad idea'

Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Sunday criticized the House Republicans’ plan to phase out ObamaCare’s expansion of Medicaid.

“I’m in Munich, but I understand that there was an initial effort by House Republicans to, for example, phase out Medicaid expansion, which means phasing out coverage,” Kasich said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “That is a very, very bad idea, because we cannot turn our back on the most vulnerable. We can give them the coverage, reform the program, save some money and make sure that we live in a country where people are going to say, ‘At least somebody is looking out for me.’”

An outline of an ObamaCare replacement plan put forward by House Republicans on Thursday called for phasing out the Medicaid expansion by lowering the federal share of the cost back down to its traditional level, meaning that states would have to pour more of their own money into the program if they wanted to keep the expansion, a tall order.