Big Changes and Big Risks Are Ahead for Health Policy

http://www.realclearhealth.com/articles/2016/11/09/big_changes_and_big_risks_are_ahead_for_health_policy__110237.html?utm_campaign=KHN%3A+Daily+Health+Policy+Report&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=37390717&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_CzB7SB8_jTflW9iZbujhPgbEgYoEGH0CmjnZCWfYQ6OhRFxv03I_g24L5CSEuvETzsbKwqacigRbc9C9fAU0zdkkgyw&_hsmi=37390717

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The election outcome itself could create more problems for the ACA. The insurance plans sold on the law’s exchanges have already experienced substantial losses due to adverse selection, leading many insurance companies to pull back on their participation. The prospect of a Trump administration steering ACA implementation may be enough to convince some of the insurers still offering products on the exchanges in 2017 to rethink their plans. If more insurance companies head for the exits, the exchanges could become even less stable than they already are.

The “replace” part of “repeal and replace” has always been the tricky part for ACA opponents, and that will also be true for the incoming Trump administration. During the campaign, Trump offered only the vaguest outline of a plan that wouldn’t come close to serving as a starting point for a workable proposal. The ACA, for all of its problems, brought many low-income households into insurance coverage, through an expansion of the Medicaid program and through heavy subsidization of the insurance plans offered on the exchanges. Unless Trump wants to preside over a massive increase in the number of Americans without health insurance during his presidency, he will have to offer a plan that ensures households with low incomes can secure health insurance in some new way.

Analysis: Time for GOP to prove it has a better plan for healthcare reform

http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payer/analysis-time-for-gop-to-prove-it-has-a-better-plan-for-healthcare-reform?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal&mrkid=959610&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTnpkaFpqRm1ZVEZpWkdZMiIsInQiOiJxY1NBT1ZDbGdDQWsxVzRQQ21iOVwvcEVkOFdDVTBIUG9hZWllQ0tiYmFuM2lUVU52Y2JGWkxnNW9BWDJhTWNZSTVTR2QwVmdTYWdIQkFPWGdxZ3FRWlwvRXVuSFFvZ2pKa3NaTUlwU0M1YmVJPSJ9

With Donald Trump headed to the White House and his party firmly in control of Congress, Republicans will finally have a chance to prove what they’ve been saying all along: that they can produce a better version of healthcare reform than the Affordable Care Act.

It’s clear that the ACA is as imperiled as it has ever been. Trump has fervently vowed to repeal it–and with Republican control of both chambers of Congress, he may well get his wish. After all, the law’s most visible component, the exchanges, are on shaky ground as it is, with premiums rising and some health insurers retreating from the marketplaces.

Plus, President Barack Obama’s last attempt at convincing Republicans to work on fixing the ACA–not repealing it–fell on deaf ears even before the party’s resounding victory Tuesday.

What gets lost in all the talk about the ACA’s uncertain future, though, is the fact that while some insurers have struggled to make a profit in the individual marketplaces, there are other aspects of the law to which they have become quite attached.

Take Medicaid expansion, an idea championed by Democrats (and even once embraced by Vice President-Elect Mike Pence) that has been a boon to insurance companies in the form of lucrative managed care contracts. Some companies that specialize in slimmed-down Medicaid plans have also thrived on the exchanges where others have floundered.

Then there’s the ACA’s provisions that encourage the transition to value-based payments, which insurers have embraced and largely retooled their business models to reflect. Accountable care organizations, for example, have sprung up like wildfire, producing promising results for some companies.

A wholesale repeal of the ACA would also erase the law’s historic gains in reducing the uninsured rate. Though many of the newly insured have turned out to be costlier to cover than expected, such a move would still rob insurers of millions of new customers.

The question, then, becomes what will replace the law–and that’s where it gets interesting.

Trump has a plan, but it is short on details. Perhaps most visibly, he has advocated for selling insurance across state lines–a timeworn GOP talking point that many experts agree is not feasible. He would also repeal Medicaid expansion and convert Medicaid federal matching funds into a block grant, the latter of which would drastically cut Medicaid funding and coverage.

One analysis from The Commonwealth Fund says that his plan could add nearly 20 million peopleto the ranks of the uninsured, and even more if his Medicaid proposals come to fruition.

Obamacare defenders vow ‘total war’

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/obamacare-defenders-vow-total-war-231164

Donald Trump is pictured. | Getty

Shell-shocked Democrats on Capitol Hill are preparing to make a fight for Obamacare their top priority in the opening days of the Trump administration, with leading advocacy groups ready to wage “total war” to defend President Barack Obama’s universal health care program and his domestic policy legacy.

“We’ve got the battle of our lifetime ahead of us,” Ron Pollack, executive director of advocacy group Families USA, said the day after Donald Trump was elected on a pledge to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which now the law that covers 22 million people. “We’re going to have a huge number of organizations from all across the country that will participate in this effort.

But their options are limited. They have enough votes to block a total repeal of the law on Day One of a Trump administration. But they can’t block Republicans from passing targeted legislation in the coming months, and Trump — like Obama before him — can pick up a pen as early as Jan. 20 and use executive powers to block, change, or put on hold key elements of the massive six-year-old legislation.

The road to repeal is more complex than Trump acknowledged on the campaign trail. The law is baked into the health care system, touching every American’s life and a fifth of the economy.

But with the Republican sweep of both the executive and legislative branches, expectations for big and bold action are high.

California Faces Major Reversal If Trump, Congress Scrap Health Law

California Faces Major Reversal If Trump, Congress Scrap Health Law

Attendees speak with heath care volunteers during the WeConnect Health Enrollment Information & Wellness Event in Oakland, California, U.S., on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013. The battle over Obamacare is taking on political importance as Democrats hope a successful roll-out among Hispanics will further bind those voters to the Democratic Party and undermine Republican efforts to build more support before the 2016 presidential election. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

California has a lot to lose if President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican-led Congress fulfill their campaign pledge to repeal Obamacare.

The Golden State fully embraced the Affordable Care Act by expanding Medicaid coverage for the poor and creating its own health insurance exchange for about 1.4 million enrollees. Supporters held California up as proof the health law could work as intended.

But now President Barack Obama’s signature law is in serious jeopardy and California officials are left wondering what Republicans in Washington may put in its place.

“There is no doubt that Obamacare is dead,” said Robert Laszewski, a health care consultant and expert on the California insurance market. “The only question is just exactly how Republicans will get rid of it.”

Health policy experts don’t expect Republicans to immediately kick millions of people off their insurance policies. Instead, they predict lawmakers may repeal parts of the law and allow for some transition period for consumers while a replacement plan is put together.

Still, the personal and financial impact for the state could be jarring. The number of uninsured Californians would more than double to 7.5 million people if the Affordable Care Act was repealed, according to a recent study by the Urban Institute.

Researchers also said California stands to lose an estimated $15 billion annually in federal funding for Medicaid expansion and insurance subsidies — more than any other state. That loss of federal money would make it difficult for California to pursue health reform on its own.

Winners and losers in the health-care industry under President Trump

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/09/winners-and-losers-in-the-health-care-industry-under-president-trump/?utm_campaign=CHL%3A+Daily+Edition&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=37396635&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_aZfGmLhlqwRrHfyWGaWVnP2SQe2RHw8m3kbimVOST7YMyMDvZ_OTnMxlqsd-LmZGL6bFWQzYvKA4rnjFsD0fmc46A2Q&_hsmi=37396635

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With much about President-elect Donald Trump’s health-care agenda still unclear, the health-care industry’s initial response to his election has been scattered. Hospital stocks were down. Health insurers’ stock prices were mixed. Pharmaceutical and biotech stocks, on the other hand, got a big bump.

Trump’s clearest policy position in health care has been his commitment to repealing the Affordable Care Act and replacing it with another policy. But the responses to his election varied in large part because the details of exactly what would replace the Affordable Care Act and how that transition would occur have been vague. Without knowing those details, it’s hard for investors to have a clear response, said Benjamin Isgur, a leader in the PwC Health Research Institute.

“These health organizations are like large ships, and you can’t turn them on a dime,” Isgur said. “When you think back to what it took to get ready for the ACA, for many health-care companies, it was two to three years of developing plans and provider networks and marketing plans. . . . There’s a lot of work that is required to implement any new program.”

 

The 2016 Election Reveals The Differences On Health Care Are Deeper Than Ever

http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2016/11/07/the-2016-election-reveals-the-differences-on-health-care-are-deeper-than-ever/

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We are nearing the grand finale of our long and disheartening election opera, one we dare not ignore because the outcomes matter so much. While the election results will not be determined by public reactions to the Affordable Care Act, the ACA’s fate will be mightily determined by Tuesday’s outcomes. What have we learned about our collective health future over the past 18 months and what might this mean for our health system’s future?

Public Opinion On Health Reform Is As Frozen Today As It Was In Spring, 2015

Kaiser monthly tracking polls show reliably unfavorable attitudes toward the ACA, slightly beating favorables, and stuck since 2014 in 40 percent purgatory. The advantages millions of Americans feel from ACA insurance coverage expansions and other access reforms are balanced by those who now blame the ACA for everything bad that happens in health care. The misnamed Pottery Barn rule—“if you break it, you own it”—applies here even though the dish was broken well before the ACA. Beyond this, if there is one thing on which both sides of the new Republican divide concur, it is a deep hostility towards ObamaCare. The election cycle seems to have only hardened these views.

Hillary Clinton’s healthcare proposals a mixed bag for nonprofits, Trump plan lacks detail, Fitch says

http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/hillary-clintons-healthcare-proposals-mixed-bag-nonprofits-trump-plan-lacks-detail-fitch-says

Clinton’s plan to expand Medicaid in the 19 states that declined to do so would benefit nonprofit hospitals in those states, Fitch says.

7 quotes from Geisinger’s Greg Burke on engaging patients and improving clinical hospitality

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/patient-engagement/7-quotes-from-geisinger-s-greg-burke-on-engaging-patients-and-improving-clinical-hospitality.html

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At Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger Health System, Greg Burke, MD, an internal medicine physician and chief patient experience officer, aims to ensure the system’s patients are treated with the same type of respect and attention comparable to that delivered to guests at upscale hotels.

In November 2015, Geisenger made national headlines when the system’s CEO David Feinberg, MD, announced patients dissatisfied with their care experience could request refunds for out-of-pocket costs. To date, the system has issued $400,000 in refunds to patients.

Recently, Dr. Burke spoke with U.S. News & World Report on issues surrounding the patient experience, as well as Geisenger’s patient refund program.

Here are seven quotes from Dr. Burke’s interview in U.S. News & World Report.

Why Geisinger posts negative physician reviews

http://www.healthcaredive.com/news/why-geisinger-posts-negative-physician-reviews/429810/

Late last month, CMS updated its Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating program, its first update since July. In the update, 112 hospitals are now deemed five-star hospitals, up from 102 five-star hospitals in July but down from 251 in April 2015. As Becker’s Hospital Review noted, the October release includes updated data on patient experience, safety, effectiveness and timeliness of care.

The star ratings are related to patient satisfaction with care experiences based on data from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey (HCAHPS) measures. The survey covers topics such as how well nurses and doctors communicated with patients, how responsive hospital staff were to patient needs, how clean and quiet hospital environments were and how well patients were prepared for post-hospital settings.

Opponents of the ratings have argued they oversimplify complex data and thereby convey misleading information that can harm reputations and reflect unfairly on certain hospitals. However, the move toward value-based care and transparency has led some healthcare organizations – such as Intermountain Healthcare and Geisinger Health System – to publish what patients think of them, for better or worse.

Patient stories have a greater impact on clinicians more than metrics like HCAHPS, Dr. Greg Burke, chief patient experience officer at Geisinger, told Healthcare Dive last week after a panel discussion on patient experience at U.S. News & World Report’s Healthcare of Tomorrow conference.

Geisinger serves more than 3 million residents throughout 45 counties in Pennsylvania. The physician-led system is comprised of approximately 30,000 employees, including nearly 1,600 employed physicians. It’s been in the news a bit lately due to its unorthodox move implementing its ProvenExperience money-back guarantee (It has refunded at least $400,000as of August). Burke stated that Geisinger posts about 97-98% of the comments it receives on the system’s clinicians.

Uninsured In Coal Country: Desperate Americans Still Turn To Volunteer Clinics

http://khn.org/news/uninsured-in-coal-country-desperate-americans-still-turn-to-volunteer-clinics/

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Six years after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, and despite 20 million more Americans gaining health insurance, considerable gaps in health care remain.

The decision by states like Virginia not to expand Medicaid and the lack of dental and vision coverage even for those with insurance have meant that the demand for RAM’s free mobile clinics has stayed strong.