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Tag Archives: Medicare
In Nod to Sanders, Clinton Offers New Health Care Proposals
Clinton’s campaign says the proposal is part of her plan to provide universal health care coverage in the United States. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee also is reaffirming her support for a public-option insurance plan and for expanding Medicare by letting people age 55 year and older opt in.
Mr. Trump, Here’s Some Health Policy Advice — From a Physician
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Blogs/KevinMD/57318?xid=fb_o_
Free-market healthcare won’t last long in modern society, says Saurabh Jha, MD
The Fundamentally Different Goals of the Affordable Care Act and Republican ‘Replacement’ Plans
Rep. Pete Sessions and Sen. Bill Cassidy introduced legislation last month calling for replacing elements of the Affordable Care Act. A House task force established by SpeakerPaul Ryan is expected to follow with more health-care proposals. These Republican health plans are generally referred to as “replacements” for the ACA–in the spirit of “repeal and replace”–as though they would accomplish the same objectives in ways that conservatives prefer. But the proposals are better understood as alternatives with very different goals, trade-offs, and consequences. Whether they are “better” or “worse” depends on your perspective.
To boil down to the most basic differences: The central focus of the Affordable Care Act is expanding coverage and strengthening consumer protections in the health insurance marketplace through government regulation. By contrast, the primary objective of Republican plans is to try to reduce health-care spending by giving people incentives to purchase less costly insurance with more “skin in the game,” with the expectation that they will become more prudent consumers of health services. They also aim to reduce federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid and the federal government’s role in both programs. Elements of the ACA were designed to reduce costs, such as the law’s Medicare payment reforms, and elements of Republican plans such as tax credits aim to expand access to insurance, but the primary aims of the ACA and the Republican plans differ.
Advance Planning For Your End-Of-Life Care
Starting in October, Medi-Cal — the state’s version of the federal Medicaid program for low-income residents — began covering advance care planning discussions between doctors (or other qualified providers) and patients (or a family member), said Tony Cava, spokesman for the state Department of Health Care Services, which administers Medi-Cal.
Any Medi-Cal recipient can use the coverage regardless of age, he said. Doctors can bill for the conversation twice a year per patient — plus an additional 30 minutes for one of the conversations — before they have to seek authorization for more coverage.
Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people 65 and older, and for people younger than 65 who have certain disabilities, started covering the discussions on Jan. 1.Medicare does not limit the number of discussions per patient each year.
Justice Department joins lawsuit against Prime Healthcare
http://www.healthcaredive.com/news/justice-department-joins-lawsuit-against-prime-healthcare/419849/
The U.S. Justice Department recently filed notice in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles that it is partly intervening in a whistle-blower case against Prime Healthcare Services. The whistle-blower lawsuit alleges that Prime Healthcare fraudulently billed Medicare for beneficiaries admitted as inpatients instead of treating them as outpatients.
http://www.healthcaredive.com/news/doj-accuses-prime-of-driving-up-medicare-admissions/421800/
CDC reveals Americans are going to the ED more than you think
Health policy leaders to HHS: More bundled payment models, please
- The Center for American Progress (CAP) and other health policy leaders issued a joint letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell advocating further advancement in Medicare payment reform.
- The signatories seek additional mandatory bundled payment demonstrations, arguing they would show stakeholders — including hospitals, physicians, device manufacturers, skilled nursing facilities, and home healthcare agencies — that aggressive expansion is coming for bundled payments and other payment reforms.
- CAP has long advocated for Medicare to expand its most successful bundled payment models, including its Acute Care Episode demonstration project.
Health care spending: some room for optimism
http://blog.academyhealth.org/health-care-spending-some-room-for-optimism/
This chart, produced by the Bipartisan Policy Center based on CBO data from 2011, shows the projected spending on health care, social security, discretionary, and mandatory by the federal government, as a percentage of GDP. As you can see, for all our hyperventilation about social security, it’s relatively stable once we get about 20 years out. Discretionary and other mandatory spending are similarly flat over time. But healthcare… that’s what’s going to get us.
Medicare has funding through 2028, trustees say, 2 years less than earlier thought
HENRY KOTULA 