Health Reform News and Research

RSS

Health care fraud a hot topic on Capitol Hill

Hearings in the House and Senate Wednesday examined public and private efforts to address health care fraud. And the Government Accountability Office issued a new report on fraudulent or improper billing to Medicare.

3 Mar 2011

Block grant plan among Medicaid alternatives eyed by GOP

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is among those who advocate this concept, but the Obama administration's Medicaid chief "shot down" the approach.

3 Mar 2011

1099 repeal measure's pay-for mechanism triggers democratic concern

With a House vote scheduled for Thursday, the White House is on record opposing the "offset" used to pay for the repeal of this reporting provision included in the health law, but it also stopped short of threatening a veto. This part of the bill also may cause it to lose bipartisan support in the lower chamber.

3 Mar 2011

Roundup: States' angst and anger continues about Medicaid, health spending cuts

Ken Kewley woke up Tuesday without health insurance for the first time in nearly nine years. So did most of the 41,467 other Pennsylvanians who had been covered by adultBasic, a state-subsidized insurance program for the working poor that Gov. Tom Corbett shut down on Monday in one of the largest disenrollments in recent memory.

2 Mar 2011

SCAI statement highlights multiple recommendations for evaluating PCI quality at cardiac facilities

Today the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions announced the publication of recommendations for assessing and improving program quality at percutaneous coronary intervention programs at cardiac facilities.

2 Mar 2011

Obama Administration urges Florida Judge to clear up health law confusion

In its arguments for clarification from Federal District Court Judge Roger Vinson, the administration said this step is necessary so that they know how to proceed in defending the law and implementing its provisions.

2 Mar 2011

Viewpoints: GOP Govs. on Medicaid 'flexibility'; 'attack' on planned parenthood; following doctors' orders not so easy

Medicaid is bureaucratic and costly, and the stimulus and new federal health care law have made a bad problem even worse, shackling states with unrealistic mandates.

2 Mar 2011

Obama’s health care reform: States may now choose to opt out

President Obama yesterday [Monday] has allowed states to choose to opt out of his big health-care reform overhaul and design their own health systems, as long as they meet the overall goals of the national plan. However critics feel, this was bound to happen anyway.

28 Feb 2011

Obama administration awaiting next reform ruling from Florida judge

Politico reports that the expected ruling could be another blow for the White House. Meanwhile, The Hill analyzes the importance of the fact that all the judges who have ruled thus far on health law challenges have agreed that the individual mandate involves a penalty, not a tax.

28 Feb 2011

Viewpoints: Judge Kessler's decision; Utah is role model; Malpractice system flaws

The Republican strategy is to split the vast middle and working classes -- pitting unionized workers against nonunionized, public-sector workers against nonpublic, older workers within sight of Medicare and Social Security against younger workers who don't believe these programs will be there for them and the poor against the working middle class.

28 Feb 2011

State News: N.Y. Medicaid's compromise; Va. ups health spending; Medi-Cal ruling

One of the most familiar criticisms of the new national health care law is that it doesn't do much to contain costs. ... Cost controls are supposed to come later. "Later" has arrived now for Massachusetts' statewide plan, enacted in 2006 and similar in many ways to the federal one. Some 98 percent of all adults and nearly 100 percent of all children are covered, but costs have spiraled out of control.

28 Feb 2011

First Edition: February 28, 2011

Today's headlines include news about the budge struggles the nation's governors continue to face -- with Medicaid spending a central issue.

28 Feb 2011

Temporary budget compromise would not defund health law

News outlets covered the ongoing saga of whether Congress and the president will avert a government shutdown.

28 Feb 2011

Progressive groups offer support for maintaining Medicaid requirements

The nation's governors are will be in Washington this weekend for the National Governors Association winter meeting. Budget issues, especially related to Medicaid spending and other health costs, will be a hot topic.

28 Feb 2011

Research Roundup: Health costs at life's end; Assessing hospital quality; Surgeons' burnout; Per capita Medicaid spending

Annals of Internal Medicine: Determinants Of Medical Expenditures In The Last 6 Months Of Life - Identifying factors about patients in the final six months of life that affect the level of care needed "may reveal opportunities for patient-centered interventions to predict and to reduce medical costs," write the authors, while noting that the study had "a large proportion of unexplained variation."

25 Feb 2011

State News: Ga. Senate oks insurance mandates bill; Va. Assembly says abortion clinics should be regulated as hospitals

State agencies, county prosecutors, insurance companies, and health care employers and associations are mandatory reporters — they're required to report potentially dangerous and unprofessional doctors to medical regulators, who can bar the doctors from practicing and keep patients out of harm's way. But the mandatory reporters sound few alarms, and when they do, regulators rarely take action, the Tribune found.

25 Feb 2011

HHS offers new grants to help states with insurance rate reviews

These grants are designed to assist states in creating or enhancing their reviews of the premiums charged by health insurance companies.

25 Feb 2011

Humana CEO hails the importance of the health care consumer

But on Capitol Hill, Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., released a fact sheet detailing the profits earned by the nation's five largest insurers — including Humana — and touted health law provisions that would increase transparency from the insurance industry.

25 Feb 2011

Poll finds 1 in 5 Americans think health law was repealed

Coverage continues regarding a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released Thursday that found a surprising degree of confusion about the status of the federal health overhaul.

25 Feb 2011

First Edition: February 25, 2011

Today's headlines include reports about developments in New York's Medicaid program and other state-level news.

25 Feb 2011

Health Reform News and Research

Health care fraud a hot topic on Capitol Hill

Block grant plan among Medicaid alternatives eyed by GOP

1099 repeal measure's pay-for mechanism triggers democratic concern

Roundup: States' angst and anger continues about Medicaid, health spending cuts

SCAI statement highlights multiple recommendations for evaluating PCI quality at cardiac facilities

Obama Administration urges Florida Judge to clear up health law confusion

Viewpoints: GOP Govs. on Medicaid 'flexibility'; 'attack' on planned parenthood; following doctors' orders not so easy

Obama’s health care reform: States may now choose to opt out

Obama administration awaiting next reform ruling from Florida judge

Viewpoints: Judge Kessler's decision; Utah is role model; Malpractice system flaws

State News: N.Y. Medicaid's compromise; Va. ups health spending; Medi-Cal ruling

First Edition: February 28, 2011

Temporary budget compromise would not defund health law

Progressive groups offer support for maintaining Medicaid requirements

Research Roundup: Health costs at life's end; Assessing hospital quality; Surgeons' burnout; Per capita Medicaid spending

State News: Ga. Senate oks insurance mandates bill; Va. Assembly says abortion clinics should be regulated as hospitals

HHS offers new grants to help states with insurance rate reviews

Humana CEO hails the importance of the health care consumer

Poll finds 1 in 5 Americans think health law was repealed

First Edition: February 25, 2011

How ELRIG Is Helping Mid-Career Scientists Navigate Leadership, Career Change and Redundancy

The role of UV-Vis in biopharma QC

Applications Engineer

Latest News