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First Edition: December 18, 2013

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about the former Microsoft executive who has been tapped by the Obama administration to take over the repairs of healthcare.gov.

18 Dec 2013

State highlights: D.C. Charter School's Medicaid billing investigated; Va. budget: Hospital cuts, Medicaid boost

Federal investigators are looking into whether former leaders of the District's Options Public Charter School committed Medicaid fraud by, among other things, exaggerating the needs of its disabled students and paying students with gift cards to ride school buses, according to several people familiar with the criminal investigation (Brown and Marimow, 12/16).

18 Dec 2013

Viewpoints: All eyes on insurers; an employer's perspective on health law; budget peace may not last long

When will the insurers revolt? It's a question that's popping up more and more. On the surface, the question answers itself. We're talking about pinstriped insurance company executives, not Hell's Angels. One doesn't want to paint with too broad a brush, but if you were going to guess which vocations lend themselves least to revolutionary zeal, the actuary sciences rank slightly behind embalmers (Jonah Goldberg, 12/17).

18 Dec 2013

Insurers object to charity helping poor buy health coverage

The charity, A Better LA, said it would sign up 50 low-income Californians for Obamacare plans, but insurers protested that such help could skew insurance pools toward sicker people, The Wall Street Journal reports.

17 Dec 2013

GOP support rising in Senate for budget deal

The deal, struck by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), is intended to end nearly three years of acrimony over the budget in Washington. It would cancel half the sequester cuts for the current fiscal year, replace them with other savings and allow Congress to avert another government shutdown in January.

17 Dec 2013

First Edition: December 17, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about how the health law is viewed by immigrant populations.

17 Dec 2013

MAXIMUS to manage IPA program to support West Virginia's health insurance marketplace

MAXIMUS, a leading provider of government services worldwide, announced today that it has signed a new contract with the West Virginia Offices of the Insurance Commissioner to develop, manage and maintain an In-Person Assister program to support the state's health insurance marketplace. The $4.5 million contract began on July 15, 2013 and will run through July 15, 2014.

17 Dec 2013

New report shows death rates for lung cancer dropping at a faster pace

The Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, covering the period 1975, showed death rates for lung cancer, which accounts for more than one in four cancer deaths, dropping at a faster pace than in previous years. The recent larger drop in lung cancer deaths is likely the result of decreased cigarette smoking prevalence over many years, and is now being reflected in mortality trends. The lung cancer death rate decline, as well as declines in colorectal, breast, and prostate cancer death rates, has also helped drive decreases in death rates for all cancers types combined, a trend that began about 20 years ago.

17 Dec 2013

Less than 15% of residency programs teach new physicians to practice cost-conscious care

Despite a national consensus among policy makers and educators to train residents to be more conscious of the cost of care, less than 15 percent of internal medicine residency programs have a formal curriculum addressing it, a new research letter published today in JAMA Internal Medicine by a Penn Medicine physician found.

17 Dec 2013

Individuals still getting errors from health website as notifications to insurers lag

The Wall Street Journal looks at some of the inaccurate assignments that many consumers find when they seek insurance on the new marketplaces. Meanwhile, the enrollment records for 15,000 people were not properly transmitted to insurance plans, according to federal officials.

17 Dec 2013

State highlights: Fewer visits to Texas women's clinics after planned parenthood exclusion; Minn. health spending growth slows

To stop Planned Parenthood clinics from receiving public financing, Texas' Republican leaders gambled that the state could operate a contraception and cancer-screening program for low-income women without tens of millions of federal dollars. But with the exclusion of about 40 Planned Parenthood clinics -- none of which performed abortions -- from the Texas Women's Health Program in 2013, records showed that claims for birth control and wellness exams dropped, as did enrollment numbers (Aaronson, 12/12).

16 Dec 2013

Viewpoints: States need to expand Medicaid to benefit all; lies about immigrants and doctors; antibiotics and animals

Expanding Medicaid costs states a pittance compared with the financial and social benefits they'll receive. Denying your constituents a chance to get health insurance out of political pique comes perilously close to governmental malpractice.

16 Dec 2013

Research roundup: Long-term care use varies dramatically by state; health spending slowdown explained

In 2012, about 58,500 paid, regulated long-term care services providers served about 8 million people in the United States. Long-term care services were provided by 4,800 adult day services centers, 12,200 home health agencies, 3,700 hospices, 15,700 nursing homes, and 22,200 assisted living and similar residential care communities. Each day in 2012, there were 273,200 participants enrolled in adult day services centers, 1,383,700 residents in nursing homes, and 713,300 residents in residential care communities; in 2011, about 4,742,500 patients received services from home health agencies, and 1,244,500 patients received services from hospices. Provider sectors differed in ownership, and average size and supply varied by region (Harris-Kojetin et al., 12/12).

16 Dec 2013

ACA sets standards to ensure that consumers get coverage options in every state in the U.S.

As health insurance moves to a direct-to-consumer model, identifying where consumers are located and what health plan options are available in local markets is essential. The Affordable Care Act is reshaping the industry and setting standards to ensure that consumers have coverage options in all geographies of every state in the U.S. Companies participating in the Marketplace (Exchanges) are using county market share and penetration rates to identify underinsured opportunities for Medicaid and Commercial market expansion.

16 Dec 2013

NJHA's CEO wins FDR Visionary Award from March of Dimes

Betsy Ryan, Esq., president and CEO of the New Jersey Hospital Association, today was presented with the FDR Visionary Award from the March of Dimes, New Jersey Chapter.

15 Dec 2013

Analysis provides first empirical evidence on how shared savings ACO model affect quality of care

Approximately 10 percent of Medicare spending is for cancer care, and Medicare spending is nearly four times higher for beneficiaries with cancer than in those without the disease. Little is known about how to curb spending growth while maintaining or improving quality of care for these high-risk, high-cost patients.

14 Dec 2013

Medicare News and Research

First Edition: December 18, 2013

State highlights: D.C. Charter School's Medicaid billing investigated; Va. budget: Hospital cuts, Medicaid boost

Viewpoints: All eyes on insurers; an employer's perspective on health law; budget peace may not last long

Insurers object to charity helping poor buy health coverage

GOP support rising in Senate for budget deal

First Edition: December 17, 2013

MAXIMUS to manage IPA program to support West Virginia's health insurance marketplace

New report shows death rates for lung cancer dropping at a faster pace

Less than 15% of residency programs teach new physicians to practice cost-conscious care

Individuals still getting errors from health website as notifications to insurers lag

State highlights: Fewer visits to Texas women's clinics after planned parenthood exclusion; Minn. health spending growth slows

Viewpoints: States need to expand Medicaid to benefit all; lies about immigrants and doctors; antibiotics and animals

Research roundup: Long-term care use varies dramatically by state; health spending slowdown explained

ACA sets standards to ensure that consumers get coverage options in every state in the U.S.

NJHA's CEO wins FDR Visionary Award from March of Dimes

Analysis provides first empirical evidence on how shared savings ACO model affect quality of care

High-risk pool extension gives sick Americans more time to choose a health plan

Celebrities sell Obamacare using rap, social media

Budget deal, with 3-month 'doc fix' moves to Senate

First Edition: December 13, 2013

Advancing Intracellular Delivery with LumiPore®

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

The role of UV-Vis in biopharma QC

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