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Viewpoints: Controlling costs; Health law's guarantee of coverage; ACO liability

In the impassioned debates over healthcare, one fact is often lost - Americans pay more but get less for their health care than residents of other high-income countries. I believe we can change that. We can improve the quality of care and reduce our expenses, saving a trillion dollars or more a year, by making our health care system more efficient (William A. Haseltine, 6/17).

19 Jun 2013

PwC: Slowdown in health care costs may be turning into a trend

The accounting and consulting company PricewaterhouseCoopers projects lower overall growth in costs for next year.

19 Jun 2013

First Edition: June 18, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about a new publicity push in support of the health law.

18 Jun 2013

Report examines Medicare spending issues, geographic disparities and hospital payments

The report from the congressional advisory group MedPAC assesses a variety of issues, including penalties that Medicare has recently begun imposing on hospitals and how that affects facilities largely serving poor patients.

18 Jun 2013

Political battles congeal around IRS scandals, implementation questions

The Associated Press reports that the funding sought by the Obama administration for the Internal Revenue Service's health law activities could be in jeopardy as a result of recent scandals. Meanwhile, The Hill reports that GOP lawmakers are developing plans for handling constituents' questions about the health law.

18 Jun 2013

Viewpoints: Don't change course on Medicare reforms on medical equipment prices; Liberals' agenda depends on cutting entitlements; Making hospital prices public

Marilyn Tavenner has been administrator of Medicare and Medicaid officially for only about a month, but already she faces a policy challenge from Congress. A majority of the House, 145 Republicans and 82 Democrats, wrote to Ms. Tavenner on Wednesday, asking her to delay implementation of a Medicare cost-reduction initiative, scheduled to take full effect July 1, for six months.

18 Jun 2013

Health law's impact on premiums still a question

Meanwhile, news outlets report on the Obama administration's challenge to educate a largely uninformed public about the law's benefits.

18 Jun 2013

Federal officials give final OK for Florida's Medicaid managed care plan

Approval by the Obama administration was expected after it gave its initial go-ahead just hours before Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced his support for the health law's Medicaid expansion.

18 Jun 2013

MedeAnalytics unveils new Financial Strategy Analytics solution

Today MedeAnalytics, a leading provider of healthcare performance management solutions, introduced its new Financial Strategy Analytics solution, a powerful tool that enables hospitals and health systems to proactively manage finances, hone strategic planning, and optimize managed care performance metrics in the context of today's rapidly changing healthcare marketplace.

17 Jun 2013

First Edition: June 17, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about how states are tackling the implementation of specific provisions of the health law.

17 Jun 2013

Mount Sinai researchers present several new studies at ENDO 2013

Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai will present several new studies at ENDO 2013, The Endocrine Society's Annual Meeting & Expo from June 15-18 in San Francisco.

17 Jun 2013

ACP provides feedback to E&C Committee on legislative language to repeal SGR formula

The American College of Physicians (ACP) today sent a letter to the Energy and Commerce Committee (E&C) providing feedback on legislative language that the committee released on May 28, meant to repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula used for calculating Medicare payments to physicians and replace it with a fair and stable system.

15 Jun 2013

Immigrants' health care costs are hot topic on Capitol Hill

Other media reports detail Sen. Ron Wyden's proposal to allow accountable care organizations to focus on the sickest, most costly patients; questions from Rep. Darrell Issa, R.-Calif., about the navigator program's funding; and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's, D-Calif., angry response to a reporter's question about late-term abortions.

15 Jun 2013

Viewpoints: Good news from Medicare trustees; Medicaid no 'cure-all' for access to care

The 2013 Medicare Trustees Report had some good news. Costs per beneficiary grew just 0.7 percent in 2012, down from a 5.4 percent annual average since 1990. This is the third year of slow growth, and if the trend continues, our national finances will dramatically improve.

15 Jun 2013

State highlights: Ga. ponders higher health plan rates for employees

Home health care providers in Oregon and their allies say their industry is in a bind. The state's rural home health providers don't make as much as they should from serving Medicare patients, and the state's providers overall are slated for an even bigger hit next year, according to the industry's advocates and allies in Congress.

15 Jun 2013

Calif. regulator seeks to bar Anthem from small business health exchange

Meanwhile, Minnesota officials announce the opening of a call center Sept. 3 to answer consumer questions about the state's online insurance marketplace, which will begin enrolling people a month later.

15 Jun 2013

Teva to present abstracts on AZILECT at MDS meeting

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. announced today that a number of abstracts will be presented during the 17th Annual International Congress of Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders in Sydney, Australia, June 16-20, 2013, also known as the Movement Disorders Society.

15 Jun 2013

House representatives ask CMS to delay implementation of questionable procurement program

A bipartisan majority of 227 Representatives in the House have joined forces on a letter asking the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to delay implementation of a questionable procurement program for home medical equipment, says the American Association for Homecare.

15 Jun 2013

Research roundup: Studying states' readiness for insurance exchanges

Unauthorized immigrants' options for health care generally consist of hospital emergency rooms and community health centers. Using nationally representative survey data from 2000 to 2009, researchers compared medical spending for unauthorized immigrants, legal residents, naturalized citizens, and natives of the United States and found that "unauthorized immigrants have lower health care spending overall but higher rates of receiving uncompensated care than legal immigrants and US natives."

15 Jun 2013

House lawmakers appear closer on Medicare pay overhaul, Medicaid pay increase

House lawmakers move closer to proposing a plan to overhaul how Medicare pays doctors and wonder how they can increase doctors' Medicaid pay -- typically the purview of states.

15 Jun 2013