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Paying doctors and hospitals for better outcomes may not pay off

Medicare's largest effort to pay bonuses to hospitals that hit key performance measures -- or dock them if they miss -- did not lead to fewer deaths for heart attacks and heart bypass surgery, a new study finds. The analysis could lead to a reexamination of the idea of paying providers based on quality metrics, rather than on volume, which is key to the health law.

30 Mar 2012

The Supreme Court arguments are over - what happens now?

News outlets sum up the oral arguments and preview when to expect a decision, what impact the legal review might have on politics and what other ripple effects could occur.

30 Mar 2012

House poised to approve Ryan budget plan

Passage of the GOP budget advanced by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., will likely be along party lines. Meanwhile, a bipartisan alternative was rejected Wednesday.

30 Mar 2012

Viewpoints: IPAB should be 'embraced'; World Bank nominee 'exactly what the doctor ordered'

Controlling costs will require a devilish balancing act among practitioners who resist change, consumer demand and best practices, and IPAB should experiment before imposing radical changes systemwide. But given the devastating, and growing, effects of Medicare spending on the federal debt, the U.S. can't afford not to have an IPAB. The board should be embraced, not feared.

30 Mar 2012

Roundup: N.H., Kansas move towards health care 'compacts'; Mass. payment reform 'not enough'?

The N.H. House has voted to form an interstate health care compact, rejecting an effort to instead study the cost implications for New Hampshire if the state assumed control for health care within its boundaries. Under the bill, the states would receive block grants from the federal government and would take over Medicare and Medicaid.

30 Mar 2012

NABJ convenes first day of annual Media Institute on Health conference

Today, the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convened the first day of its annual Media Institute on Health: Health Policy and Health Inequities, March 29-31, at the Kaiser Family Foundation's Barbara Jordan Conference Center.

30 Mar 2012

Calif. readies Medicaid changes for dual-eligibles, adult day care program; Other Medicaid news from the states

California is revamping its adult day health care program as well as its program for people who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. In Florida, a judge orders the Medicaid program there to cover autism therapy, and Georgia prepares to restructure its program.

30 Mar 2012

First Edition: March 29, 2012

Today's health policy headlines include reports detailing Wednesday's Supreme Court oral arguments on severability as well as the Medicaid expansion. News coverage also sums up the week's high court activity and looks forward to what might happen next.

29 Mar 2012

State roundup: Georgia's child-only insurance policies; N.Y. exchange impasse

The Senate's Republican majority refused to agree to create a "health exchange," or state-based health insurance market required under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, for individuals and small businesses to insure more Americans.

29 Mar 2012

Hawthorn and Cypress settle Medicaid fraud lawsuit

Hawthorn Pharmaceuticals Inc. and its parent company, Cypress Pharmaceutical Inc., have paid the federal government and certain states a total of $2.8 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit filed by Phillips & Cohen LLP that alleged Hawthorn falsely marketed unapproved prescription drugs as being eligible for reimbursement by Medicaid and other government health care programs.

29 Mar 2012

Change in registry protocols leads to underreporting of myeloid malignancies

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., and colleagues from the UF Shands Cancer Center in Gainesville, Fla., have found that cases of myeloid malignancies are being underreported since a change in registry protocols and laboratory practices starting in 2001.

29 Mar 2012

Capital Caring to honor ML Strategies' Senior VP with Distinguished Advocacy Partner Award

Tom Koutsoumpas, Senior Vice President of ML Strategies, is being honored by Capital Caring for his efforts to improve hospice services in Washington, D.C. Mr. Koutsoumpas will be presented with the Distinguished Advocacy Partner Award at the fifth annual "Hospice Comes to Washington" event on Wednesday, March 28, 2012.

29 Mar 2012

Bipartisan group of lawmakers offers budget plan modeled on Simpson-Bowles

The group of House members has incorporated in a new budget proposal parts of the plan put forward by an Obama-backed deficit reduction commission. The effort is likely to be rejected by the House this week.

29 Mar 2012

Cumulative negative impact of Medicare, Medicaid payment reductions on nursing facilities

Noting that sufficient levels of skilled nursing staff are essential to providing high quality care and reducing unnecessary, costly hospital readmissions, the new Spring 2012 Care Context health policy paper released today by the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care (AQNHC), with analytic support from Avalere Health, examines the cumulative negative impact of Medicare and Medicaid payment reductions on nursing facilities (NFs).

29 Mar 2012

Viewpoints: Why doctors find it hard to tell the truth; The fruits of biomedical research; Cheney's 'taxpayer-subsidized' benefits

Last month, an article in the journal Health Affairs made headlines in the news media - "Physicians Are Not Always Open or Honest with Patients." A vast majority of the nearly 2,000 doctors surveyed agreed that physicians should be fully open and honest in all their communications with patients. ... I suspect that the dishonesty that is being uncovered in a study such as this - and frankly, I was amazed that the number of less-than-truthful instances was so low - reveals more about the diagnosis of being human than anything else. ... I couldn't bring myself to tell this young mother that she was going to die."

29 Mar 2012

Perspectives on health law challenge: Does court recognize its own limits?; A dubious link to Civil Rights Act; The burden on young people

In ruling on the constitutionality of requiring most Americans to obtain health insurance, the Supreme Court faces a central test: whether it will recognize limits on its own authority to overturn well-founded acts of Congress.

29 Mar 2012

UICOMP to join provider network of Coventry Health Care

Effective April 1, 2012, the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria will join the provider network of Coventry Health Care of Illinois, Inc. to serve area members.

29 Mar 2012

ASGE announces honorees of new endoscopy unit recognition program

The American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) has recognized 18 endoscopy units as part of its program specifically dedicated to promoting quality in endoscopy, in all settings where it is practiced in the United States.

29 Mar 2012

First Edition: March 28, 2012

Today's headlines recap yesterday's Supreme Court action related to the constitutionality of the individual mandate and set the scene for day 3 of the oral arguments, which will tackle issues of severalbility and questions about the health law's Medicaid expansion.

28 Mar 2012

Heart bypass surgery appears to carry higher long-term survival rate

Patients with coronary heart disease and their doctors have long been challenged by the decision of whether to pursue bypass surgery or opt for the less-invasive percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI, which includes stenting and balloon angioplasty). New evidence reveals bypass surgery appears to carry a higher long-term survival rate, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 61st Annual Scientific Session.

28 Mar 2012

Medicare News and Research

Paying doctors and hospitals for better outcomes may not pay off

The Supreme Court arguments are over - what happens now?

House poised to approve Ryan budget plan

Viewpoints: IPAB should be 'embraced'; World Bank nominee 'exactly what the doctor ordered'

Roundup: N.H., Kansas move towards health care 'compacts'; Mass. payment reform 'not enough'?

NABJ convenes first day of annual Media Institute on Health conference

Calif. readies Medicaid changes for dual-eligibles, adult day care program; Other Medicaid news from the states

First Edition: March 29, 2012

State roundup: Georgia's child-only insurance policies; N.Y. exchange impasse

Hawthorn and Cypress settle Medicaid fraud lawsuit

Change in registry protocols leads to underreporting of myeloid malignancies

Capital Caring to honor ML Strategies' Senior VP with Distinguished Advocacy Partner Award

Bipartisan group of lawmakers offers budget plan modeled on Simpson-Bowles

Cumulative negative impact of Medicare, Medicaid payment reductions on nursing facilities

Viewpoints: Why doctors find it hard to tell the truth; The fruits of biomedical research; Cheney's 'taxpayer-subsidized' benefits

Perspectives on health law challenge: Does court recognize its own limits?; A dubious link to Civil Rights Act; The burden on young people

UICOMP to join provider network of Coventry Health Care

ASGE announces honorees of new endoscopy unit recognition program

First Edition: March 28, 2012

Heart bypass surgery appears to carry higher long-term survival rate

Expanding access to NMR with the Fourier 80 Duo

Advancing Intracellular Delivery with LumiPore®

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

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