Jun 24 2011
And in other health law implementation news, House GOP lawmakers lashed out at the administration waiver process during a Capitol Hill press conference.
CQ HealthBeat: Medicare ACO Proposal Continues To Draw Concerns
The idea of coordinating care through accountable care organizations used to be a non-ideological notion. Not anymore. At a briefing for Capitol Hill staff sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, conservative critics complained about the Obama administration's work on ACOs. That included what one critic called the "really quite weird details" of the proposed regulation on ACOs, called the Medicare shared savings program, that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued March 31 (Adams, 6/22).
California Healthline: Accounting For The ACO Backlash by Recounting DRG Fight
DRGs, or diagnosis-related groups, were a key element in the government's shift from reimbursing hospitals for costs-in-full to uniform, standardized payments for a course of care. At the time, it was the most significant change to Medicare since the program launched in 1965. Providers groused over prospective payment, but compared with the current outrage over ACOs, the grumbling wasn't as loud or savvy (Diamond, 6/22).
Meanwhile -
McClatchy: House Republicans Blast Health Care Law Waivers
Republicans waged a sharply worded attack Wednesday on the Obama administration's efforts to relax some of the new health care rules that affect businesses, unions and states. Their rhetoric at a midmorning outdoor news conference became as overheated as the weather, leaving little doubt that Republicans intend to use the health care law as a punching bag in the 2012 elections, much as they did in 2010 (Goldstein, 6/22).
Roll Call: Heard On The Hill: Walsh Swears This Is A Story
Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) of alligator moat fame is OUTRAGED! And he would like to know why others aren't outraged, too. On Wednesday Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.), the rest of the Kansas House delegation and other Representatives held a press conference demanding Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius explain why some groups have been exempt from certain provisions in the health care law (Semnani, 6/23).
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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Study examines potential impact of the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan on cancer patients