Policy and Legislation
The Obama administration announced that it has delayed until 2015 the healthcare reform law's requirement that businesses with more than 50 employees must offer them insurance, bending to criticism that requirements were burdensome and complex.
Proposed changes to the Medicare home health prospective payment system (HH PPS) will save the government approximately $290 million but the resulting cuts have home health agencies concerned.
An FDA request for proof of a mobile product's clearance sets off latest debate, while a lot of 'money is sitting on the sidelines,' around the expected October release of FDA mobile health regulations.
A recent report released by Standard & Poor's Rating Services says their rating agency is concerned that Big Pharma's current American pricing flexibility may diminish increasingly over the next few years due to rapidly growing costs of Medicare and Social Security with the aging of the U.S. population, and public and private sector healthcare payers looking to control their medical expenses.
With a number of studies indicating that one in three patients enters U.S. hospitals malnourished and many more becoming malnourished once admitted, five organizations decided to band together to launch the Alliance to Advance Patient Nutrition.
Lawmakers introduce bill to extend Federal Tort Claims Act liability protection to practitioners volunteering at community health centers and free clinics.
Managed Care Magazine recently ran a story on the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Alternative Quality Contract, which serves as a model for the ACO program under the Affordable Care Act. Check it out: Bay State Blues Combine Global Payment With Quality Metrics. The author of the piece, Joe Burns, contacted me as well as others in Massachusetts for comment.
Between 1980 and 2009, healthcare expenditures grew by 7.4 percent, which most economists agree would bankrupt the nation if continued. But a closer look at the statistics reveals that the last 10 years in that period saw only a 5.9 percent increase, and the spending growth from 2009 to 2011 dropped to 3.1 percent.
Findings in a JAMA article indicate that providers may need to focus on methods beyond care coordination and disease management in order to reduce costs among Medicare patients with chronic conditions and a high portion of spending,
Data from 10 states that will offer more health plans in the non-group market on their health insurance exchanges may also lower prices, according to analysis from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.