Health Care Policy and Reform Insights | NCPA

Tag: "Medicare"

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

Democrats vote to keep White House tours closed.

Medicare paid $5.1 billion for stays in nursing homes that did not meet quality-of-care requirements.

Harry Reid blocks a vote to prevent airport delays and closures.

Halfway houses don’t work.

Only 5.5% of patients email their doctors.

Mar 27, 2013 | 11 comments | by John Goodman

The Path We Are On

Current law requires:

Medicare to slash physician fees by 25 percent next January (under the BBA).
Additional (ObamaCare-required) cuts to physician fees so severe that by 2030, Medicare will be paying doctors 60 percent less than private health insurance plans (and nearly one-third less than Medicaid pays!).
ObamaCare-mandated reductions in payments to hospitals so drastic that hospital prices for both Medicare and Medicaid will be around half those paid by private health insurers by the year 2040.
Eventually, payment reductions to hospitals will mean they are paid 61 percent less by Medicare and Medicaid than by private health insurers; physicians eventually will be paid 74 percent less under Medicare than private insurance.

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

In its first three years, President Obama’s healthcare law has imposed more than $30 billion in costs and 111 million hours of paperwork burdens.

Individual insurance premiums are about to go up by one-third.

White House: If Congress addresses the nation’s budget deficit by cutting Medicare, that will simply shift health care costs to the private sector.

What do they think ObamaCare does?

ACA health insurance application asks about voter registration.

Mar 27, 2013 | 13 comments | by John Goodman

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

Only 6% of U.S. workers are very confident that future Medicare benefits will be equal in value to what seniors receive today.

Workplace wellness programs may not save companies money.

A growing number of doctors have begun holding group appointments — seeing up to a dozen patients with similar medical concerns all at once.

What Medicare pays for an ambulance trip is highly variable, ranging from $99 to $1,218 per transport.

Mar 20, 2013 | 13 comments | by John Goodman

Increased Medicare Costs Due To Aging, and Other Links

Nearly three-quarters of the spending increases in Medicare over the next two decades can be attributed to aging alone. HT: Arnold Kling.

Miracles happen: The FDA decides to err on the side of drug approval.

Latvian PM to Krugman: By ignoring your advice we became the fastest growing economy in Europe.

Mar 18, 2013 | 12 comments | by John Goodman

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

HHS gives approval for Medicare provider to give away $20 grocery gift cards to induce seniors to get more health screenings. They needed permission? HT: Tyler

Hospitals average only 1.51% in uncompensated care — equally less than half their profit margins.

Study: 1 in 12 ICU patients die from something other than what they were being treated for.

GAO: Unfunded (75 year) liability in ObamaCare: $6.2 trilion.

Mar 15, 2013 | 9 comments | by John Goodman

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

ObamaCare tax increases are double original estimate.

The draft application to determine eligibility for ObamaCare subsidies includes a 21-page questionnaire.

Although Medicare spending for patients with advance cancers varies regionally, those differences are unrelated to survival rates.

One-third of U.S. counties are shrinking ― births exceed deaths.

Mar 14, 2013 | 14 comments | by John Goodman

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

Study: CT scans probably cause 2% of cancer cases in the U.S.

Most women with ovarian cancer miss out on treatments that could add a year or more to their lives.

Bad news for Medicare Advantage plans: national enrollment drop of 11 percent, and an average benefit loss of $2,235 per beneficiary.

Nurse refused to perform CPR to avoid liability.

Mar 12, 2013 | 11 comments | by John Goodman

In February, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) sent out the 31 proposed quality targets that pioneers would have to meet if they wanted to receive bonus payments. Bonuses would be based on their ability to meet those targets beginning in 2013. But then, last week, 30 of the pioneers sent a letter to CMMI complaining that at least 19 of the quality targets had too little data behind them and were therefore unfair, unreasonable and even arbitrary.

More on accountable care strategies in the Kaiser Health News blog.

Mar 08, 2013 | 10 comments | by John Goodman