Policy and Legislation
It's hard for policy wonks, politicians or health plans to be viewed credibly when promoting health care cost containment. Discussion quickly turns to "rationing," and "death panels," which no one wants to be associated with, and as a result the federal government has done almost everything possible to make sure cost effectiveness and overall costs are ignored in policy making.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has put a halt to what appeared to be smooth sailing for Marilyn Tavenner to officially take the helm of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Prior to Wednesday's budget hearing, Harkin put a hold on Tavenner's nomination.
While the number of medically uninsured young adults dropped over the past two years, coverage of the overall working age population failed to improve, according to the findings of the Commonwealth Fund's 2012 biennial health insurance survey released Friday.
The national plan to tackle Alzheimer's disease made strides in its first year but has much more ground to cover said witnesses testifying during a hearing Wednesday before the U.S. Senate's Special Committee on Aging.
The record slow growth rate in healthcare spending in recent years is the result largely of economic factors beyond the health system, with the economic recession and its fallout explaining 77 percent of the slowdown, according to a report released Monday by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Altarum Institute. If the economy strengthens as anticipated, healthcare spending will also accelerate, the two organizations concluded.
By a majority decision of 76%, a nine year renewal of a local property tax ensuring access to healthcare for the uninsured and underinsured was passed.
The debate about the increasing role of nurse practitioners was taken up by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) early in April, when the commission addressed issues of reimbursement for NPs and other non-physician practitioners.
The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved Marilyn Tavenner to head the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Tavenner, who has been temporarily running CMS for the past two years, now faces a full Senate vote before she can officially assume the position of CMS administrator.
Michael D. Miller, MD, owner of HealthPolCom Consulting, speaks with George Jones, CEO of Bread for the City, about health reform and access to care for Washington, D.C.'s low-income population.
As Arkansas prepares to implement its plan to expand Medicaid to those up to 138 percent of FPL via private plans on the state HIX, it still leaves many policy and cost questions unanswered.