The Health Care Blog – Page 862 – Everything you always wanted to know about the Health Care system. But were afraid to ask.

Above the Fold

Will Business Force Reform Back To The Drawing Board?

Nov 13, 2009• 62

By BRIAN KLEPPER and DAVID C. KIBBE

Brian Klepper Until now, non-health care business has been noticeably absent from the health care reform proceedings , and quiet about the bills’ impacts on their management of employee benefits, on cost, and on the larger issues of global competitiveness. Where have the voices been of the powerful business leaders who will pick up much of the tab?

They’ve finally surfaced, and now we’ll see whether they have the will to bring reform back on track. They certainly have the strength. The question is whether this salvo by the business mainstream could force Democrats to reconsider and revise the content and structure of their proposals.

On October 29th, a powerful collaborative of major employer organizations sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi and Republican Leader Boehner asserting that the House legislation “falls short of the bipartisan goal of controlling costs and jeopardizes employer-sponsored coverage which now serves more than 160 million Americans.” The same group sent a similar letter to Senate President Reid earlier that week.

Abortion Coverage Is About Math As Well As Politics

Nov 12, 2009• 16

By Al LEWIS

Let us start by acknowledging that those who think abortion is a sin must be respected, and not forced into a risk pool that covers abortion. Let us also acknowledge that those who are pro-choice need to acknowledge that abortion (except in the case of rape or incest or potential significant harm to the mother) is a personal choice (albeit usually as a result of an accident) rather than a health issue in the narrow sense of the word.

Therefore, leaving all the politics aside and just focusing on the question of what should be covered in a basic benefit, it is not unreasonable to require an actuarially appropriate rider to cover abortion.

What would that “actuarially appropriate rider” be? Probably only a dollar or two a month to begin with. Figure that there are 800,000 abortions per year. They cost maybe $1000 apiece. That’s $800,000,000. Divided by the 21-65 year-old health-insurance-buying population, we are talking about roughly $4/year. Next, figure some self-selection into the rider, so that people with the rider might, on average, think they have (for instance) three times the probability of an unwanted pregnancy than people without the rider, which is why they get the rider. Therefore their likelihood of abortion is three times higher than the average on which the above calculation was based. So that $4 becomes $12/year or $1/month, to begin with.

Regina Holliday’s mural for Fred

Nov 12, 2009• 2

By Matthew Holt

Regina’s story has been on THCB before—Fred’s Life & Death at 73 cents a page. But you may not have seen the mural. (From NPR)

The Best Health Care Idea All Year

Nov 11, 2009• 23

By ROBERT LASZEWSKI

Out of almost nowhere has come momentum for a proposal to create a bipartisan entitlement and tax commission to draft proposals to control the long-term costs of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The idea would require the Congress to quickly vote the recommendations up or down via a super majority vote.

The idea isn’t new–proposals for a such a commission have been around for a longtime.

What is new is the bipartisan enthusiasm that is growing–particularly in the Senate. Coming out of the Budget Committee, and Chairman Kent Conrad and Ranking Republican Judd Gregg, the idea is picking up bipartisan steam with, among others, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell expressing general support for the idea.

A number of Senators have threatened to tie their votes to raise the deficit ceiling to establishing such a commission.

If the recent Democratic health care bills have made one thing crystal clear it is that the Congress is wholly incapable of dealing with cost containment under present circumstances.

Robert Laszweski has been a fixture in Washington health policy circles for the better part of three decades. He currently serves as the president of Health Policy and Strategy Associates of Alexandria,
Virginia. Before forming HPSA in 1992, Robert served as the COO, Group Markets, for the Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. You can read more of his thoughtful analysis of healthcare industry trends at The Health Policy and Marketplace Blog, where this post first appeared.

Medicare’s Biggest Change in 40 Years on the Horizon?

Nov 11, 2009• 2

By Vince Kuraitis

Earlier this week CMS issued a typically cryptic Announcement indicating that they were shelving the Medicare Medical Home Demonstration (MMHD) and instead would focus on the recently announced Multi-Payer Advanced Primary Care Initiative (MAPCI). My blog post from Tuesday provides details and asks the question “What does all this mean?”

Medicare’s Biggest Change in 40 Years?

CMS’ Announcement about the rise of MAPCI and the fall of MMHD struck me as highly significant…but all the pieces didn’t fit. I’ve spent a fair amount of time emailing and talking with colleagues this week…and the big picture is emerging…and it’s really BIG. My working hypothesis is that Medicare is on the verge of its biggest
change in 40 years:

Medicare was created as a centralized, monolithic payment model.
It’s been one size fits all, and that size is created in Washington DC.
There has been little tolerance of regional administrative variability,
and the ironic result has been high variability in regional costs and
quality.
Medicare seems poised to do a 180. It’s signaling movement toward
supporting state-based, multipayer initiatives — where Medicare is at
the table and influential, but not in control. It’s a recognition that
health care is local and that unique solutions will be needed in
different regional markets. The Obama administration is demonstrating
strong support for the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) and
Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) as important building blocks in
this transition.Continue reading…

Dave Durenberger on Lieberman

Nov 11, 2009• 2

By Matthew Holt

Former Minnesota Senator Dave Durenberger, a thinking centrist Republican (remember them?) puts out an occasional newsletter full of gems. This is today’s zinger:

The Senate has a better bill than the House, but it also has a 60-vote requirement which empowers the odd-ball “if not my way, the highway” members – like Joe Lieberman claiming that something like a public insurance plan violates his “conscience.” I guess I don’t understand Conservative Judaism.

Intermountain – Proof That U.S. Hospitals Can Improve

Nov 10, 2009• 23

By MAGGIE MAHAR

I urge everyone to read this story by David Leonhardt in this Sunday’s (November 8) New York Times. (Thanks to reader Lisa Lindel for spotting it. )

Leonhardt profiles Intermountain Healthcare, a network of hospitals and clinics in Utah and Idaho that President Obama and others have described as a model for health reform.

Leonhardt concludes:

“If you simply looked at Intermountain’s overall results — the good outcomes and low costs — you might be tempted to dismiss them as a product of the environment. Utah has the youngest population of any state, as well one of the lowest rates of alcohol and tobacco use. More than half of the state’s residents are Mormons. This homogeneity creates a noticeable sense of community, even a sense of mission, among many Intermountain doctors and nurses.Continue reading…

The Federated Health System of America

Nov 10, 2009• 4

By GLENN LAFFEL

After a spy plane confirmed the Soviet Union was building launch platforms for first-strike ballistic missiles in Cuba in October, 1962, President John F. Kennedy convened his Joint Chiefs of Staff and cabinet members to help him decide how to respond.

Kennedy managed the diverse input he received, including surreal, saber-rattling rants from Air Force General Curtis Lemay, and eventually resolved the crisis. It was the closest we ever came to nuclear war.

But the consensus-based, inclusive leadership style JFK used to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis doesn’t seem to be working as well for President Obama as his Health Reform Express barrels towards an unknown final destination.

Take the latest cockamamie plans for the public option, for example. As the House and Senate struggle to cobble together some semblance of a bill, we hear that the end result is likely to contain a public option along with a rider that allows states to opt out of it if they so choose.This ridiculous compromise is the byproduct President Obama’s decision to let Congressional group-think generate a legislative package that (a)could pass Congress and (b)he could sign. In making this decision, Obama sacrificed his principles before the altar of political success.

Controlling Health Care Costs: How to “Bend the Curve”

Nov 10, 2009• 5

Stephen Shortell

By STEPHEN SHORTELL

As Congress nears passage of the first substantial health care reform in decades, there is an ominous challenge: No reform will be sustainable unless we slow the rapid growth of health care spending.

Health care costs are rising at a staggering pace. Expenditures have been increasing at 2.7% per year faster than the rest of the economy over the past 30 years. In 1980 the US spent about 8% of GDP on health care. We now spend over 17%. We need to rein in growth of health care spending to levels no higher than overall economic growth — or ideally “bend down” the growth curve to an even lower figure.

How do we “bend the curve”? What are the best ways to slow the growth of health care costs, thus making other reforms sustainable?There are three major areas in which reforms will help bring health care spending under control.Prevention: US health care is burdened by diseases that are preventable. If we can improve lifestyle issues – nutrition, exercise, obesity, tobacco use – we will lower the future incidence of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and other costly maladies. Current health reform proposals that allocate $10 billion for a Prevention and Wellness Fund represent a major step in the right direction. Disease prevention likely provides the greatest return on investment regarding health care costs of anything we do.

Hospital and Physician Behavior: Hospitals have no incentives to prevent unnecessary hospitalization. Physicians, paid mostly by fee-for-service, have every incentive to order more tests and procedures. Neither is rewarded directly for making – or keeping – patients healthy. Key to controlling health care costs in the future will be to realign these incentives.

This will require performance measurement and public reporting for both cost and quality. Provided that predetermined quality criteria are met, hospitals and physicians who can provide better care for less money would share in the savings.