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Sunday, August 29th, 2010US Senators Back Market Basket CMS Reform
Saturday, August 21st, 2010More than 20 percent of US Senators signed a letter to CMS Administrator Donald Berwick, MD, asking his help in implementing the market basket index in the Medicare ASC payment system. Click here to read the letter.
At least one governor is optimistic about a US Senate vote on additional Medicaid dollars
Saturday, August 21st, 2010Gov. Chris Gregoire is optimistic she won’t have to make deep cuts to state programs following a key Senate vote on additional federal Medicaid dollars.
The Senate voted 61-38 Wednesday morning to advance the bill, and is expected to vote on it later Wednesday or Thursday. It would extend programs enacted in last year’s…
Americans Cut Back on Visits to Doctor
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010WSJ says insured Americans are using fewer medical services, raising questions about whether patients are consuming less health care as they pick up a greater share of the costs. Read more here.
Doctors’ lobby losing clout on Hill
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010Months after delivering its crucial endorsement of the health care overhaul, the American Medical Association has found itself with fewer friends on Capitol Hill and more critics questioning its lobbying savvy.
Its troubles couldn’t come at a worse time: It is more dependent than ever on having allies in Congress, thanks to the growing…
Domestic medical travel is taking off for surgery deals
Friday, July 16th, 2010USAToday
When John McNally needed a knee-replacement operation, his employer, Alpha Coal West, offered to pay his travel expenses if he would have the surgery in Fort Collins, Colo., a five-hour drive from his home near Gillette, Wyo.
The Colorado surgery center had data showing good results with such operations, and it charged…
Obama Chooses Health Policy Scholar, AHA Trustee, as the Director for Medicare and Medicaid
Friday, April 2nd, 2010WASHINGTON — President Obama will soon name Dr. Donald M. Berwick, an iconoclastic scholar of health policy, to run Medicare and Medicaid, the programs that serve nearly one-third of all Americans, administration officials said Saturday.
Medical expenses have ‘very steep rate of growth’
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010Spending on health care consumed an estimated 17 cents of every dollar spent last year in the United States, representing the largest one-year increase since the federal government started tracking the number in 1960.
Medical Tourism
Thursday, January 21st, 2010Deloitte Center for Health Solutions estimates that 1.6 million Americans by 2012 will combine foreign vacations with outpatient surgery. Driving the trend: more coverage of overseas medical care by major U.S. insurers, an increase in individual insurance policies that carry a high deductible, and a marketing push by companies that combine travel and medical services…
Health Care’s ‘Radical Improver’
Friday, December 18th, 2009Jonathan Bush, chairman and CEO of Athenahealth, a major player in information technology services for physicians, spoke to the Wall Street Journal about electronic medical records, the health plan and “Project Mayhem.”
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