Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: April 6, 2015
Kaiser Health News: Medicare Is Stingy In First Year Of Doctor Bonuses
Within three years, the Obama administration wants quality of care to be considered in allocating nine of every 10 dollars Medicare pays directly to providers to treat the elderly and disabled. One part of that effort is well underway: revising hospital payments based on excess readmissions, patient satisfaction and other quality measures. Expanding this approach to physicians is touchier, as many are suspicious of the government judging them and reluctant to share performance metrics that Medicare requests. "Without having any indication that this is improving patient care, they just keep piling on additional requirements," said Dr. Mark Donnell, an anesthesiologist in Silver City, N.M. (Rau, 4/6)
Kaiser Health News: Ritual, Not Science, Keeps The Annual Physical Alive
It’s a warm afternoon in Miami, and 35-year-old Emanuel Vega has come to Baptist Health Primary Care for a physical exam. Dr. Mark Caruso shakes his hand with a welcoming smile. ... Vega is one of more than 44 million Americans who is taking part in a medical ritual: visiting the doctor for an annual physical exam. But there’s little evidence that those visits actually do any good for healthy adults. (Gold, 4/6)
Politico: 'Cadillac Tax' The Next Big Obamacare Battle
A mix of business groups and labor unions are pushing to tee up the next big Obamacare fight: killing its so-called Cadillac tax. It is, they say, the type of Obamacare “fix” that Republicans and Democrats can agree on — notwithstanding the problem of filling an $87 billion budget hole that nixing the levy would produce. Many expect it to be the next protracted battle over Obamacare .... At issue is a 40 percent excise tax on the health benefits companies provide their workers above a certain threshold. In 2018, the tax will hit insurance and related perks valued at more than $10,200 for singles and $27,500 for families. (Faler, 4/6)
The Associated Press: Health Law Bumps Up Tax Refunds For Some; Others Take Hit
As the April 15 tax deadline nears, people who got help paying for health insurance under President Barack Obama's law are seeing the direct effect on their refunds — hundreds of dollars, for better or worse. The law offers tax credits so people without access to job-based health insurance can buy private coverage. Because these subsidies are tied to income, consumers must accurately estimate what they will make for the coming year. That's been a challenge for millions of people. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 4/5)
The Hill: IRS Deadline Extended For ObamaCare Customers Sent The Wrong Tax Form
ObamaCare customers who received the wrong tax form from the federal government this spring will not face penalties if they miss the April 15 deadline, officials announced Friday. Anyone who has not yet been sent corrected tax forms and is “unable to file an accurate tax return” now has until Oct. 15 to file — as long as they request an extension. The government did not say how many people will be given extra time, though officials said in late March that 80,000 people were still waiting on their corrected tax forms. (Ferris, 4/3)
USA Today: Medicaid Expansion, Or Not: An Uninsured Cancer Victim Stuggles
Tracy Foster's bladder is nearly bulging out of her body. But the 40-year-old divorced mother of two has no insurance and no money to treat what she believes is recurrent bladder cancer, so she spends much of her time in a recliner, with a heating pad over her swollen abdomen. ... If Foster lived in nearby Kentucky, she wouldn't be facing this problem. There, she'd be eligible for expanded Medicaid, which covers residents earning less than 138% of the federal poverty level. But Tennessee chose not to expand its Medicaid program as called for under the Affordable Care Act, and Foster doesn't qualify for her home state's traditional Medicaid program even though she has no income. (Ungar, 4/3)
The Associated Press: Medicare Bill Helps Doctors And Kids, But Deficit Hawks Cool
Republicans say bipartisan legislation that reworks how Medicare pays doctors is a milestone toward curbing a huge, growing benefit program. ... Many deficit hawks are less impressed with the bipartisan measure that Congress is expected to complete soon. [Get] a look at the debate over how significantly the legislation would bolster Medicare's finances. (Fram, 4/6)
The Associated Press: How Bill Awaiting Congressional OK Achieves Medicare Savings
Details of how the bipartisan bill rewriting Medicare reimbursement of doctors, awaiting congressional approval this month, would squeeze savings from the health care program for the elderly. (4/6)
The New York Times: Battling Crime And Calories At F.B.I. (Fit Bureau Of Investigation)
F.B.I. agents are on the front lines of the fight to protect the United States from Islamic terrorists, Russian hackers and Chinese spies. Now they have something far more personal to worry about: their waists. For the first time in 16 years, the F.B.I. is requiring that its agents pass a fitness test. ... The fitness tests, which started at the end of last year, are a return to a tradition begun by the F.B.I.’s first director, J. Edgar Hoover, who obsessed about his agents’ weight, as well his own considerable girth. More significant, the tests are a response to concerns throughout the bureau about how its transformation after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, has put more stress on the agents and given them less time for fitness. (Schmidt, 4/5)
The Washington Post: Tech Titans’ Latest Project: Defy Death
[Peter Thiel] and the tech titans who founded Google, Facebook, eBay, Napster and Netscape are using their billions to rewrite the nation’s science agenda and transform biomedical research. Their objective is to use the tools of technology — the chips, software programs, algorithms and big data they used in creating an information revolution — to understand and upgrade what they consider to be the most complicated piece of machinery in existence: the human body. The entrepreneurs are driven by a certitude that rebuilding, regenerating and reprogramming patients’ organs, limbs, cells and DNA will enable people to live longer and better. (Cha, 4/4)
NPR: California Faith Groups Divided Over Right-To-Die Bill
The Rev. Vernon Holmes ... leads a Lutheran congregation near Sacramento; the average age of members is 79. His faith promotes quality of life, Holmes says. And that same faith leads him to challenge the status quo and injustice. His congregation belongs to an advocacy group called California Church Impact, which supports California's bill that would allow the terminally ill to end their own lives with medical assistance. (Bartolone, 4/3)
Los Angeles Times: Patient Advocates Help People Deal With Doctors, Hospitals, Insurers
Navigating the murky waters of hospital bills, insurance statements and medical claims can be jarring. When Thomas Fefer's wife of 22 years was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last summer and died just 66 days later, the onslaught of bills and bureaucratic hurdles was overwhelming for him. ... He needed help. An online search led him to a little-known industry of patient advocates and billing specialists that provide guidance on dealing with doctors, hospitals and insurance companies. They handle negotiations and work to find satisfactory billing agreements. Often a fee is involved, but many employers will cover the cost. (Zamosky, 4/5)
The Washington Post: ALS Patients Press FDA For Quick Access To Controversial Biotech Drug
For people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which attacks the body’s motor neurons and renders a person unable to move, swallow or breathe, the search for an effective treatment has been a crushing disappointment. ... Then in the fall, a small California biotech company named Genervon began extolling the benefits of GM604, its new ALS drug. In an early-stage trial with 12 patients, the results were “statistically significant,” “very robust” and “dramatic,” the company said in news releases. ... Genervon took an even bolder step: It applied to the Food and Drug Administration for “accelerated approval.” ... This isn’t the first time desperate patients have launched a social media campaign to try to compel the FDA to act. But in this case, the effort also has laid bare stark divisions within the ALS community, where some advocates, patients and researchers — including one who helped lead the clinical trial — have criticized the company’s tactics. (Nutt and Dennis, 4/3)
The Washington Post: Nearing “The Finish Line” On Cancer Vaccine Trial, Maryland Firm Raises $40 Million
A British investor has injected another $40 million into Northwest Biotherapeutics, fueling the Maryland company’s increasingly promising pursuit of new vaccine therapies targeting both operable and inoperable cancers. ... “This gives us the resources we need to ramp up our programs, and it will help us advance both of our two major product lines,” Linda Powers, chief executive at Northwest Bio, said in an interview. Those two product lines consist of cell-based vaccines that the company, which was founded in 1996, has developed to harness the body’s immune system to attack solid cancer tumors. (Harrison, 4/3)
