Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Medicare ACO Program Saves $120M For Three Massachusetts Health Systems
The Boston Globe: Federal Push To Cut Medicare Costs Saves $120M In Mass. Over 3 Years
A federal program to reduce the cost of providing care to seniors produced sizable savings in Massachusetts over the past three years, adding momentum to efforts to change the way doctors and hospitals are paid for providing health care. New figures show three of Massachusetts’ biggest health systems saved a combined $120 million during that period as part of the program, which aims to rein in costs by better coordinating care for Medicare patients and cutting unnecessary hospital stays and medical services. Doctors manage care for these patients in pools known as Pioneer accountable care organizations. (Dayal McCluskey, 8/25)
Roanoke Times: Proposed Medicare Change Would Limit Access To Prosthetics
[Edd Sewell] wears a high-tech leg with microprocessors in the knee that allow him full rotation and a speed that syncs up with whatever pace his natural leg allows. Quite an improvement over the prosthetics he wore after losing his leg to a congenital deformity in 1957. Those devices carried him at one wobbly speed, causing him to fall if his body’s pace differed from that of the artificial limb. ... Now the government proposes to put him back in the same rudimentary leg he wore in the 1970s. Manufacturers don’t even make those types of components anymore, said Doug Call, president of Virginia Prosthetics and Orthotics, a 49-year-old Roanoke-based company with 16 locations in Virginia and North Carolina. (Luanne Rife, 8/25)
Columbus Dispatch: Proposed Medicare Change Could Affect Amputees
Amputees enrolled in Medicare might see delays in obtaining new prosthetic lower limbs, as well as limits placed on higher-tech prostheses. Those changes, part of a proposed federal rule, would be a significant step backward for those who have lost limbs, advocates warn. ... Advocates said they’re especially concerned that, under the proposed rule, Medicare would no longer consider an amputee’s potential for enhanced mobility and function in deciding whether to cover prosthetics. The rule also would limit Medicare enrollees’ access to higher-quality prosthetics if records indicate that Medicare had paid for any other mobility aid, such as a cane or walker. And it would deny coverage of multiple-suction suspension systems, saying that’s unnecessary. Those systems help hold the prosthetic in place.(Sutherly, 8/25)
In Medicaid news, health care experts urge the Obama administration to expand access to new, expensive hepatitis C drugs -
The New York Times: White House Is Pressed To Help Widen Access To Hepatitis C Drugs Via Medicaid
Federal and state Medicaid officials should widen access to prescription drugs that could cure tens of thousands of people with hepatitis C, including medications that can cost up to $1,000 a pill, health care experts have told the White House. The experts, from the Public Health Service and President Obama’s Advisory Council on H.I.V./AIDS, said restrictions on the drugs imposed by many states were inconsistent with sound medical practice, as reflected in treatment guidelines issued by health care professionals and the Department of Veterans Affairs. (Pear, 8/25)
