Most Americans Want Medicare To Negotiate For Lower Drug Prices
A Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds 87 percent of Americans want the change -- which is currently prohibited by law. (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the Foundation.) Elsewhere, a closer look at a new demonstration program by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to bundle payments for some operations, and doctor pay increases for some specialties.
Reuters:
Americans Want Medicare To Help Negotiate Down Drug Prices -Poll
A vast majority of Americans say the Medicare health program for the elderly should be able to negotiate with drug companies to set lower medication prices, a practice currently prohibited by law, according to a survey released on Friday. The poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 87 percent of people surveyed want Medicare to have the authority to press drugmakers for greater discounts. The skyrocketing prices for crucial medicines have hit both health insurers and consumers, who are being asked to cover a higher proportion of their medications' cost. (Gumpert, 7/17)
Modern Healthcare:
Bundling Risk: New Demo Program Shows CMS' Eagerness To Ditch Fee For Service
The deteriorating hips and knees of the nation's seniors were an obvious target for Medicare's first mandatory test of an alternative payment model for hospitals. But joint replacement is not the only possible target, and hospitals are now on notice that Medicare will move ahead if they don't do it on their own. (Evans, 7/18)
Modern Healthcare:
Doc Pay Resumes Upward March After Prior Year's Slowdown
Invasive cardiology, is one of 20 physician specialties that received a pay hike in 2014. Only three specialties saw their average pay decline from 2013 to 2014, according to Modern Healthcare's 22nd annual Physician Compensation Survey. (Johnson, 7/18)
And ProPublica looks at one surgeon's past and complication rates --
ProPublica:
For A Surgeon With A History Of Complications, A Felony Past
By many measures, [Constantine] Toumbis’ career is a success. He’s been chief of staff at Citrus and sits on its board of trustees. He is among Florida’s busiest spinal surgeons, operating at Citrus in Inverness and also at Seven Rivers Regional Medical Center in nearby Crystal River. He earned $1.2 million just from Medicare in 2012. But when ProPublica compared the performance of nearly 17,000 surgeons who do elective operations under Medicare, Toumbis stood out for another reason: His complication rates for routine spinal procedures were among the highest in the nation. (Allen and Pierce, 7/18)
