Latest KFF Health News Stories
Consumer Advocates Urge Congress To Leave Broker Regs Alone
The organizations want Congress to maintain the medical loss ratio rule’s current classification of broker fees as administrative expenses. Also in the news, during a Tuesday hearing, House Republicans attacked the work of an economist Democrats have quoted in an argument related to the health law’s tax credits.
Senators: Express Scripts, Medco Must Show Merger’s Consumer Benefits
At a Tuesday hearing, Senators expressed concerns about the proposed merger between the nation’s two largest pharmaceutical benefit managers.
First Edition: December 7, 2011
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including status checks on the work — including the Medicare doc fix — that Congress still needs to attend to before leaving Washington for the holidays.
Home Health Advocates Push Remote Monitoring In Medicare
Some want Medicare to allow more remote monitoring of patients to identify trouble before it becomes an emergency.
UNAIDS and PEPFAR on Monday at the 16th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) in Africa (ICASA) “launched a five-year action framework to accelerate the scale-up of voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) for HIV prevention,” according to a UNAIDS press release. “The framework — developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), UNAIDS, PEFPAR, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Bank in consultation with national Ministries of Health — calls for the immediate roll-out and expansion of VMMC services in 14 priority countries of eastern and southern Africa,” the release notes (12/5).
Family Planning Spending Cuts Will Lead To ‘More Unwanted’ Pregnancies, ‘Unsafe Abortions’
“Unwanted babies and unsafe abortion are major problems in the developing world, yet funding for contraception is limited because of attitudes to sex and abortion in donor countries,” the Guardian’s Sarah Boseley writes in her “Global Health Blog.” She reflects on her time spent in Dakar, Senegal, last week for the 2nd International Conference on Family Planning, and writes that, “in francophone Africa …, only 10 percent of women have access to what are called modern methods of family planning,” such as hormonal contraceptive injections or pills.
Medicare Enrollment Deadline Is Tomorrow
Medicare changed the sign-up schedule this year, and seniors must enroll in plans by Dec. 7.
Survey Finds Physicians Unhappy With Insurance Companies
Doctors believe plans make unjustifiable denials of claims and have needless preauthorization demands.
Public Sector Employees Retire Sooner To Protect Health Benefits, Pensions
The New York Times reports that many public sector employees are making the choice to retire now before their benefits are futher diminished.
Gingrich’s Policy Positions Draw Attention As His Popularity Grows
The Boston Globe examines how Gingrich’s view of the individual mandate has changed. Meanwhile, Reuters reports on GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s efforts to keep his record as governor of Massachusetts under wraps. Finally, Rick Santorum gets into a health policy fracas in Iowa.
Health Law’s Insurance Exchanges Studied, Demonstrated
In Conn., insurers say exchanges won’t lower costs when they launch in 2014, and Minnesota debuts some possible prototypes.
USA Today: $1.5 Billion In Medicare Prescription Drug Savings
USA Today notes that the government is expected to announce today that the health law’s Medicare doughnut hole provision triggered this savings. In other Medicare news, the federal government announced Monday that Medicare will allow its claims database to be used by employers, insurance companies and consumer groups.
Business Of Health: Iowa Companies Merging, ‘Rapid’ Growth For Mass. Chain
In Iowa, two nonprofit nursing services are joining, and in Mass., Sone system’s growth worryies community hospitals.
Senate Hearing Focuses On Merger Of Two Big Drug Benefit Managers
Express Scripts and Medco Health Solutions are seeking to combine operations, but some senators have raised concerns about the effect on consumers.
A Changing Of The Guard At CMS
CQ HealthBeat reports on the new head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, while other news outlets report on the outgoing administrator’s thoughts on the job and the system.
Study: Number Of Young People Choosing Nursing Jumps
The RAND Corp. study was published in the current issue of Health Affairs.
State Roundup: Calif. Settles Suit On Kids’ Mental Health Services
News outlets report on a variety of state health policy issues.
Multiple-Employer Health Plans To Face Quick Enforcement Procedures
Under a proposed rule stemming from the health law, the secretary of labor will have enforcement tools designed to protect employers, providers and wokers from mismanaged or fraudulent multiple-employer welfare arrangements.
