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President Obama used a recess appointment to bypass the usual congressional confirmation process, advancing his administration’s health reform implementation efforts but triggering GOP cries of political foul.
Rural health advocates asked state lawmakers Wednesday to help pay for improvements to rural hospitals in up to 42 Texas counties. Without state help, they said, the rural hospitals have no hope of doing necessary renovations to catch up to federal and state hospital codes.
The federal government recently handed consumers a new trove of data about how hospitals use their fancy medical scanners. The implicit message: Avoid hospitals that lean too heavily on devices that can expose you to radiation and other risks.
AHIP walks reporters through the process of how actual premiums are calculated for the individual and small group market.
Provisions such as eliminating co-payments for some preventive services, reviewing premium increases and expanding Medicaid coverage to adults without children could have a lasting impact on the health system.
President Obama’s appointment – during a congressional recess – of Dr. Donald Berwick to head the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services is focusing new attention on Berwick’s record and beliefs, in particular a 2008 speech about Britain’s National Health Service. This is an edited transcript.
President Obama should greet a letter from Congressional Republicans about insufficient funding for the new high-risk pools as an opening bid in constructing a bipartisan bill to fix any deficiencies.
The new health care law does not address costs for medical supplies
Forget sending workers overseas for lower cost medical care: A growing number of employers are encouraging workers to travel within the states to medical facilities they say have better quality and lower costs.
Congress left town for the July 4th recess without taking action on legislation that would give states additional Medicaid funding through June of next year. A bipartisan group of governors who came to Washington last week said that without the extra funds they would have to make budget cuts beginning July 1.
Congress left town for the July 4th recess without taking action on legislation that would give states additional Medicaid funding through June of next year. A bipartisan group of governors who came to Washington last week said that without the extra funds they would have to make budget cuts beginning July 1.
The new overhaul law says health plans should provide certain preventive services at no cost to patients. Women’s advocates say that free contraceptives would reduce unwanted pregnancies, but opponents say birth control doesn’t belong on the list of services, which is being developed by federal officials.
A new CBO report highlights the importance of future lawmakers’ willingness to go through with cuts called for in the new health care law.
Under the new health law, many insurers will have to publicly report how much they plan to raise premiums and why, but consumer advocates say draft rules on how much information is required to justify “unreasonable” increases fall short.
Two of the new health law’s early deliverables – high-risk insurance pools and a federal website for consumers – took center stage as July 1 marked a busy day in the administration’s implementation schedule.
The Obama administration’s biggest domestic policy accomplishment — the new health care law — is under steady legal attack. On Thursday, lawyers argued the first case to hit the courts, filed by the attorney general of Virginia. More than a dozen other state challenges are in the pipeline.
Democrats had hoped to extend health insurance subsidies for newly laid off workers, extend extra Medicaid payments to the states, and pass a long term Medicare ‘doc fix’ before the July 4 recess. But all they could accomplish was a short-term Medicare fix.
The new health law mandated that the government set up a website to help consumers understand all of their insurance options. The site, http://www.healthcare.gov, launched July 1.
eHealthInsurance hopes to get government contract to run the new website that will serve consumers looking for insurance options.
Kansas’ Mark Parkinson is one of a number of governors who are urging Congress to extend the additional Medicaid funds that are now scheduled to expire in December. The governors say without the extra help, state budgets could be devastated.
