Will the ACA Survive the Supreme Court, 2012 Election?

February 1st, 2012

The 26 states that have challenged President Barack Obamas healthcare law face several dilemmas as they try to convince the Supreme Court to declare the law’s Medicaid expansion unconstitutional   The two lower courts that heard the Medicaid challenge ruled in favor of the Obama administration, even as those judges struck down the healthcare law’s individual mandate. Legal experts on both sides of the mandate debate were surprised that the Supreme Court agreed to also hear the Medicaid piece of the state’  lawsuit.  The healthcare law’s supporters claim that the states erred in their initial brief on the Medicaid expansion, which was filed with the Supreme Court.

According to the states involved in the lawsuit. the ACA’s Medicaid expansion is “coercive.” Although state participation in the program is strictly voluntarily, the brief argues, the healthcare law makes it impossible for states to opt out of Medicaid.  The brief tries hard to link the Medicaid expansion to the individual mandate, arguing that states won’t be able to exercise their legal right to leave Medicaid because it’s the only way for Medicaid-eligible residents to fulfill the mandate.

“While the (Affordable Care Act) purports to leave states’ participation in Medicaid nominally voluntary, multiple aspects of the Act evince Congress’ keen awareness that, in fact, no state will be able to reject its new terms and withdraw from the program,” the brief says. “Most obviously, the ACA’s individual mandate requires Medicaid-eligible individuals to obtain and maintain insurance.”  But most Medicaid-eligible people would be exempt from the mandate, said Timothy Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University and a supporter of the health law.

Then there’s the Supreme Court case, which will be heard in the spring and a verdict announced prior to the November presidential election. According to Kurt Mainwaring, a ksl.com contributor, “Far-reaching consequences of the court’s ruling will likely impact both the cost of healthcare and the outcome of the 2012 elections.  If the Supreme Court rules that ACA is constitutional, healthcare costs will likely continue to rise — although at a slower rate than if the law were determined to be unconstitutional.  At present, healthcare costs make up approximately 18 percent of GDP. If expenditures continue on their current trajectory, “the share of GDP devoted to healthcare in the United States is projected to reach 34 percent by 2040.”  Translated to real numbers, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) notes that Americans paid approximately $1,000 annually in healthcare costs in 1960; more than $7,000 per year in 2007; and are projected to pay more than $13,000 per year by 2018.  This kind of increase in healthcare costs is not sustainable — and these kinds of projections are part of the reason ACA was enacted in the first place.

Beach Conger, a Vermont internist writing in the Burlington Free Press believes that “Medicare for All” — a possibility that was raised during the lengthy debate over the ACA — should be reconsidered.  According to Conger, “Medicare and I were born in the same year. Professionally speaking, that is. We were raised together, and we have been married to each other for what seems an eternity. As with any long-term relationship, we have had our ups and downs, but we have both matured over the years, and I believe we are both the better for it. Without being too vain, I have to say I have done a better job at providing health care, and I have to admit that Medicare has helped me do it.  At first, it just made sure that those retired people who wished to pay me the fees to which those in my line of work have become so accustomed, could actually do so. But eventually it realized that there was more to the business than just money, and it began to keep an eye over my shoulder, making sure I was not leaving undone those things which ought to be done and not doing those things which I ought not.  So I can’t help but think, why not Medicare for everyone? It would be so simple. And that’s when I realized.  It was too simple.”

Dr. Conge, it should be pointed out, lives in Vermont, to date the only of 50 states to enact a single-payer public option — Green Mountain Care.

John Driscoll

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Michelle Obama “Joining Forces” With Med Schools to Treat Wounded Warriors

January 31st, 2012

Two medical education groups and 130 medical schools signed on to First Lady Michelle Obama’s initiative to “train the nation’s physicians to meet the unique healthcare needs of the military and veterans’ communities,” the White House announced recently.  The schools pledged to do in-depth research into post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and to teach medical students and physicians to “better diagnose and treat our veterans and military families,” according to the announcement.  “By directing some of our brightest minds, our most cutting-edge research, and our finest teaching institutions toward our military families, they’re ensuring that those who have served our country receive the first-rate care that they have earned,” Obama said.

Speaking at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), Obama said that the American Association of Medical Colleges and the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine have pledged to devote research, education and clinical care to address military service members’ crucial healthcare needs.

The initiative is part of the Joining Forces campaign, an effort by the first lady and Dr. Jill Biden that focuses on issues that affect veterans and their families.  Obama cited some examples already are underway at universities, including VCU, which has undertaken a project to provide resources and training to healthcare providers, volunteers and community members across Virginia to help veterans.  Similarly, University of Pittsburgh researchers are developing a new imaging tool that lets physicians see high-definition views of the brain’s wiring. This can help diagnose a TBI. And the University of South Florida is working with the VA and the Department of Defense to create a Center for Veterans Reintegration – a research, treatment and education center for veterans and their families.

“Today the nation’s medical colleges are committing to create a new generation of doctors, medical schools and research facilities to make sure our heroes receive the care worthy of their military service,” Obama said. The idea behind Joining Forces is extremely simple, Obama said. “In a time of war, when our troops and their families are sacrificing so much, we all should be doing everything we can to serve them as well as they are serving this country,” she added. “It’s an obligation that extends to every single American. And, it’s an obligation that does not end when a war ends and troops return home. In many ways, that’s when it begins.”

Mrs. Obama said she became aware of this when she and President Barack Obama welcomed the final troops home from Iraq last month. “I couldn’t shake the feeling that even though we were marking the end of the war, this was not an ending for them.  For our troops, the end of war marks the beginning of a very long period of transition,” she said. Frequently, the transitions from war to home “bring the hardest moments our troops and their families will ever face,” she added.

It is estimated that one in six of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans come home with post-traumatic stress disorder or depression, and at least 4,000 have had at least a moderate-grade brain injury, Mrs. Obama said, noting that many avoid seeking help because of what they perceive as a stigma.  “I want to be very clear today: these mental health challenges are not a sign of weakness,” she said. “They should never again be a source of shame. They are a natural reaction to the challenges of war, and it has been that way throughout the ages.”

Obama thanked the troops and their families for their service, and noted that anyone experiencing mental health difficulties should not be ashamed.  “Seek help, don’t bury it,” she said. “Asking for help is a sign of strength.”  The Pentagon estimates that nearly 213,000 military personnel have suffered traumatic brain injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2000.

A previous report by the Rand Corp. think tank estimated that 300,000 veterans of both conflicts suffered PTSD or major depression.  Less than 50 percent had sought treatment for PTSD over the previous year and approximately 60 percent of those reporting a probable brain injury had not been evaluated by a physician for one.  “This is a long-term issue for the nation,” said Brad Cooper, the executive director of Joining Forces.

“Those of us who have never experienced war will never be able to fully understand the true emotional costs,” Mrs. Obama said. “PTSD, TBI, depression and any other combat-related mental health issue should never again be a source of shame.”

Although the military has strong support systems and personnel trained in combat-related mental health issues, more than half of veterans seek treatment in their hometowns, outside the military and the Department of Veterans Affairs, Mrs. Obama said. The new initiative aims at assuring that all civilian physicians have access to information on those issues.

“Everyone is stepping up,” Mrs. Obama said while praising the ongoing work of researchers at the colleges involved in the initiative.  She said the will to help veterans is strong and goes beyond Veterans Day parades and rallies on Fort Bragg.  Obama said the “hidden wounds” faced by many veterans are the “most difficult struggle they will face.”  She said it was imperative for the nation’s physicians to understand the mental health challenges involved.  “Mere words and anecdotes don’t do any of this justice,” she said.

John Driscoll

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MLK & Healthcare Reform

January 30th, 2012

A recent byline article in Forbes magazine by Carolyn McClanahan, M.D., CFP, raises many issues about healthcare in the year 2012.  According to McClanahan “The New England Journal of Medicine’s (NEJM) article on the fate of healthcare reform in 2012 greatly saddens the optimist in me. It discusses four important events, and I’ll share my “simplistic view” of these events:

“State legislatures getting in gear to fill their role assigned by the ACA.  As I’ve discussed previously, we have a complicated healthcare system which is expensive and inefficient.  Instead of simplifying, each state will implement or delay implementing the law based solely on their political interest.  This is not productive.”

“The second event is the Supreme Court’s ruling on the legality of the ACA in May. It is possible that the entire law could be struck down, (albeit unlikely).  If this scenario plays out, we will have wasted billions implementing parts of the law to date.  Another more likely scenario is the law will be upheld but the mandate that everyone purchase health insurance be thrown out.  This would severely weaken the law because people will only buy insurance when they are sick.  There will still be a requirement that insurance companies have to sell insurance to everyone regardless of health status.  This is not financially feasible.  Most likely, the law will stand, but who really knows?”

“The third key event is the deadline for states to apply for federal grants to operate their health insurance exchange.  State who don’t apply will either have to cede control of the exchanges to the federal government or pay for the cost of implementation themselves.  State governors and legislatures against the ACA, like my home state of Florida, risk turning away resources and having more of the federal government running the show.  Talk about the law of unintended consequences.”

“The fourth key date is the election in November.  If President Obama wins re-election, implementation will continue.  If he loses, the winner will have a difficult time repealing the law unless the Republicans can win 60 seats in the Senate.  So what is their plan?  Have everyone drag their feet on implementation or do a half-baked job.  Wouldn’t it be nice if instead they came up with a good plan to fix the parts that are not working?  Simplify and clean up the mess of the insurance part of the law and implement with speed and clarity the good parts like preventive care initiatives, rebuilding our primary care workforce, and improving our ability to handle large disasters.”

A similar viewpoint was expressed by Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who said that access to healthcare is the next civil rights frontier.  According to Sebelius, “On Martin Luther King Day, it is easy to congratulate ourselves on our progress in moving beyond segregated schools, lunch counters and drinking fountains. The hard question is this: what injustices do we still accept that should, in fact, be intolerable?  Surely Dr. King would find the next civil rights frontier in healthcare, with nearly 50 million uninsured, almost 45,000 deaths annually due to lack of insurance, and more than half of all personal bankruptcies linked to illness and medical bills.”

“While the Affordable Care Act will bring improvements, such as decreasing the ranks of the uninsured, supporting community health centers, and investing in prevention, it leaves many gaps. At least 23 million people will still be uninsured in 2019. Tens of millions will be underinsured, one serious illness away from financial ruin. Most people who suffer medical bankruptcy had private insurance before getting sick. And medical bankruptcy is a cruel double whammy. Already beset with pain, anxiety and fear – due to serious illness – families find themselves financially devastated.  This doesn’t happen in other industrialized countries, which have high-quality health systems that cover everyone.”

As a department, we are committed to ensuring that all Americans achieve health equity by eliminating disparities and doing what we can to improve the health of all groups, including the poor and underserved,” Sebelius said. “One of the most important ways we are doing this is through our new health care law, the Affordable Care Act.”

John Driscoll

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As States Create Health Insurance Exchanges, Insurers Are Benefiting from the ACA

January 25th, 2012

The same insurance companies that spent millions of dollars working to defeat the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) claiming it would raise costs and disrupt coverage, are seeing their profit margins soar to levels not seen since before the recession and are benefiting financially from the law, a Bloomberg Government study shows.

Insurers recorded their highest combined quarterly net income of the past 10 years after the law was signed in 2010, said Peter Gosselin, the study author and senior healthcare analyst for Bloomberg Government. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Managed Health-Care Index rose 36 percent in the period, four times higher than the S&P 500.  “The industry that was the loudest, most persistent critic of this law, the industry whose analysts and executives predicted it would suffer immensely because of the law, has thrived,” Gosselin said. “There is a shift to government work under way that is going to represent a fundamental change in their business model.”

Health insurers gave $86.2 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to oppose the law after Obama administration officials disparaged their desire to chase profits by raising customer premiums.  America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), still claims the law will increase costs and cause consumers to lose coverage.  Even so, the insurers saw their average operating profit margins expand to 8.24 percent in the six quarters since the ACA became law, compared with 6.88 percent during the previous 18 months.

One significant finding of an annual California Employer Health Benefits Survey released by the California HealthCare Foundation, a research and grant-making non-profit organization, is that in California fewer companies provided healthcare coverage for their employees last year; those that did raised premiums for coverage. According to the survey, premiums have risen 153 percent since 2002, a rate more than five times the increase in California’s inflation rate.  During the last two years alone, the proportion of state employers offering coverage to workers fell to 63 percent from 73 percent, according to the survey.

“This is a departure from previous years and could be an early sign of future changes,” the foundation report noted in commenting on data collected between July and October 2011 in interviews with 770 private firm benefit managers.

Increasing costs and shrinking coverage are speeding up, said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a group that advocates for expanded health insurance coverage.  “They are frankly multi-decade trends,” he said. “What is notable is that this is more significant than usual.”  What’s been a “gradual erosion of employer-based coverage in good years” has evolved into “a steep one in bad years,” Wright said. “To be down to 63 percent (of California companies offering coverage) is huge.  It used to be up over 80 percent.”

There is good news, however, in the fact that 13 states have functioning health insurance exchanges, two have pending legislation to establish them, while another five are planning their exchanges. Health insurance exchanges are state-regulated standardized healthcare plans where individuals can purchase health insurance and be eligible for federal subsidies.  The remaining 30 states are moving more slowly.  For example, Pennsylvania is gradually moving toward a health insurance exchange.  “Pennsylvania has taken steps towards the establishment of an exchange, which I think is positive — there are other states that have moved more aggressively, including states whose governors are part of the lawsuit,” said Sharon Ward, director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, a non-government organization that supports the federal health care law.  Two states — Louisiana and Arkansas — have opted out of the insurance exchange program.

Insurers are of two minds regarding the issue of insurance exchanges. Some favor the programs because they would help them to reach more consumers.  Consumer advocacy groups and insurance analysts claim that exchanges would increase competition to the industry, with the ultimate result of cutting prices nationwide.

Writing in the Green Bay Press Gazette, Jeff Mason, CEO of the BayCare Clinic, believes that, generally speaking, healthcare payments need fixing. According to Mason, “Healthcare finance is complicated even in the best of times.  Unfortunately, it isn’t the best of times.  We’re in a climactic period in healthcare when the finance mechanisms don’t work anymore.  Employers can’t continue to pay the spiraling healthcare costs.  Providers can’t continue to shift their low-reimbursement government work to employers. The government can’t expect any more free care out of providers.  Right now, our clinic collects less than half of what we charge to all of our customers in aggregate.  We collect 11 cents of every dollar we charge to Medicaid, and 13 cents of every dollar we charge to Medicare.  This is considered our “low-pay” business, and is extremely difficult to manage financially.

“This physician/hospital payment problem is a government experiment that started in the 1980s and has gone terribly wrong.  It followed the concept that a large purchaser of a service should get a better price and began discounting government payments to providers.  Medicare started by shaving a few percent, but then it got larger and larger.  All along, health care providers were shifting the shortfalls to the private employers.  At the same time, health care expense continued to grow as we obtained more expensive new medications and new technologies to improve patient treatments.”

John Driscoll

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Medicare, Medicaid Costs Rising More Slowly

January 24th, 2012

Healthcare spending nationally grew slowly for the second successive year in 2010, bringing it in line with growth in the U.S. economy as a whole, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).  Spending rose by 3.9 percent in 2010, to $2.6 trillion, while the GDP rose 4.2 percent, according to HHS, which published its findings in the journal Health Affairs.  In 2009, spending increased nearly the same by 3.8 percent, but in contrast it’s growth rate was twice that by 7.6 percent in 2007.  Spending increases frequently hit double digits in the 1980s and 1990s.  While spending growth in general remained slow, premiums for people in private insurance plans grew faster for the first time in seven years than what was spent on their care, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).  Premiums in 2010 rose 2.4 percent, slightly less than the 2.6 percent increase in 2009, although private health insurers’ spending on actual benefits rose only 1.6 percent in 2010, down from 3.7 percent in 2009.

Healthcare represents 17.9 percent of the U.S. economy, the same proportion as in 2009, according to a government report. “Persistently high unemployment, continued loss of private health insurance coverage and increased cost sharing led some people to forgo care or seek less costly alternatives than they would have otherwise used,” the report said.

The report showed that the federal government paid 29 percent of the nation’s healthcare bill in 2010, up from 23 percent in 2007. Some of that increase reflects a transitory increase in federal aid to states to enroll more uninsured people in Medicaid. The percentage of spending by private businesses and state and local governments fell.

The recession played a large role in impacting spending, CMS officials said.  Because fewer people were insured, and private insurers generally picked up less of the cost, patients went to the doctor and hospital less frequently.  The answer may go beyond the recession.  “The utilization slowdown is at least in part structural, and not just cyclically driven by the economy, and the adoption of higher cost sharing plan designs will result in some level of permanent slowdown in trend,” said Ana Gupte, a senior analyst at Sanford Bernstein, which conducts research for investors.

“Premiums grew faster than benefits for the first time in seven years, and benefits grew at their slowest rate in the history of the accounts, according to Anne Martin, a CMS economist.  Martin said this was because private health insurance companies lost enrollees as people were laid off, moved to cheaper health insurance plans as a result, cost-sharing increased.

Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, said that the portion of premiums “allocated to health plans administrative costs was among the lowest in recent years, despite the fact that health plans have been in compliance with the healthcare reform law.”

Additionally, spending on prescription drugs declined in 2010.  Not only did individuals buy fewer drugs, but there were also more switches from brand to lower-cost generic medications. According to CMS, fewer new drugs came onto the market.

Paul Ginsburg, president of the Center for Studying Health System Change, a Washington research group, said the report didn’t address the biggest question: “When the economy gets strong again, do we just return to the old business as usual?  Probably,” he said. “But there’s a chance that the experience of people economizing may have longer-lasting effects.”

The Obama administration was pleased with the report and called it good news for the healthcare law, although some researchers found the law had a less than 0.1 percent impact on national health spending in 2010.  “These numbers do not take into account all of the cost-saving provisions in the Affordable Care Act that are still being implemented.  But they do show why the Affordable Care Act is so important,” senior White House adviser Nancy-Ann DeParle said. According to DeParle, the insurance regulations in the law will keep insurance companies “in check.”

The phasing in of the patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACT) which will expand insurance coverage to as many as 32 million people, will incur larger cost increases later in this decade. National health spending is expected to increase by 8.3 percent in 2014, when the most ambitious coverage expansions take effect, according to CMS projections.  “The law will control the growth of healthcare spending through fraud prevention, better coordination of care, disease prevention and overhauling insurance markets,” DeParle said.

According to DeParle, “Starting in 2011, insurance companies were required to publicly disclose and justify any premium increases larger than 10 percent. Many states have the authority to reject unreasonable premium increases and the Affordable Care Act gives states $250 million to strengthen their rate review programs. Additionally, insurers are required to spend at least 80 percent of your premium dollars on healthcare expenses instead of overhead and profits.”

Donna Jarmusz

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Mental Faculties Can Decline as Young as Age 45

January 23rd, 2012

An intensive new study has found that memory, reasoning and comprehension can start to decline as early as age 45. This finding runs counter to conventional wisdom that mental decline typically begins after the age of 60, according to the researchers “Cognitive function in normal, healthy adults begins to decline earlier than previously thought,” said study author Archana Singh-Manoux.  “It is widely believed that cognitive ability does not decline before the age of 60.  We were able to show robust cognitive decline even in individuals aged 45 to 49 years,” added Singh-Manoux, research director at INSERM’s Center for Research in Epidemiology & Population Health at the Paul-Brousse Hospital in Paris.

“These findings should be considered in the context of the link between cognitive function and dementia,” Singh-Manoux said.  “Earlier research shows small differences in cognitive performance at a young age to predict larger differences in risk of dementia in later life.  A thorough understanding of cognitive aging might make it easier to identify those at risk for dementia earlier in life,” she said.

Men aged 45 to 49 saw their reasoning skills decrease by nearly four percent; those aged between 65 and 70 saw their skills drop by about nearly 10 percent.  For women, the decline in reasoning neared five percent for those aged 45 to 49 and about seven percent for those 65 to 70, according to the research.

The study’s results are being published in the journal BMJ (formerly called the British Medical Journal). They demonstrate that the average, performance on cognition tasks deteriorated as the subjects aged. The declines were the most obvious among the oldest participants, who were aged 65-70 at the beginning of the 10-year study that began in 1997-99.

In conducting the study, researchers tracked the mental function of more than 7,000 British civil servants for 10 years.  They found that even the youngest participants, who were between the ages of 45 and 49 when the study began, showed slight yet measurable declines in short-term memory, mental reasoning, and verbal facility over the course of the study.  The declines were too small to be noticed in daily life and were detected only through tests the researchers gave the participants every three to four years.  But the findings may have implications for the prevention of dementia, and underscore the importance of taking care of our bodies and minds early in life, the researchers say.

“We, and others, have shown healthy lifestyles and good cardiovascular health to be important for cognitive outcomes,” Singh-Manoux said. “The fact that cognition declines early implies that midlife levels of these factors — health behaviors and cardiovascular risk factors and disease — might be important for cognitive outcomes later in life.”

Researchers haven’t decisively proven that cognitive decline in middle age is a  predictor of Alzheimer’s or other dementias; however, the evidence suggests that small changes in midlife mental function can become magnified later in life, says Francine Grodstein, Sc.D., an epidemiologist and associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston.  “There is a lot of evidence that (people) with cognitive decline are at highest risk of later developing dementia, so it is likely that preventing or delaying cognitive decline today will help reduce risk of dementia tomorrow,” said Grodstein, who wrote an editorial that accompanied the study.

“On an individual level this doesn’t mean very much — it certainly doesn’t mean that we’re seeing a lot of people with dementia in their 40s.  We know that’s not true,” Grodstein said.

Jeff Newkirk

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Some of America’s Doctors Are Going Broke

January 18th, 2012

Many of America’s physicians have an embarrassing secret — they are going broke. This quandary is claiming a wide range of casualties, including family physicians, cardiologists and oncologists.

Industry insiders are concerned about the trend.  Approximately 50 percent of all doctors operate a private practice. If a cash crunch forces the closure of an independent practice, it robs a community of a vital healthcare resource.  “A lot of independent practices are starting to see serious financial issues,” said Marc Lion, CEO of Lion & Company CPAs, LLC, which advises independent physician practices about their finances.  Doctors say that smaller insurance reimbursements, changing regulations, soaring business and drug costs take away from their practices’ profitability. Some experts counter that doctors’ lack of business sense shares the blame.

Recent steep 35 percent to 40 percent cuts in Medicare reimbursements for key cardiovascular services, such as stress tests and echocardiograms, have taken a substantial toll on revenue for cardiologists, as an example.  Federal law requires that Medicare reimbursement rates be adjusted every year based on a formula tied to the economy’s health. That law says rates need to be cut every year to keep Medicare financially sound.

Although Congress has blocked those cuts 13 times over the 10 years, most recently on December with a two-month temporary “patch,” this dilemma haunts doctors every year.

Beau Donegan, senior executive with a hospital cancer center in Newport Beach, CA, is well aware of physicians’ financial woes.  “Many are too proud to admit that they are on the verge of bankruptcy,” she said. “These physicians see no way out of the downward spiral of reimbursement, escalating costs of treating patients and insurance companies deciding when and how much they will pay them.

“This is a very timely and truthful story for doctors and hospitals in America. This is also a 911 call for U.S. healthcare security.  More importantly, when a doctor is ‘$3.2 million in debt’ or has to force 6,000 cancer patients to look for a new doctor”, as reported by CNN Money, “our healthcare system infrastructure earthquake is coming,” says Dr. Jin Zhou, president of ERISAclaim.com, a national expert on PPACA and ERISA appeals and compliance.  This 2012 CNN Money report is consistent with an AMA report on March 4, 2011 that 51 percent of doctors in Texas are going broke: “51 percent of Texas doctors dug into personal funds to keep practices afloat in 2010,” Dr. Zhou said.

Writing in Forbes, Rick Ungar counters that “While there is considerable truth to be found in the CNN Money piece, a deeper analysis is in order given the knee-jerk reaction by the many who are too quick to place the problem and the blame at the feet of the federal government.  First off, it is important to recognize that not all physicians in the healthcare system are facing financial crisis. About 50 percent of the nation’s doctors are employed, typically by hospitals, and receive a salary in exchange for their service. So far, these practitioners do not appear to be in any significant financial danger.”

The financial problems are typically experienced by a portion of the remaining 50 percent who wish to operate their own private practices and, as a result, find themselves suffering from the financial stresses faced by so many small businesses in these difficult times.  Yet, even among this 50 percent, not all private practices areas are in trouble. For example, surgeons and dermatologists seem to be doing just fine while cardiologists and oncologists, whose business models necessarily make them more susceptible to trouble, are feeling the pain.

Why oncology and cardiology?

Part of the blame does rest with changes in Medicare and Medicaid payment policies. Certainly, cardiologists and oncologists, whose practices naturally bring them into contact with more senior citizens, are the most likely to feel the pain when it comes to reduced government payments. Last year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) took a hatchet to what is paid to cardiologists for performing important tests such as echocardiograms, stress tests and other “machine” based testing. But what you may not know is that these reductions were based on a survey conducted by the American Medical Association, at the request of the CMS, that seemed to go out of its way to omit cardiologists in private practice from the survey participants. Why? Because private practice cardiologists have, by and large, dropped out of the AMA and the AMA’s interest was in getting more money set aside for those medical practitioners in other areas of medicine who remain members.

John Driscoll

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Craig Wortmann on Being an Entrepreneur

January 17th, 2012

Virtually anyone can be an entrepreneur, although starting one’s own business is a giant leap.  Many people look at becoming an entrepreneur as a cause and effect – the academic term being “causal logic”.  That may not be the optimal way to view entrepreneurship, however.  Rather, the world’s most successful entrepreneurs use effectual logic.  According to Craig Wortmann, Clinical Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, “It goes like this:  I’m an entrepreneur, I’ve got this idea, I’ve got this limited set of resources and I’m just going to begin, and I’m not exactly sure what the effect will be.”  Wortmann has more than 20 years of experience in entrepreneurial sales and marketing strategy experience.

According to Wortmann, this is a powerful way to think about entrepreneurship because the concept has such an underlying vibe of optimism.  This notion of entrepreneurship is just start the business, anyone can do it.  They are all personality types; they don’t have to be deep in domain knowledge.  Anyone can start a business.  The research suggests that as long as people are not rigid about reaching a certain outcome, they will be successful.

Wortmann asks budding entrepreneurs to think about the idea they have and ask what is the relative value to the idea.  He believes that many people get stuck as entrepreneurs because they say “I can’t be an entrepreneur because I don’t have the next Google.  I’m not waking up in the middle of the night with the next idea for Facebook.”  Any idea that will change the focus of people or get them to do something better or a bit different – you have a potential business.

Would-be entrepreneurs need to begin taking action.  They need to talk to potential customers and partners, and start to formulate a product or service to offer to people.  Chances are the fledgling entrepreneur will be rejected; there is no question about that.  But if they keep embracing that chaos and making contact with the market, things will begin to take shape.  They need to get out there and realize that they are the structure and the process.

The challenge for entrepreneurs can be maintaining momentum.  It it’s the product, stay close to the product.  If it’s the people, get out into the market, meet people and maintain energy.  According to Wortmann, “One of the things I like to talk to students about:  is shutting down a business failure?  It is in a way, but we’re all on a journey and that’s just a chapter.  In a microcosm, it is a failure.  But is it really a failure if you take those lessons and start something new or go back to a big company and leverage all those things you learned?  That looks like success to me.”

To listen to Craig Wortmann’s full interview on entrepreneurship, click here.

Tom Silva

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Medicare Times Are a Changing

January 16th, 2012

Baby boomers may not like it — and whoever wins the White House this year — but the Medicare that our parents knew and love is destined to change. And it’ll be like it or lump it.

With more than 1.5 million baby boomers enrolling in Medicare every year, the program’s future is one of the most crucial economic issues for anyone who currently is 50 or older. Healthcare costs are the most erratic part of retirement expenses, and Medicare remains a great deal for retirees, who often get benefits worth significantly more than the payroll taxes they paid while working.  “People would like to have what they used to have.  What they don’t seem to understand is that it’s already changed,” said Gail Wilensky, a former Medicare administrator. “Medicare as we have known it is not part of our future.”

Consider these numbers.  Medicare’s giant trust fund for inpatient care is expected to run out of money in 2024.  When that happens, the program will collect only enough payroll taxes to pay 90 percent of benefits.  Additionally, researchers estimate that as much as one-fifth and even two-thirds of the more than $500 billion that Medicare now spends every year is spent on treatments and procedures of little or no benefit to patients.

Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI), chairman of the House Finance Committee, is leading the charge on changing Medicare.  Ryan’s current proposals will not impact people now 55 or older would not have to make any changes.  But how would it work?  Would it save taxpayers’ dollars?  Would it shift costs to retirees, who are least able to afford it?   Will Congress ultimately end traditional Medicare?  These questions are still waiting for answers.  “I’m not sure anybody has come up with a formula on this that makes people comfortable,” said health economist Marilyn Moon, who formerly served as a trustee overseeing Medicare finances.

The White House’s preference is to keep the existing structure of Medicare while “twisting the dials” to control spending, said Medicare trustee, economist Robert Reischauer of the Urban Institute think tank.

Ryan’s original approach would have put 100 percent of future retirees into private insurance.  His most recent plan, written with Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), would keep traditional Medicare as an option, competing with private plans.

Writing for AARP, Ricardo Alonzo Zaldiver says that, “This could mean more Medicare recipients joining private insurance plans (currently, only about 25 percent of Medicare recipients are in private ‘Medicare Advantage” plans, while the other three-quarters participate in the traditional, government-run Medicare program).  A new voucher-for-private-Medicare plan would be available to anyone currently under 55.

“It could also mean keeping the existing Medicare structure but making certain tweaks to control spending.  Under President Obama’s healthcare overhaul, the Independent Payment Advisory Board could force Medicare cuts to service providers if costs rise above certain levels and Congress fails to act.  Obama has said he’ll veto any plan to cut Medicare benefits without raising taxes on the wealthy.  During failed budget negotiations last summer, he indicated a willingness to gradually raise the Medicare eligibility age to 67, revamp co-payments and deductibles in ways that would raise costs for retirees, and cut payments to drug makers.  ‘For the 76 million baby boomers signing up over the next couple of decades, it will pay to be watching.’”  President Obama has promised that he will veto any plan to cut Medicare benefits without raising taxes on the wealthy.

The Chicago Sun-Times offers this sage advice: “Fix Medicare, ignore scare talk.”  According to writer Steve Huntley, “I’ve contributed to Medicare every year of its existence. Yet, it’s a myth that seniors have paid the costs of their Medicare services, as demonstrated by the research of economists Eugene Steuerle and Stephanie Rennane of the Urban Institute think tank.  Their study showed that a two-income couple earning $89,000 a year would pay $114,000 in Medicare taxes during their careers but could expect to receive $355,000 in medical care in retirement. They could get prescriptions, doctor visits and hospital services valued at three times their contribution to Medicare.

“Medicare combined with Medicaid and Social Security add up to an entitlement time bomb –  they’ll consume all tax revenues by 2052, according to a Heritage Foundation analysis –  for the people who’ll be stuck with the bill: working Americans.  In 1950, there were 16 taxpaying workers for each retiree; by the time the baby boomers all retire, there will be two workers for each retiree. Entitlement reform has to happen.”

John Driscoll

Posted by: John Driscoll
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States Rewarded for Adding Kids to Public Insurance Rolls

January 9th, 2012

Twenty-three states will share $296.5 million in federal funds for encouraging low-income families to enroll children in state-run public healthcare programs.  The bonuses reward states that streamlined eligibility for Medicaid, the federal-state health program and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).  The goal is to assure coverage for children younger than 19 from households with annual incomes of less than $45,000 for a family of four, though some states are more generous.  Despite 2011’s shaky economy, the number of uninsured children fell to 5.9 million in 2010 from 6.9 million the previous year, according to a study by the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute.  Children still leave the program rolls because parents neglect to renew eligibility, increasing the likelihood of missed vaccinations and dental checkups, said Tricia Brooks, a senior fellow at the Georgetown institute.

“Families may avoid routine preventive care with the hope they’ll have more money next month or delay seeking care until they know they really have to bring the children in,” Brooks said.  “At that point, the emergency room is a likely choice.”

Besides the 1.2 million newly insured children, three million who previously had private insurance transferred to CHIP or Medicaid during that time frame, said Sherry Glied, assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).  Because of that, children have been protected from 10 years of erosion of health insurance among Americans that resulted as employers dropped coverage, workers with insurance were laid off because of the recession, and people whose only alternative was to buy insurance on their own could not afford to do so.  Since CHIP was first established in 1997, the share of adults ages 26 to 64 with a health plan dipped from 83 percent to 80 percent. By contrast, in the same period, the share of children with insurance grew from 86 percent to 93 percent.  “It’s very encouraging, because it shows that even in an economic downturn, CHIP really made a difference,” Glied said.

The 23 states that are eligible to receive performance bonuses are: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

To earn their bonuses, states used electronic databases rather than paperwork submissions from families to verify incomes or preemptively enrolling kids who appear to be eligible.  Additionally, states may guarantee one year of eligibility rather than requiring periodic renewals.  Georgia and South Carolina use information from their nutrition assistance programs to hasten eligibility determinations, said Marilyn Tavenner, acting administrator of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  In 2010, 15 states claimed bonuses totaling approximately $206 million.  Alabama, which received $55 million after adding 133,000 children to its public insurance programs, led the pack.

In Connecticut, for example, an estimated 49,000 Connecticut children under 18 have no health insurance, said Mary Alice Lee, senior policy fellow with Connecticut Voices for Children.  The state provides affordable insurance for children under the Husky Health program. According to Lee, considering that the state’s economic downturn and the 2010 nine percent unemployment rate, the fact that the percentage of uninsured children held steady means that the Husky program is working.  “The number of uninsured children in Connecticut is really relatively low compared to other states,” Lee said.  On a national basis, 9.8 percent of children under 18 were uninsured in 2010.  “The Husky program is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do, that is, provide affordable coverage for children during times of economic stress.”

No parent in America should have to think twice about taking their child to a doctor’s appointment or filling a prescription for their child because the cost is too high,” Tavenner said. “And no child should have to miss school or activities because they’re not getting the care they need to stay healthy.”  States have wide latitude regarding how they spend the funds, but the intent is that they will be used to help defray the shared Medicaid costs that the states incur by enrolling more children.

Donna Jarmusz

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