Posts Tagged ‘healthcare reform legislation’
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010
New grants totaling $159.1 million were announced recently by the Obama administration with the goal of training nurses and geriatric specialists. The grants also seek to recruit students from minority groups whose presence in geriatrics is under-represented. The grants contain new and continuing funding and are designed to build on multimillion dollar investments provided for in the healthcare reform law. The goal is to address a shorting of primary-care workers, especially acure as the population ages.
According to a 2008 report by the Council on Physician and Nurse Supply, schools need to graduate 30,000 nurses every year to make up for a coming mass retirement. Currently, 45 percent of nurses are 50 or older. Kathleen Sebelius, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, said the grants will be used in several ways, including offsetting students’ tuition and other expenses, creating curricula, training teachers and funding research.
Washington, D.C., universities - such as Howard University - were among the recipients. Howard received the single largest grant in the nation’s capital at more than $1 million for a “Center of Excellence” program that will increase minority participation in the healthcare profession and to better serve minority patients.
Tags: Department of Health and Human Services, geriatrics, healthcare reform legislation, Howard University, Kathleen Sebelius, Obama administration
Posted in Economics, General, Healthcare, Hospital Systems | No Comments »
Thursday, July 8th, 2010
With the narrow 219 - 212 passage of healthcare reform legislation by the House of Representatives, its positive impact on commercial real estate is becoming clear. Jeffrey H. Cooper, an international investment banker who specializes in healthcare facilities with Savills, believes that the potential exists to develop more than 60 million SF of new medical office buildings.
Cooper believes that passage of the healthcare reform bill will impact four areas:
- With 30 million new insured Americans seeking healthcare, the need for medical facilities to serve them will expand.
- By using the standard multiplier that calculates that each new outpatient requires 1.9 SF of medical office space, 30 million newly insured individuals will require that approximately 57 million SF be constructed.
- As reimbursements for inpatient treatment are reduced, there will be a simultaneous need for the development of new ambulatory treatment facilities and medical office buildings.
- As the demand for new capital projects grows, hospitals will seek out third-party financing and ownership. This is particularly true in cases where tax-exempt bond financing is not available.
With more than 30 years of real estate investment banking experience, Cooper is likely on the right track here.
Tags: commercial real estate, healthcare reform legislation, House of Representatives, Jeffrey Cooper, medical office buidlings, President Barack Obama, primary care, Savills
Posted in Healthcare, Hospital Systems | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
The Obama administration will work hand-in-hand with House Democrats to sell healthcare reform legislation to a wary public once members of Congress return to their home districts over the summer break. Nancy-Ann DeParle, the White House’s healthcare reform czar, assured the legislators that the Obama administration will help them explain the ins and outs of the new law. DeParle and other officials clarified precisely what the new law will change immediately, such as an expansion of health insurance and tax credits for small business.
Allyson Schwartz (D-PA), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said “They’re certainly focused on both implementation and doing that well, and in communicating with Americans about the benefits they will see.” Schwartz noted that many lawmakers are presently answering constituents’ questions; this is expected to increase during the Congressional break and in the lead-up to the 2010 mid-term elections.
Representative Dale Kildee (D-MI) wants to see a joint effort between Congress and President Barack Obama to sell the new law, saying “The No. 1 spokesman for this lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and he can do a great job of it.”
Congress members who voted against healthcare reform are jumping on the bandwagon now that the law is starting to take effect. One of the former antis is Representative Dan Lipinski (D-IL), who said “I’ll make sure people are aware of things that are available. I’ve always said that there are some good things in the bill and I want to make sure that people are able to take advantage of those.”
Tags: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, 2010 mid-term elections, Allyson Schwartz, Dale Kildee, Dan Lipinski, Democrats, healthcare reform legislation, House of Representatives, House Ways and Means Committee, Nancy-Ann DeParle, President Barack Obama
Posted in Healthcare | No Comments »
Thursday, May 20th, 2010
“The Terminator” has changed his mind. Although he originally opposed healthcare reform as the legislation moved through Congress, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger now fully supports the new federal law. In a speech at the University of California at Davis Medical Center, the governor - who cannot run for re-election because of term limits — broke rank with his fellow Republicans, many of whom have announced their intention to sue the federal government to overturn the law.
“California is not part of this fight, and I’ll tell you why,” according to Schwarzenegger. “When you don’t have health insurance and you go to the hospital, you are forcing other people to pay for your healthcare.” Twenty percent of California residents lack healthcare insurance, a situation that Schwarzenegger says is a crisis that requires resolution. “The bottom line is the plan is not without flaws, but it is a good law,” he said. To fill the void, California is launching a temporary high-risk insurance pool to cover the uninsured that will be funded by $761 million in Department of Health and Human Services money through 2014.
Schwarzenegger also vowed to enforce the law, to the point of making certain that the state’s insurers comply with bans on lifetime spending caps. If necessary, he will call the state Legislature into a special session to make statutory changes to comply with the act’s provisions. “We’re ready to roll up our sleeves and work with the federal government to get this done,” the governor said.
Tags: Arnold Schqarzenegger, California, Congress, Davis Medical Center, Department of Health and Human Services, Governors, healthcare reform legislation, Kathleen Seblius, lifetime spending caps, President Barack Obama, Republicans, The Terminator, University of California
Posted in Healthcare | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, has warned insurance companies to stop hunting for loopholes as a way to get around complying with healthcare reform. Additionally, Sebelius intends to write regulations to assure that all insurers cover children with pre-existing conditions, even though some companies are adamant that this is not one of the new law’s requirements.
“The American people debated and discussed health insurance reform for more than a year. Congress and the President have acted. Now is not the time to search for non-existent loopholes that preserve a broken system,” Sebelius wrote in a letter to insurance industry lobbyist Karen Ignagni.
President Obama stressed the ban on denying children with pre-existing conditions as a focus of his argument during the reform fight. His position is that children should be protected almost immediately after the bill becomes law - in this case, next September. The insurance companies claim they don’t have to cover children with pre-existing conditions until 2014.
The insurers’ revolt over this presumed loophole could mean that progressive Democrats will reconsider adding a robust public option to the law. The insurance companies’ threat to turn down sick kids makes the case to include a public option significantly more credible.
Tags: Congress, Democrats, healthcare reform legislation, insurance companies, Karen Ignagni, Kathleen Seblius, President Barack Obama, Progressive Party, public option
Posted in Healthcare | No Comments »
Monday, April 5th, 2010
Conservative Monica Crowley - known for her Washington Times columns, Fox News commentary and as a panelist on The McLaughlin Group - is anything but a fan of the recently passed healthcare reform legislation. In a Washington Times column, Crowley writes that “…the American people have been shackled by a new set of chains. What the Democrats did was not just pass a horrendously expensive, corrupt and destructive healthcare bill. They took a big chunk out of our exceptionalism. They are turning us rather quickly into France. Or Great Britain.”
According to Crowley, “He (President Obama) is accomplishing this by expanding government in unprecedented ways. By expanding government into every nook and cranny of your life - through healthcare, cap-and-trade and education policy - he will exponentially grow the base of people dependent on the federal government. By doing that, he will create a permanent Democratic majority.”
Crowley goes on to suggest that President Obama’s real goal is to establish a socialist state. “The objective: a massive welfare state, a la France and Greece - both of which, by the way, are sinking fast under their monstrous debts. By transferring millions more Americans to the public dole through healthcare entitlements, he is growing our debt to levels that will bring about the end of the dollar as the exceptional cornerstone of the world’s monetary structure,” Crowley opines.
“This is why most Americans are not going to settle for less than the fully monty: absolute and total repeal of Obamacare. Healthcare ‘reform’ was never about healthcare. It was about expanding government into every part of your life as an excuse to confiscate more of your private property, strip you of your constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and remake America into a two-bit, second-rate, debt-laden European socialist backwater.”
Tags: conservative, Fox News, healthcare reform legislation, Monica Crowley, Obamacare, President Barack Obama, Socialism, Wasthington Times
Posted in Healthcare | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
Now that President Barack Obama’s historic healthcare reform initiative has been passed by a sharply divided Congress, the struggle to approve the most ambitious expansion of the social safety net in a generation has revealed the difficulty of passing landmark legislation in a partisan environment.
Writing in the New York Times, Timothy Egan makes the point that “None of the great bipartisanship triumphs of the past - Social Security, Medicare, the Civil Rights Act — would have a prayer in the present environment. That’s not how we do politics in 2010. We talk, loudly, only to like-minded partisans, and everyone else be damned. If (Congressman) Kucinich had gone ahead as promised with a ‘no’ vote, it would not have an asterisk next to it. It would simply be another no, putting him in league with Michele Bachmann, John Boehner and other congressional defenders of the costliest, most inefficient and least accessible healthcare system in the Western world.”
Egan expands on his point, noting that “Reality is always a problem for purists. On the liberal side, many fail to comprehend that they are a distinct minority, stuck for years at around 19 percent of the public. When a liberal like Obama gets elected, he has to govern as a centrist for the simple reason that four-fifths of the country does not share his basic political outlook. Smart liberals understand this.”
Tags: compromis, Congress, Dennis Kucinich, healthcare reform legislation, Jim McDermott, John Boehner, Michele Bachmann, President, Timothy Egan
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Monday, March 22nd, 2010
Senate Democrats may tack an overhaul of the student loan program onto the healthcare reform bill, potentially handing President Barack Obama with a double victory on two of his top domestic priorities. According to Senator Dick Durbin, Majority Whip (D-IL), “There was a stronger feeling for including” the education proposal, although he admitted that a final decision has not yet been made. The proposal would shift subsidies that currently support private lenders to other student assistance programs, including Pell Grants for families who struggle to pay college tuition. “Some of the things accomplished here are really going to help a lot of people across American” Durbin said.
The leadership in both the House of Representatives and the Senate seemed to be on the verge of attaching the student loan bill to a package of fixes to the healthcare legislation. House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-CA), who is a proponent of combining the two measures, said “Senators have a simple choice here. They can either choose to continue sending tens of billions of wasteful subsidies to lenders, or they can invest that money directly in students and families. It’s critical. People have made it very clear that they want to take this home.”
The Congressional Budget Office said the Senate healthcare bill will cost $875 billion over 10 years and cut the deficit by $118 billion. President Obama’s proposal, which contains negotiated provisions from the House bill, could add an additional $100 billion to the ultimate cost. The Senate’s parliamentarian has ruled that combining the bills will work, assuming legislators reach the right balance on the final price tag.
Tags: Congressional Budget Office, Democrats, Dick Durbin, filibuster, Harry Reid, healthcare reform legislation, House of Representatives, Kent Conrad, Majority Whip, Medicaid, Medicare, Nancy Pelosi, Pell Grants, President Barack Obama, Senate, Senate Budget Committee, Speaker of the House, student loan program
Posted in Healthcare | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
Americans spent an average of $7,681 per person on healthcare during 2008, just a 3.5 percent rise over the previous year - the slowest growth rate in 48 years. According to a report issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, healthcare spending totaled $2.3 trillion in 2008 and accounted for 16.2 percent of the GDP.
The culprit is the recession, which achieved what a generation of public officials attempted without success. Federal officials said the slowdown in health spending resulted from the soft economy, people delaying elective procedures, for example, and did not cite any factors that will alter the long-term outlook for continued increases as baby boomers age and physicians rely more on new technologies to treat patients.
According to Micah Hartman, a government statistician who contributed to the report, federal spending for health services and supplies grew 10.4 percent in 2008 and equaled 36 percent of federal receipts, up from 28 percent in 2007. “In 2008, federal Medicaid spending increased 8.4 percent - the highest rate of growth since 2003 - while state spending declined by 0.1 percent, the first decline in these expenditures in program history,” Hartman said. “Spending for healthcare by private businesses grew just 1.2 percent in 2008, in part because of a drop in the proportion of employer-sponsored insurance paid by employers. Private business’ health spending remained relatively flat as a share of compensation at 7.9 percent.”
In other findings, the report noted that “private health insurance premiums and benefits grew in 2008 at their slowest rate since 1967, 3.1 percent and 3.9 percent respectively.” The slowdown reflects a drop in the number of Americans with private health insurance. That fell to 195.4 million in 2008, compared with 196.4 percent in 2007.
Tags: GDP, Healthcare, healthcare reform legislation, healthcare spending, Medicaid, Medicare, Micah Hartman, President Barack Obama, recession
Posted in Healthcare | No Comments »
The recently passed healthcare reform legislation includes provisions designed to enhance community pharmacists’ ability to advance patients’ outcomes. 