Posts Tagged ‘Obama administration’
Monday, March 1st, 2010
The American College of Physicians (ACP) is urging Congress and the Obama administration to move ahead and pass healthcare reform legislation. ACP, whose membership includes 129,000 internists, internal medicine subspecialists, medical students, residents and fellows, offers this advice: “Don’t start over.”
“Let’s take the bills passed by the House and Senate and make them even better,” urges Bob Doherty, the ACP’s senior vice president of government affairs and public policy. “We shouldn’t toss them out and start from scratch.” An ACP report warns of the costs of failure to pass healthcare reform, quoting Congressional Budget Office projections that healthcare spending will climb to 25 percent of GDP by 2025. Similarly, the Census Bureau has warned that the number of the uninsured will soar to 60 million Americans by 2020 if reform does not occur.
ACP President Joseph Stubbs notes that “A highly partisan and polarized debate over healthcare reform legislation has regrettably taken the country’s ‘eye off the ball’ from the urgency of implementing reforms.” The ACP advocates building on existing legislation to reach ultimate agreement on a bill and create bipartisan proposals to cut the costs of the medical liability tort system with the goal of increasing the number of primary-care physicians.
Tags: American College of Physicians, Bob Doherty, Congress, Congressional Budget Office, healthcare reform, healthcare summit, internists, Joseph Stubbs, Medicare, Obama administration, primary-care physicians, US Census Bureau
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Thursday, February 25th, 2010
The Obama administration has released approximately $1 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus bill. The money is a downpayment on funding access to health information technology for more than 100,000 hospitals and primary-care physicians. Another goal is to train people for careers in healthcare and information technology. A total of $19 billion for healthcare information is contained in the stimulus bill.
Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that $750 million of the initial $1 billion will be used to help hospitals and physicians convert to electronic health records. “We are at a point in the United States where only 20 percent of doctors and 10 percent of hospitals have even basic electronic health records,” Sebelius said in a teleconference. “These grant awards, the first of their kind, will help develop our electronic infrastructure and give doctors and other healthcare providers the support they need as they adopt this powerful technology.”
Tags: department of labor, electronic medical records, healthcare it, Kathleen Sebelius, Obama administration, stiumulus money
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Thursday, January 28th, 2010
In 2011, physicians will be eligible for extra payments from federal health insurance programs if they implement electronic medical record systems. The extra money is courtesy of President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus bill signed into law early last year. To help physicians - especially those in small practices - pay for the several thousand dollar systems, private insurers are also offering financing incentives of their own.
UnitedHealth Group, for example, is offering interest-free loans to small practices that start using Ingenix CareTracker, an internet-based system. Chicago-headquartered Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, Inc., is offering a six-month, no-payment program for qualified buyers of its electronic healthcare records software.
Under the federal legislation, physicians who start using electronic medical records can receive more than $40,000 in Medicare payments over a five-year period. At present, the Obama administration is soliciting comments on new regulations to “lay a foundation for improving quality, efficiency and safety through meaningful use of certified electronic health record technology.” Although electronic records keeping will cut paperwork, control costs and create a more efficient system, physicians have been slow to adopt the technology because of the high cost of purchasing the equipment.
Even though 75 percent of Americans patronize doctors in small practices, less than 15 percent of physicians now use electronic records systems. UnitedHealth, which says its CareTracker system can cost less than $7,000 annually, is “helping physicians overcome the challenge of funding their upfront investment - the biggest barrier in implementing health information technology,” said Bill Miller, executive vice president of Ingenix, the firm’s health information technology subsidiary.
Tags: electronic medical records, Medicare, Obama administration, stimulus bill, UnitedHealth Group
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Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is warning that the healthcare reform bill may not pass until after the New Year. According to Reid, debate in the Senate may not begin until December, pushing back the timeline on legislation that tops President Barack Obama’s domestic agenda.
Meanwhile, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says that the House of Representatives is on a faster track and that a vote could come soon on a bill to extend coverage to people who lack healthcare insurance, ban industry practices such as denying coverage of pre-existing conditions and put the brakes on medical spending. The $1.2 trillion, 10-year bill would expand coverage to an estimated 96 percent of all Americans. Additionally, the House bill includes a public option intended to put pressure on private insurers to make coverage more affordable for all.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) currently is working on a cost estimate for the draft bill that Reid submitted recently. White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer reacted to the news by saying “The House plans to vote on the health reform bill within days. Senator Reid has committed to the president that as soon as the Senate has the information back from the CBO they will move expeditiously to pass health reform.”
A delay past the year-end timetable would push off healthcare reform to a mid-term election year and raise questions about the Democrats’ ability to deliver legislation that the Obama administration has made a priority.
Tags: Congressional Budget Office, House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, Obama administration, Senate, Senator Harry Reid
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Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
The Obama administration floated the idea of healthcare cooperatives as one solution to fix the nation’s broken delivery system - a proposal that was rejected out of hand by the opponents of reform. Co-ops thrive in environments where people with mutual economic interests share resources to maximize their market power. Because co-ops don’t pay dividends to stockholders, they reinvest profits and have a strong track record of providing innovative, cost-effective healthcare.
There are downsides to healthcare co-ops, though. They are often too small to compete with the insurance companies and so lack the ability to negotiate effectively with large hospitals or physician groups. Most can’t afford computer systems for electronic billing or the technologies to deliver physician services.
Yet there are stories of extremely successful healthcare co-ops. The major players - in Seattle and Minneapolis/St. Paul - have more than 500,000 members and each runs their own hospitals, clinics, physician groups and insurance plans. Bloomington, MN-based Health Partners compensates physicians based on productivity. Between 1998 and 2002, the co-op saw physician productivity soar by 38 percent and costs fall by 20 percent. In 2007 Health Partners paid $27 million in incentives to caregivers who met productivity and patient satisfaction objectives.
The 62,000-member Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin, based in Madison, is another success story. The co-op has used electronic records for seven years, according to executive director Larry Zanoni, and a prominent industry group ranks it eighth nationwide among HMOs for the quality of healthcare it provides.
Tags: Commonwealth Fund, cost effective, Health Partners, healthcare reform, HMO, Obama administration
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Tuesday, July 21st, 2009
The Republican National Committee’s (RNC) response to the Obama Administration’s and Congressional Democrats’ efforts to pass healthcare reform legislation was to sponsor a “Hillarycare revisited” fund raising effort.
The RNC warned against “Obamacare” and pointed out that the government “already run
s car companies, banks and mortgage companies. Republicans believe that the last thing the American people want is government telling them when and where - or even whether - they can get medical treatment for their families.” “Hillarycare” refers to former President Bill Clinton’s failed attempt at reforming healthcare during the 1990s, an effort led by his wife, Hillary Clinton.
Republicans like John Boehner (R-OH) have raised the specter of a “bureaucrat standing between you and your doctor.” Perhaps it’s worth considering that we currently have an insurance company bureaucrat performing the same role. Also, government administered health options are almost uniformly popular. The World Health Organization ranks France’s healthcare system as the world’s finest, contrasted to the United States, which scored 37th. The United Kingdom’s combination of publicly and privately funded healthcare ranked 18th in the World Health Organization’s survey.
Tags: American, banks, bureaucrat, car companies, Congressional Democrats, doctor, France, government, government administered health, Healthcare, healthcare reform, healthcare system, Hillary Clinton, Hillarycare, insurance company bureaucrat, John Boehner, legislation, mortgage companies, Obama administration, Obamacare, President Bill Clinton, R-OH, Republican National Committee, Republicans, RNC, United Kingdom, United States, WHO, World Health Organization
Posted in Economics, Healthcare, Hospital Systems | No Comments »
Thursday, July 9th, 2009
In an era when healthcare costs are projected to rise to $4 trillion by 2016, it’s heartening to know that one of the nation’s highest-rated hospitals has some of the lowest costs. The Cleveland Clinic is regularly consulted by lawmakers and officials from the Obama Administration in their efforts at achieving healthcare reform - yet it operates more efficiently than most of its competitors.
“Everything we do is done with the patient at the center, not the doctor at the center,” said Dr. Steven Nissen. One way the Clinic provides exceptional care at reasonable cost is by using a model in which medical professionals practice side-by-side rather than in separate and — frequently — competitive departments.
President Barack Obama gave kudos to the Cleveland Clinic for its success. “Without a serious, sustained effort to reduce the growth rate of health care costs, affordable healthcare coverage will remain out of reach. So we must attack the root causes of the inflation in healthcare. That means promoting the best practices, not simply the most expensive. We should ask why places like the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic, and other institutions can offer the highest quality care at costs well below the national norm. We need to learn from their successes and replicate those best practices. That’s how we can achieve reform that preserves and strengthens what’s best about our healthcare system, while fixing what is broken.”
As part of its road to excellence, the Clinic also promotes employee wellness. It doesn’t hire smokers; it sponsors a farmers’ market at its main campus, stocks its cafeterias with healthy foods and conducts yoga classes for patients and employees.
Tags: Healthcare, healthcare costs, healthcare coverage, healthcare reform, lawmakers, Mayo Clinic, medical professionals, Obama administration, President Bar, The Cleveland Clinic
Posted in Economics, Healthcare, Hospital Systems | No Comments »
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
Tucked into the Obama Administration’s stimulus bill is $200 million to support student loan repayments for primary-care physicians, dentists and mental health specialists who devote two years to working at National Health Service Corps sites. Approximately 3,300 awards are being made to individuals serving in health centers, rural health clinics and healthcare facilities that treat the uninsured and people living in under served areas.
Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, notes that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act “has laid the foundation for health reform and is supporting our effort to give more people access to the quality, affordable healthcare they need. National Health Service Corps has helped protect the health and well-being of millions of Americans. Now, we are doubling the Corps and putting doctors and clinicians in the communities where they are desperately needed.”
The additional funding should double the number of corps members “and the number of patients they care for, and spark economic growth in communities hard hit by the economic turndown,” according to Mary Wakefield, administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, which manages the corps.
Tags: American, clinicians, economic growth, economic turndown, funding, health, Health Resources, mental health specialists, National Health Service Corps, Obama administration, patients, President Barack Obama, primary-care physician, stimulus, stimulus bill, student loan replayment, well-being, wellness
Posted in Healthcare, Physician Recruitment | No Comments »
Monday, May 18th, 2009
Barack Obama may get his way on healthcare reform with the full cooperation of those who vocally lobbied against it during the 1990s. The timing couldn’t be better — healthcare costs total $2.4 trillion annually (an average of $7,868 per person) and are projected to rise to $4 trillion by 2016.
In a reversal, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, physicians and other industry leaders presented a plan to the White House proposing to save $2 trillion in healthcare delivery costs over the next 10 years. Participants included the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, the Advanced Medical Technology Association, America’s Health Insurance Plans and the Service Employees International Union — which master-minded the bold move. Although healthcare costs will continue to rise, this plan will slow the pace.
“We cannot continue down the same dangerous road we’ve been traveling for so many years, with costs that are out of control, because reform is not a luxury that can be postponed, but a necessity that cannot wait,” Obama said.
Obama’s proposed plan is based on the existing system, where employers, the government and individuals share responsibility for paying for privately delivered healthcare. The government will subsidize coverage for additional people and mandate stricter consumer protection.
It’s evident that the healthcare industry has seen the writing on the wall. Their willingness to work with the Obama Administration and Congress - compared with the fierce opposition to Bill Clinton’s healthcare reform efforts 15 years ago - is a turnaround that should translate to real change.
Tags: Advanced Medical Technology Association, American Hospital Association, American Medical Association, American's Health Insurance Plans, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, healthcare costs, healthcare reform, Obama administration, pharmaceutical companies, physicians, President Barack Obama, private healthcare, Service Employees International Union, White House
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Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
The Obama administration is playing hardball to force Congress to pass healthcare reform legislation before the end of the year - preferably without the customary Republican-led filibuster delaying the final vote. 
President Obama’s aggressive approach to protect healthcare legislation from Republican filibusters demonstrates the magnitude this ambitious reform package and has come to be called in some circles the nuclear option.
The agreement between the White House and Congressional Democrats lets healthcare legislation that meets budget targets win approval by a simple Senate majority — a process called reconciliation. Not surprisingly, Republican leaders are up in arms about the no-filibuster deal, claiming that healthcare is too important to be exempt from the Senate’s usual rules.
Republicans have threatened to use their own procedural weapons to bog down the Senate if the Democrats try to restrict filibusters. Options include forcing multiple votes on routine bills, inaction on administration nominations, or requiring lengthy legislation to be read in full. Even some Democrats - notably Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Max Baucus of Montana - are uncomfortable with reconciliation. Other Democrats point out that Senate Republicans successfully used reconciliation to enact President George W. Bush’s tax cuts in 2001 and 2003.
The president is relying on his significant political capital to push his agenda through, relying on unwavering support from his sizable Senate Democratic majority. This is likely to total 60 Senators once the Minnesota courts finally certify Al Franken’s victory, and as a result of Arlen Specter’s surprise exit from the Republican Party. That could give President Obama the filibuster-proof majority he wants.
Tags: Al Franken, Arlen Specter, Congress, Congressional Democrats, Democrat, George W Bush, Healthcare, Kent Conrad, legislation, Max Baucus, Minnesota, Montana, no-filibuster deal, North Dakota, Obama, Obama administration, political capital, President Obama, reconciliation, Republican, Republican-led filibuster, White House
Posted in Economics, Healthcare, Hospital Systems | No Comments »
