The ongoing rollout of the Affordable Care Act is the primary subject of this edition of Health Wonk Review – but there’s much more from the best of the health policy blogosphere – all summarized here for your reading pleasure!
PPACA rollout
Brad Flansbaum has written a thoughtful and compelling perspective on the impact of reimbursement changes on physician compensation, posing tough questions and seeming to come down on the side of longer/harder/tougher/knottier vs slam-dunk.
The coverage gap (wherein folks have to pay a penalty if they go without insurance coverage) is covered by Louise Norris at Colorado Health Insurance Insider – in fact she’s more on the ball than any of the other sources folks normally turn to. One key – if “your gap in coverage includes three or more months, you’ll be assessed a penalty for the entire period without health insurance; ” so being covered sometime during the fourth month doesn’t meet the test.
BTW, the IRS will assess a penalty for those going without coverage – and Louise has the skinny on those details too.
Bob Laszewski highlights the low consumer ratings of Covered California and the massive dollars poured into the site by the Feds. Bob notes coverage expansion has been far below estimates, while costs have been far above. Ouch.
Friend and colleague Hank Stern continues his merciless coverage of PPACA rollout with InsureBlog’s entry this biweek – a quick summary of notable news about the “ObamaTax”. Double Ouch…
Another coverage gap is addressed by Anthony Wright of Health Access California. Anthony reports on efforts by CA legislators to expand coverage to include undocumented workers in the Golden State. Pending changes in immigration may well increase the number of people eligible for coverage under PPACA.
Some want to kill PPACA; others, more politically savvy, want to replace it. Writing in Health Affairs’ blog, Tim Jost discusses the various ideas/thoughts/concepts circulating among GOP Senators and Congresspeople, concluding that it isn’t really possible – given the GOP’s antipathy for the core goals of PPACA – to “replace” it. And, most of the ideas floated to date won’t do much to increase coverage or reduce cost.
From MCM I submit a brief post detailing the cost trends for private health insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid. Notably, the “Ms” have lower trend rates than private insurers.
SGR is dead!
Pigs will fly. Lions and lambs will lie together. The Cubs will win the World Series (well, that may be a stretch). Those are events as equally unlikely as Congress agreeing on a bipartisan fix to Medicare physician reimbursement. Writing in medicareresources.org, the estimable Louise Norris contributes another worthy piece dissecting the implications of the replacement of the much-reviled SGR with small, but predictable increases in physician pay. Of note, there are also incentives to improve quality, extension of some niche health plans, and continued emphasis on increasing transparency. All good things, which just shows things can get done on Capitol Hill...
Our favorite health care economist, Jason Shafrin, contributes a quick take on the passage of a Medicare reimbursement “doc fix” – a fix that, while it adds $141 billion in additional cost over the next ten years, also simplifies other programs intended to reward top-performing docs.
Stuff you need to know
Julie Ferguson has a sobering piece on workplace suicides, noting law enforcement, farming, and auto repair are the industries most affected. Julie teases out the common factors, provides additional insight into specific industry risks, and focuses on the need for mental health support for family farmers. A great piece.
Returning from the annual HIMSS conference, contributor John Lynn shares his thoughts on what’s going to happen to Health IT in the near future; with implications for new entrants, entrenched old-line vendors, and the mid-tier outfits alike.
This biweek’s “hey, I didn’t know that! that’s pretty cool” moment comes from Jaan Sidorov MD, who reports that
persons of low socioeconomic status are more likely to have smart phones vs. the “banked” population. They may not have a checking account, but, compared to other segments of the population, they are more able to use these devices to access and manage their “e”care. [emphasis added]
HWR veteran Roy Poses MD has a tough piece on hospital CIO’s perspectives that they, the CIO, “own” patient engagement. Roy’s take is this is part of the problem with health care; generic managers who don’t actually deliver care think they “own” it. Well worth a read.
Finally, One Happy Nurse reveals why a 7 hour wait in the ER isn’t so bad…and she should know – she’s been working in an inner-city Level II trauma center ER for more than two years.
Whew…after almost ten years of HWR, it’s great to see the best keep getting better!
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