UPDATE. Legislative session developments can happen quickly! Today HB 1967 moved from Subcommittee #1 to Subcommittee #2 of the House Commerce and Labor Committee. We have a new list of legislators for you to contact! Please use the updated link and information below to contact members of Subcommittee #2. Thank you! Speaking out makes a difference. […]
By Jane M. Orient, M.D. Stocks of hospital and Medicaid-contracted managed-care companies plunged on the announcement of Judge Reed O’Connor’s ruling that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is unconstitutional. Some advisors consider this a “buying opportunity,” expecting that the ruling will be reversed on appeal. This shows who the important stakeholders are. Medicaid managed-care contractors […]
In response to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) request for feedback on a proposal to allow employer-funded Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) to pay premiums for ACA-qualified individual health plans, physicians overwhelmingly asked the IRS to put patients first. To the extent that the proposal increases patient options, “it is a step in the right direction,” […]
A global epidemic of attacks on ethical physicians, which endangers patients, was a focus of the 13th UNESCO World Conference on Bioethics, Medical Ethics & Health Law, held Nov 27-29, at the Ramada Hotel in Jerusalem. AAPS Director Lawrence Huntoon, M.D., Ph.D., presented the keynote address on “Sham Peer Review: a Worldwide Phenomenon.” Dr. Huntoon, a […]
On the first day of 2019 we lost a hero of American medicine, Curtis Webb Caine, Sr., M.D. Funeral and Celebration of Life service information is available here. President of AAPS in 1980-1981, Dr. Caine, joined the organization in 1949, and was our longest active member. For our 75th Annual Meeting this past October, Dr. […]
Volume 75, no. 1 January 2019 That the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is unconstitutional is simply a fact, as AAPS argued in the lawsuit it filed days after ACA was enacted in 2010 (AAPS v. Sebelius) and in numerous amicus briefs (see archives at aapsonline.org/category/obamacare/). The newsworthy development is the decision by Judge Reed O’Connor […]
In a Twitter sparring match with Jim Hanson, the president of the Security Studies Group, newly elected Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote: “Actually, we have for-profit ‘death panels’ now: they are companies + boards saying you’re on your own bc they won’t cover a critical procedure or medicine.” This was in response to a remark […]
The clearest winner in the 2018 midterms was Medicaid. Voters in Idaho, Utah, and Nebraska approved ballot initiatives to expand Medicaid, making 363,000 more people eligible for the program next year. With Democrats winning the governorship in Wisconsin and Kansas, these two states, which have resisted the expansion, may become more open to it. In […]
U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon asked CVS and Aetna to keep operations distinct, while he reviewed public comments on the settlement. Comments submitted by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) in a Dec 5 letter to Peter Mucchetti, Chief, Healthcare and Consumer Products Section, Antitrust Division, Department of Justice, warned that the […]
Nearly two weeks after Nov. 6, the ballots have been counted and the winners and losers are finally in the books. A lame duck session of Congress is in progress with some 2019 spending bills, having been kicked down the road, needing approval to avoid a partial shutdown. Meanwhile the Senate promises to expedite as […]