This Week’s Health Policy News Roundup Curated by Jane M. Orient, M.D.
If patients all got healthy, medical costs would plummet. And if doctors weren’t paid for caring for patients who don’t get healthy, costs would also plummet. This seems to be the reasoning behind the Obama Administration’s ambitious plans for payment reform. Though pilot programs haven’t worked too well, the new initiative adds targets: The goal is for half of all Medicare payments to be linked to health outcomes and other measures by 2018. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/01/26/the-obama-administration-wants-to-dramatically-change-how-doctors-are-paid/
The new goals aim to “jump start” the move from fee for service to alternative payment methods, such as blended or prospective global payment models, which “promote value over volume,” according to Douglas E. Henley, M.D., executive vice president and chief executive officer of the American Academy of Family Physicians. “These goals for payment reform are critical to achieving what family medicine is really all about: delivering the right care, at the right time, to the right person, in the right place” [terms used by managed-care proponents for decades]. HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell said, “We believe these goals can drive transformative change.” http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/medical-economics/news/obama-administration-looks-jump-start-value-based-payment-programs
ObamaCare’s “cost saving” costs taxpayers $50,000 per newly insured person, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/CBO-report-Obamacare-50K/2015/01/27/id/620979/?ns_mail_uid=1636439&ns_mail_job=1605411_01272015&s=al&dkt_nbr=68svi4uu
CBO has pronounced, however, that Obamacare’s future costs will be seven percent less than were projected in April 2014. John Graham writes that this is a short-term projection through rose-colored glasses, and that costs will explode later. http://healthblog.ncpa.org/obamacares-rose-colored-short-sighted-vision/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HA#more-39730
Social Media
@JediPD @AAPSonline @IP4PI I cut Medicare 100% when I opted out. Now I treat my Medicare patients as individuals with respect they deserve.
— Dr Steven Horvitz (@IMWHorvitz) January 31, 2015
Why the Obama Administration’s New Medicare Payment Reform Plan Won’t Live Up to the Hype http://t.co/0nPTcIY8lz
— Grüss Gott (@clasicaliberal) January 31, 2015
