Bredesen: State’s health reform tab could top $1 billion by 2015
Posted on October 6, 2009 at 3:21 pmOn a conference call today, Gov. Phil Bredesen said the latest version of health reform being discussed in D.C. looks like it will cost Tennessee between $570 million and $1.2 billion over the next five and a half years.
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Latest Senate health plan a winner for hospitals
Posted on at 1:40 pmThe nation’s hospital companies – a large number of whom call Middle Tennessee home – are set to come out ahead if the latest version of the Senate’s plan to reform health insurance becomes law. That’s in large part because a previous deal in which hospitals pledged to produce $155 billion in savings by 2019 still stands. In terms of sheer dollars, local players HCA and Community Health Systems would benefit most.
On the flip side, pharmacy benefit managers such as Caremark don’t have much to like from this new version: They’ll be required to disclose the incentives drug makers are paying them.
Why health reform should be like the civil rights movement
Posted on October 4, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Kim Fox at Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock relays some thoughts from a prominent industry conference, where political analyst Paul Begala made the case for incrementalism in health reform.
SEE ALSO: Bob Corker’s thoughts on this idea from a month ago
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Tennessee’s worst-case health care tab
Posted on September 30, 2009 at 2:36 pm
A new study commissioned by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation sketches just how the health care system could deteriorate over the next decade if income growth lags and the cost of care rises at a decent clip. Here are some teasers for the country as a whole.
• In 29 states, the number of those without insurance would grow by more than 30%
• Nationally, spending by American businesses for their workers’ health care would double.
In Tennessee, costs under the worst-case scenario would rise by two-thirds by 2019, faster than all but three of its neighboring states. Even in the study’s best possible outcome, uncompensated care in Tennessee will rise by 69 percent to almost $2.2 billion a year and business will have to shell out $6 billion more than they are this year. For more state numbers, go to page 56 of the report.
Moms feel left out of health care debate
Posted on at 1:49 pmMost moms think health care reform is necessary, but they’re worried about what it will cost and they feel voiceless in the debate, according to results of a national survey released today that was conducted by Bohan Advertising/Marketing’s WhyMomsRule.com blog.
The online poll of nearly 700 mothers shows 78 percent think reform is needed. Not surprisingly, 68 percent are worried about reform increasing costs, and 40 percent are afraid of being forced to buy insurance. Only 7 percent said they think Congress “is attuned to the situations of women like them,” and a third feel like they have no voice in Washington’s discussion at all.
Join the club.
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BlueCross: Reform yes, but not this way
Posted on September 24, 2009 at 7:53 amAndy Sher talks to representatives from BlueCross BlueShield and Cigna, who say that they’re all in favor of bringing more people into the insurance system, but don’t think they should have to pay new taxes and fees in return.
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The path from health reform to behavior reform
Posted on September 11, 2009 at 7:27 amRobert Hendrick at change:healthcare some of the health care reform points brought up last night by President Obama are an assbackward way of raising prices for consumers. But they’ll work, he adds, and thus help create a more cost-conscious health care system.
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Payment cuts don’t equate reform
Posted on September 1, 2009 at 9:51 am
Ardent Health Chief Medical Officer Steve Landgarten makes the case for not cutting reimbursements to hospitals:
“That would inevitably limit our ability to provide care to the increasing numbers” who would receive coverage under a major reform effort, he said. Instead, “we need to change the way we manage healthcare because then we’ll have the opportunity to gain what everybody wants: improved access and creating the best possible healthcare outcomes at the most-efficient resource cost.”
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Looks like a town hall on steroids
Posted on August 25, 2009 at 7:17 amThis Saturday, the Schermerhorn will host what is being billed as an objective discussion on the various health care reform proposals being bandied about. Headlining the discussion, entitled “The Third Rail of Healthcare Reform – Cost,” will be Congressman Jim Cooper, former CDC director Julie Gerberding and ex-Comptroller General David Walker, who has for years been ringing alarm bells about the government’s debts.
Why Aetna isn’t like FedEx
Posted on August 12, 2009 at 7:02 amBob Laszewski answers the Obama administration’s question about the public option in the health care reform debate.
If the Post Office had the purchasing power Medicare has it would unilaterally pay whatever price it wanted to for its labor contracts, its trucks, it’s office leases, etc. If the post office had that power just how long do you think FedEx and UPS would stay in business?
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Why health care reform is such a knot
Posted on August 4, 2009 at 10:13 amGerald Seib gives us five good reasons, ending with perhaps the most telling one.
The health system isn’t just something that provides medical care; it’s now also the largest industry in the land. It provides more than 14 million jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics tells us, and seven of the 20 fastest-growing occupations are health-related.
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How Medicare can save trillions
Posted on July 30, 2009 at 8:05 amRepeat after me: “Reduced health risk progression, reduced health risk progression…”
Healthways’ research staff has crunched a bunch of numbers to tell us that if seniors enter Medicare in a healthier state — having been coached on wellness and disease management in the years before they become eligible — the government health care program could spend $1.4 trillion less over a decade.
“The government and health care industry have long believed there to be a substantial cost benefit from prevention, health promotion and chronic care management,” said Ben R. Leedle,
Healthways chief executive officer. “This research validates and quantifies that assumption and
could have significant implications for the reform debate, health benefit coverage and policy in
general.”
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Taking shots at Gawande
Posted on July 22, 2009 at 2:17 pmAs the health care reform debate continues, DataAdvantage CEO Hal Andrews has some words and facts for the Atul Gawande disciples in the room.
We know some of the people involved in the Dartmouth Atlas Project, and we think their analysis is interesting and important. Even so, we are surprised and dismayed at how policymakers are using the findings as the map for healthcare reform in Washington, D.C., and we are frankly appalled at how The New Yorker article by Dr. Atul Gawande has seemingly become the guidepost of reform. The reason is that the conclusions that the Obama administration has made from Dr. Gawande’s article are, at best, suspect and, at worst, completely wrong. Reengineering 20% of the economy is a large task, in our view, and getting the facts straight is important.
So, what have we done? Instead of using an “Atlas” to analyze McAllen and El Paso, we suggest using “GPS” to triangulate the position that hospitals played in overall excess cost and utilization. Doing so provides some critical facts that The New Yorker failed to report.
Apparently, NashvillePost owes Andrews an apology for mentioning him in the same paragraph. Sorry ’bout that, Hal.
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Another blog joins the ‘-osphere’
Posted on June 22, 2009 at 1:42 pmLocal health care information firm Data Advantage has started its own blog. Those interested in issues facing the health care world can now hear a local insider’s take from the company’s highly regarded chief executive Hal Andrews, who has been responsible for most of the site’s posts.
To view The Healthcare Value Blog, click here.
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Rationing or reform?
Posted on June 16, 2009 at 12:46 pmThat’s the question a panel led by Rep. Jim Cooper will try to answer next Tuesday at an event hosted by Lipscomb. Other speakers at the event examining the ethics of health care reform will include Kevin Baggett, HCA’s director of clinical services, and former NFIB CEO Jack Faris.
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