WHOA, the physician community is not so happy about this.
This is a new system funded by the Robert Wood Johnson foundation, and is akin to forced capitation. Obama and the current administration are quite interested in this, and various states, including my own are thinking about implementing it as well. I'd be interested in Happy's take on this.
I wonder how the guys in McAllen would take this.....(ducks)
More HERE
Friday, July 17, 2009
20th High School Reunion
Wow, what the hell happened? HOW has it been 20 years already. I didn't go to my 5th or 10th, or any of my other reunions, but I just finalized my travel plans to go back in about 3 weeks for my 20th. Like anything, there will be some people I really want to see and catch up with, and others that I didn't know really well. Oh well, a good bottle of 21 year old MacCallan, and life is good.
Pneumonia SUCKS
Wow, I can't remember being this sick in a long time. I was diagnosed almost two weeks ago. Left lower lobar consolidation. Treated appropriately, but I am still coughing stuff up. Missed a couple of days at work initially, cause I just couldn't go. I can tell I am getting older. When I was 15 years younger, I would have recovered in a few days, but I am still getting over this 2 weeks later.....WTF?
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Pay Cuts for Specialists, and increases for Primary Care..
Obama's initiative to CMS, re-allocate your re-imbursements! Estimates are that primary care physicians could see a pay increase of 6-8%, while some specialists, specifically cardiology as mentioned, could see BIG decreases. 11% overall, but up to 42% for procedures like echocardiograms.
Big changes...
See HERE
Big changes...
See HERE
Thursday, July 2, 2009
AMA does 180
SO, I think the AMA is doing their very best imitation of John Kerry at the moment, first they were against it, and now.......not so much.
Look HERE
Just gotta wonder.
Look HERE
Just gotta wonder.
Walmart...makes me laugh
SO, Walmart, the nations LARGEST private employer with 1.4 million employees is supportive of an employer mandate from congress for all employers to provide insurance. If only they were so accomodating to all of their employees. While I am not opposed to a mandate, I find it somewhat comical that a company with 36,000 employees on MEDICAID, yes, Medicaid, and has historically been somewhat reluctant to expand employee benefits would suddenly "see the light". I think that this is likely more of a power play by Walmart, to force some of their smaller competitors to provide benefits that they themselves are not even currently providing. I find it somewhat interesting considering that according to this article, only 53% of Walmart employees have health insurance sponsored by Wally, and 6% of their employee population is completely UNINSURED. Interesting statements made by them.
See more HERE
See more HERE
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Idiots, the Private Insurance Idiots...
No, they didn't fly to Washington on private jets, and ask for money from congress, but the three top insurance company leaders did testify before congress about rescission. Rather than being in tune with the tone of the country, economy, and congress as pertains to health reform, and possibly eliminating the practice, they basically thumbed their noses at the public, and said NO.
What sheer audacity, matched only by it's sheer stupidity. This is not smart practice to begin with, and in this particular climate, it's akin to committing political suicide.
More HERE
An investigation by the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations showed that health insurers WellPoint Inc., UnitedHealth Group and Assurant Inc. canceled the coverage of more than 20,000 people, allowing the companies to avoid paying more than $300 million in medical claims over a five-year period.
It also found that policyholders with breast cancer, lymphoma and more than 1,000 other conditions were targeted for rescission and that employees were praised in performance reviews for terminating the policies of customers with expensive illnesses.
What sheer audacity, matched only by it's sheer stupidity. This is not smart practice to begin with, and in this particular climate, it's akin to committing political suicide.
More HERE
An investigation by the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations showed that health insurers WellPoint Inc., UnitedHealth Group and Assurant Inc. canceled the coverage of more than 20,000 people, allowing the companies to avoid paying more than $300 million in medical claims over a five-year period.
It also found that policyholders with breast cancer, lymphoma and more than 1,000 other conditions were targeted for rescission and that employees were praised in performance reviews for terminating the policies of customers with expensive illnesses.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
The AMA is, if nothing else, predictable.
SO, finally the AMA has broken their silence, and released a press release regarding the possibility of a government backed plan to compete with private health insurance.
I don't think anyone will be surprised by their opinion.
HERE
Too bad their relevance is vanishing. Once a proud, vibrant, and powerful organization, they have lost a lot in the way of membership, and their revenues continue to decline.
They did it to themselves, and really have no one else to blame. They have fought against ANY, and ALL change within the healthcare system. First, they labeled physicians practicing in group practices as "communists", then they claimed that a DO's education was inferior, and would not recognize them as physicians, they have also picked battles with virtually every other group in the medical arena.
These acts have diminshed their power, much as the boy who cries "wolf", the AMA is not as respected as it once was. Physicians now overwhelming join their specialty groups. They are becoming what the republican party has. A shadow of their former selves, finding themselves on the outside, trying to find any sense of relevance.
I don't think anyone will be surprised by their opinion.
HERE
Too bad their relevance is vanishing. Once a proud, vibrant, and powerful organization, they have lost a lot in the way of membership, and their revenues continue to decline.
They did it to themselves, and really have no one else to blame. They have fought against ANY, and ALL change within the healthcare system. First, they labeled physicians practicing in group practices as "communists", then they claimed that a DO's education was inferior, and would not recognize them as physicians, they have also picked battles with virtually every other group in the medical arena.
These acts have diminshed their power, much as the boy who cries "wolf", the AMA is not as respected as it once was. Physicians now overwhelming join their specialty groups. They are becoming what the republican party has. A shadow of their former selves, finding themselves on the outside, trying to find any sense of relevance.
Waste, Taxes, and an inept congress.
As usual, my friend an colleague Bob Laszewski has it right.
See THIS
From his blog
Most experts estimate that the final health care bill will cost at least $1.2 trillion over those same ten years. It looks like the Democrats are getting ready to propose paying for half the cost of a health care bill with new taxes.
So, out of that $35 trillion we can’t find a little more than a trillion dollars in savings to pay the full cost of a health care bill?
Just taking the $17 billion that government will pay over the next ten years, we can’t find a trillion dollars there either?
Most experts agree that our system costs so much because we waste something like 30% of what we now spend.
At 30% in waste, that would mean that of the $35 trillion we will spend on health care over the next ten years there is more than $10 trillion in waste. Just in the $17 trillion government will spend on health care there would be more than $5 trillion in waste.
Just think about the logic of that for a moment.
It appears we are on our way to a $600 billion to $800 billion tax increase for a health care bill because we can’t find that amount of money in a system that will waste $10 trillion over the same period.
Ridiculous.
For starters, their is an estimated 60 billion in Medicare fraud annually, that the CMS does little, if anything about. They don't report many of their administrative costs, as they want to keep the illusion that their admin costs are under 2%, yet research done shows that their admin costs, without factoring in fraud and abuse, are actually closer to 5.8%. NOW, add in 60 billion. If we were to simply eliminate Medicare fraud, at 60 billion annually, we would save HALF of the money needed for Obama's healthcare reform plans by that action alone. We would save 600 billion over a ten year period. This isn't even touching on the 30% of waste that is estimated to occur in healthcare spending.
It makes me sick. I agree with Bob, these guys are morons. For, instead of actually DOING something to control cost increases, eliminate waste, eliminate fraud (which is illegal anyway), we are going to simply shift the costs to the taxpayer.
The more I see of both parties, the more I realize that they are simply indistinguishable from each other any more. There truly is little if any difference between them. They are concerned only with the accumulation, and maintenance of political power.
See THIS
From his blog
Most experts estimate that the final health care bill will cost at least $1.2 trillion over those same ten years. It looks like the Democrats are getting ready to propose paying for half the cost of a health care bill with new taxes.
So, out of that $35 trillion we can’t find a little more than a trillion dollars in savings to pay the full cost of a health care bill?
Just taking the $17 billion that government will pay over the next ten years, we can’t find a trillion dollars there either?
Most experts agree that our system costs so much because we waste something like 30% of what we now spend.
At 30% in waste, that would mean that of the $35 trillion we will spend on health care over the next ten years there is more than $10 trillion in waste. Just in the $17 trillion government will spend on health care there would be more than $5 trillion in waste.
Just think about the logic of that for a moment.
It appears we are on our way to a $600 billion to $800 billion tax increase for a health care bill because we can’t find that amount of money in a system that will waste $10 trillion over the same period.
Ridiculous.
For starters, their is an estimated 60 billion in Medicare fraud annually, that the CMS does little, if anything about. They don't report many of their administrative costs, as they want to keep the illusion that their admin costs are under 2%, yet research done shows that their admin costs, without factoring in fraud and abuse, are actually closer to 5.8%. NOW, add in 60 billion. If we were to simply eliminate Medicare fraud, at 60 billion annually, we would save HALF of the money needed for Obama's healthcare reform plans by that action alone. We would save 600 billion over a ten year period. This isn't even touching on the 30% of waste that is estimated to occur in healthcare spending.
It makes me sick. I agree with Bob, these guys are morons. For, instead of actually DOING something to control cost increases, eliminate waste, eliminate fraud (which is illegal anyway), we are going to simply shift the costs to the taxpayer.
The more I see of both parties, the more I realize that they are simply indistinguishable from each other any more. There truly is little if any difference between them. They are concerned only with the accumulation, and maintenance of political power.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Putting it mildly
This article in the Washington Post might be the understatement of the century...
HERE
Much of current climate, and the current excitement in the democratic party is ominously reminicsent of the failed Clinton reform efforts of the early nineties.
The only thing that has possibly changed is that the public is likely more receptive, mostly due to the current economic downturn. Unfortunately, the american publics ideological opposition to any and all things government may not engender Obama's plans to the public. Only time will tell if his efforts will be more successful.
HERE
Much of current climate, and the current excitement in the democratic party is ominously reminicsent of the failed Clinton reform efforts of the early nineties.
The only thing that has possibly changed is that the public is likely more receptive, mostly due to the current economic downturn. Unfortunately, the american publics ideological opposition to any and all things government may not engender Obama's plans to the public. Only time will tell if his efforts will be more successful.
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