November 2010 Archives
A key byproduct of the new health care law is that the Department of Health and Human Services has become even more of a repository for data collection and analysis than it has been in the past. The health care sector has always relied on intricate and targeted studies, data collection, and deep analysis, but even so, large parts of the industry have gone unchecked. Last week, HHS officials shared some of their findings on the private health insurance sector--with a focus on the small group and individual markets.
Increasing deductibles, fewer benefits, and the relationship between high health care costs and more expensive coverage have all been tracked before. But now, that information is being housed in one place and by an agency that has broad authority to regulate it. Indeed, many of the early deliverables in the new reform law were specifically targeted toward specific insurance markets.
Looking across the board at the quality improvement initiatives, including "best practice" incentives and the Medicare payment advisory board, do you feel there is enough of a premium on data collection and analysis in the new law? If so, which parts do you think will prove to be most transformative with the help of data collection?
CMS Administrator Donald Berwick goes in front of the Senate Finance Committee this week to discuss ways to improve Medicare and Medicaid. It is a topic that becomes even timelier in the wake of the recently released recommendations made by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Between the new health care law, with its provisions geared towards refining payments, and the commission's calls to set spending targets over the next two decades, what do you think holds the most promise in terms of improving the quality of care in Medicare while also holding down costs?
With Republicans holding the gavel in the House, it seems it will be nearly impossible to get any additional funding for programs authorized under the health care law. Many of the authorized, but not appropriated, programs focus on work force and prevention efforts. In addition, there are two unfunded programs that may be essential to the long-term success of the law, including a Medicaid global payment demonstration and a program requiring the Office of Personnel Management to contract with health insurers to offer "at least two multi-state health plans" in each states' insurance exchange.
What impact will these unfunded programs have on the implementation of the law? Will it be possible for Democrats to get any additional money?
Among the earliest casualties of the 2010 election cycle have been the moderates -- lawmakers who have a history of working each side of the aisle in an effort to craft legislation that meets in the middle. Republican primary voters in Delaware, Utah, Alaska, and elsewhere showed a desire to move further right, and many of the moderate Democrats involved in the health care law have either retired or seen their reelection prospects dim.
With the House on the verge of flipping over to the GOP, and the Senate tilting right even if Democrats are able to keep the gavel, what do you think portends for the fate of key provisions in the health reform law?
4 responses: John Sheils, John C. Goodman, James P. Gelfand, Ron Pollack
