The bipartisan goodwill at the Senate Health Education and Labor Committee markup was such that members combined their voices in chorus to unanimously approve a bill promoting health information technology. The Wired for Health Care Quality Act (S 1418), which is expected on the Senate floor, would establish the public–private American Health Information Collaborative to make recommendations for uniform standards for information technology. Federal programs would have to follow the standards to make computer systems compatible, but the standards would be voluntary for the private sector. Read more »
Converting Medicare physician payment to a system that pays more for higher-quality care—dubbed by insiders as "P4P" or "payment for performance"—won't protect doctors against major payment cuts if the current "Sustainable Growth Rate" (SGR) formula stays in place, Rep. Nancy L. Johnson, R-Conn., said. During a hearing before the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, Medicare administrator Mark B. McClellan expressed solid support for payment for performance and agreed the current doctor payment system is not sustainable. But he said nothing in his testimony that gave any encouragement to those hoping for administrative action by Medicare that would greatly reduce the legislative cost of repealing the SGR formula. Read more »
The Senate passed legislation by voice vote that would establish a system of health care providers to report medical errors without fear of the data being used in malpractice lawsuits. The bill (S 544), which was approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on March 9, would establish a national patient safety database maintained by the Department of Health and Human Services to catalog the reports and identify regional and national trends in medical mistakes. Under the bill, $25 million in grants would be authorized for fiscal 2006 and 2007 to be used for technology upgrades to help doctors and hospitals avoid errors. Read more »
The quality of medical care delivered in hospitals varies greatly across the country and even within hospitals themselves, according to a new report funded by the Commonwealth Fund. "These data do not provide support for the notion that 'good' hospitals are easy to identify or consistent in their performance across conditions," the authors state in a news release. They recommend expanding data collection efforts to include more conditions and focusing quality improvement efforts on a larger number of hospitals. Read more »
Legislation that would make it easier for small businesses to band together to purchase insurance and bypass state mandates is "a license to steal," says a study. "The consequences are predictable: bankruptcy, delayed or foregone medical care, and loss of coverage for America's businesses and workers," said report author Mila Kofman, an assistant research professor at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute. The report is referring to a bill (HR 525)—expected to pass the House—that would allow association health plans (AHPs) to bypass state regulation in areas such as mandating insurance coverage for specific treatments and procedures. Read more »