The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality announced plans for studies it said will help point Medicare policymakers, beneficiaries, and doctors to the most effective types of treatments in 10 areas. By reviewing both published and unpublished scientific literature, the study "will provide invaluable information to providers and patients who need to make evidence-based decisions about treatments and interventions every day," said Dr. Carolyn Clancy, the AHRQ administrator. Read more »
Analysts from the Heritage Foundation, the Galen Institute, and the National Taxpayers Union said that it's time for Congress to step up to the plate and debate the continued existence of the deduction of employer-paid health insurance premiums from employee income. A petition circulated by the groups to attract media and congressional attention to the issue says deduction of the premiums from income and payroll taxes should end because it keeps market forces from restraining the galloping growth of health costs. Read more »
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas and the panel's Health Subcommittee Chairman Nancy L. Johnson have asked the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for help in moving Medicare toward a "pay-for-performance" system. "Today, Medicare pays providers the same whether they deliver excellent care or care that is ineffective, poor quality or out-of-date," the lawmakers wrote in a June 16 letter. "Unfortunately, since Medicare pays for resource use, we pay for more and more services when providers deliver ineffective and inefficient care. It is time to change this irrational system." Read more »
Health care costs for privately insured Americans grew 8.2 percent in 2004, virtually the same rate as in 2003, according to a study released by the Center for Studying Health System Change. Health spending growth continued to outpace overall economic growth by a wide margin—2.6 percentage points—in 2004, despite a robust 5.6 percent increase in the overall U.S. economy as measured by per capita gross domestic product, according to the study, which was published in the journal Health Affairs. Read more »
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen defended his decision to scale back the TennCare program, a move that consumer groups and patient advocates say will likely leave more than 300,000 people without medical care. Economics, the Democrat said, forced him to make cuts to the country's most generous Medicaid program. "What we have has become unsustainable, and I am going through the very painful process of trimming it back to something our state can afford," he said in remarks made at the National Press Club. Read more »