Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator (CMS) Mark B. McClellan announced a new voluntary program for physicians to report evidence-based, consensus quality measures. In the first phase of the program, which begins in January, Medicare will allow physicians to submit data on 36 quality measures, such as beta blockers given when a patient suffering a heart attack enters the hospital or screening elderly patients for falls. The measures were developed with physicians, physician organizations, and other experts involved in reviewing the quality of the nation's health care, including the National Quality Forum and the RAND Corporation. Read more »
The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved its budget package designed to cut about $9.5 billion from Medicaid over five years, after Republicans rejected Democratic proposals to trim Medicare instead. Chairman Joe L. Barton, R-Texas, hinted, however, that Medicare cuts will be on the table during any conference negotiations with the Senate. The committee voted 28–22 to adopt the package as amended and agreed to send the package to the Budget Committee by voice vote. Read more »
A new bill introduced by two House subcommittee chairmen would allow the Department of Health and Human Services to set national medical privacy standards that would trump state laws. The bill would also ease restrictions on hospitals' donations of information technology equipment to doctors. The legislation (HR 4157), sponsored by Republican Reps. Nancy L. Johnson of Connecticut and Nathan Deal of Georgia, is heavy on regulatory spadework to dig a channel for the flow of money into federal development of health care information technology. But the bill comes up dry on the dollars themselves, according to a summary of the legislation. Read more »
Two former congressional health policy staff members said that Congress and the nation must develop a consensus on how to cover the uninsured to give the issue a higher priority on Capitol Hill. "Covering the uninsured is simply not a priority for this administration or for congressional leaders," said Liz Fowler, former chief health and entitlements counsel for the Senate Finance Committee, who worked with ranking Democrat Max Baucus of Montana. Dean Rosen, former chief health care advisor to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and now director of the health care practice at Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti Inc., agreed the problem will not be solved through partisan bickering. Read more »
Members of the Bush administration's Medicaid advisory panel began grappling with the enormity of their challenge: Give expert advice on controlling the program's costs but also determine how to help the growing number of uninsured. Democrats contend the panel is no more than a "sham" commission controlled by people hostile to Medicaid. But during a two-day meeting in Washington, members of the panel displayed the kind of concentration, curiosity, and passion that suggested their concern about the stakes involved. Read more »