More than 30 million Medicare beneficiaries are receiving drug coverage, exceeding administration projections with less than a month to go before the May 15 enrollment deadline, officials said. If current enrollment trends continue—1.7 million beneficiaries enrolled in stand-alone drug plans within the last month—"we have a shot" at enrolling 90 percent of the 43 million Medicare beneficiaries eligible for drug coverage, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt told reporters. Read more »
In an announcement that surprised Hill aides and other health policy analysts, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that National Coordinator for Health Information Technology David J. Brailer has resigned. A statement by HHS Secretary Michael O. Leavitt gave no reason for the resignation, and Brailer himself could not be reached for comment. But Brailer told the Financial Times that "it's been a huge personal agony" to leave his family in San Francisco each week to commute to Washington. Read more »
Tommy Thompson for president? The former Department of Health and Human Services secretary doesn't figure in the early speculation about which Republicans will run for president in 2008. But ask Thompson directly and he says he is "absolutely" considering the possibility. Thompson said after an appearance with former HHS Secretary Donna Shalala that he wants to get his ideas on health care out in front of the country and indicated that a run for the presidency is a way to do it. Read more »
A little understood provision of the Deficit Reduction Act (PL 109-171) requires that U.S. citizens with Medicaid coverage document their eligibility for the program the next time they renew their enrollment, according to the draft version of a federal advisory to be issued to the states. Critics of the provision predict that if left unchanged, it would cause many current Medicaid beneficiaries to lose their coverage. Read more »
Reacting swiftly to signals that Medicare might phase in key parts of a proposal to improve the accuracy of inpatient hospital payments, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission wasted no time commenting on the controversial plan. Six days before the proposal was even set to be published in the Federal Register—and almost eight weeks before the June 12 deadline for comments—MedPAC sent a letter to federal officials saying the improvements should all begin this fall. Read more »
The "individual mandate" requiring uninsured residents of Massachusetts to obtain health coverage is widely perceived as the key to the political breakthrough that led the state last week to adopt a plan for virtually universal health care coverage. But the truth is that an employer mandate also is a key part of the mix, state policymakers said at a Washington forum. Read more »