The congressional debate over changing the nation's troubled medical malpractice system widened with a Senate hearing on alternatives to caps on damage awards, a proposed solution that has repeatedly been rejected by the Senate. While specialized "health courts" attracted much attention at the hearing, witnesses were divided on their merits and no consensus emerged in support of any one alternative approach. Read more »
Over the last five months virtually all Medicare drug plans have raised prices for the top drugs prescribed to seniors to treat conditions such as high cholesterol, osteoporosis, and high blood pressure, according to a new study from Families USA. A separate study from the seniors group AARP found that prices for drugs commonly used among Americans age 50 and older had soared to their highest levels in the first quarter of the year. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) said both reports were aimed at scaring seniors. Read more »
Nearly 30 health care organizations representing physicians, patients, researchers, and other health care interests have formed the Alliance for Cardiac Care Excellence. Coalition members said that they aim to help bridge the gap between clinical procedures and treatments proven to be the most effective for cardiac patients with the level of care that most adult cardiac patients receive. Read more »
A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation urges a delay in the July 1 start of new requirements specifying how states document the citizenship of Medicaid enrollees. The study said states face an "enormous job" carrying out the requirements, which critics say could cause many thousands of the nation's 55 million Medicaid beneficiaries to lose their coverage. But a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said that states "have had several months to prepare. . . .The statute is very straightforward about what documents are required." Read more »
Instituting a series of basic and widely accepted care measures for 75,000 patients undergoing care for pneumonia and heart bypass surgery would have reduced hospital costs for those patients by as much as $1 billion, according to a study released Tuesday. The results of the "pay-for-performance" demonstration conducted by Premier Inc. and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) also concluded that providing that level of care would have resulted in 3,000 fewer deaths, 6,000 fewer medical complications, 6,000 fewer hospital readmissions, and 500,000 fewer days in the hospital. Read more »
Among the blunt assessments offered by Wall Street analysts at the "Wall Street Comes to Washington Conference": the commercial insurance industry has given up trying to control health costs; much of the enrollment growth in the private plan side of Medicare is in plans that do little if anything to actually try to manage care; Medicare drug plans are going to set premiums for 2007 with basically no clue about whether they are running profits or losses in 2006; and starting in 2008, those plans are likely to cover a much more limited range of drugs. Read more »