Selected stories from the daily newsletter CQ HealthBeat from the week of August 9, 2010. Provided as a service under rights licensed by The Commonwealth Fund. The full-text version of this newsletter is available in the
Health Reform section of commonwealthfund.org.
The House did what it interrupted its August recess to do: clear legislation that would provide $26.1 billion in aid to states. Read more »
Perhaps as never before, community health centers are getting their day in the sun, with billions of dollars in new federal funding coming their way and a growing recognition of the key role they may play in providing cost-effective care to the newly insured under the overhaul law. Read more »
Although polling shows that seniors in general aren't well-informed about how the health care overhaul law improves their Medicare benefits, at least 750,000 are well aware of at least one tangible benefit—the $250 checks they get this year if they reach the gap in drug coverage called the "doughnut hole." Read more »
The Obama administration should change the way it's interpreting "grandfather" provisions in the health care overhaul law—the better to truly allow consumers to keep their current health coverage if they choose and to cope with rising premium costs. That's the message the nation's biggest health insurance lobby is sending lawmakers through a new "issue brief" circulated this week to members of the lobby, America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).
Read more »
Insurers expressed dismay over a letter by key congressional committee chairmen weighing in on a health overhaul law provision dealing with "medical loss ratios," saying that millions of consumers could be harmed by the way the letter says the ratios should be calculated. Read more »
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has sent a letter to state Medicaid directors telling them they can ease barriers to providing care to the frail and disabled outside of nursing homes. Read more »