Study Examines How Five Leading Safety-Net Hospitals Are Preparing For Health Care Reform

http://smtp01.kff.org/t/32654/433146/34810/0/

Obama embraces health care law after court ruling

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal_government/obama-embraces-health-care-law-after-court-ruling/2012/08/05/68cac724-df05-11e1-8d48-2b1243f34c85_print.html
Glad to see him finally do this. 

New Ads Promote Health Law’s Preventive Benefits

http://capsules.kaiserhealthnews.org/index.php/2012/08/new-ads-promote-health-laws-preventive-benefits/#more-12138

this article discusses the new ads which are doing a good job of promoting the preventive services just expanded by obamacare as of august 1. the opponents are not happy with them.

here is another article

New Obama ad hits Romney on Planned Parenthood

http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/08/new-obama-ad-hits-romney-on-planned-parenthood-131091.html 

Managed Long Term Services and Support (LTSS) and Integration of Post Acute Care

On Friday, I attended an Alliance for Health Reform Session which was cosponsored by AARP.  AARP released a report on a study they did on the use of managed care for persons needing LTSS. [LTSS (Long term services and support) replaces Long term care in the terminology lexicon. Not sure why]. see http://www.allhealth.org/briefing_detail.asp?bi=256
More details on the session will be available in a few days.

Here is a link to AARP's report
http://www.aarp.org/health/medicare-insurance/info-07-2012/keeping-watch-building-state-capacity-to-oversee-medicaid-managed-long-term-services-and-supports-AARP-ppi-health.html

Managed LTSS has the potential to be a cost saver but could lead to reductions in quality of care.  At least 10 states have been doing such programs already and another 10 states are planning to start such programs in the coming year, so this is a major trend forward as States look to reduce costs, and hopefully improve quality.  The session pointed out those states that seemed to be doing the best job at this.  NCQA is developing new measures for these programs. Quality-of-life measures were included in the discussion.

Please contact me via email thausner@gmail.com if you want to see an article by CQHealthbeat on this session.  

Following the session, Josh Wiener at RTI, shared with me findings from a report to congress that they did on the integration of Post acute care.  see

http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/Reports/downloads/Flood_PACPRD_RTC_CMS_Report_Jan_2012.pdf

This appears to be a very well done project and is a very important step forward in the integration of the different post acute services.  I am particularly pleased to see their development of a set of quality measures that applies across the different settings.  Having done considerable work in this arena, I am very impressed with the measures developed. They are consistent with those we developed in home health.

Obamacare may have reduced inflation

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/health/policy/in-hopeful-sign-health-spending-is-flattening-out.html?pagewanted=print

here is an article that I missed last april that points to reductions in health care inflation.  I hope to get more details on this.

Cutting health care costs

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/08/health_care_solutions.html

This article was published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. The authors are among some of the top U. S. health economists. Sponsored by Center for American Progress  (Cap). CAP held a session today with several of these authors. Highly recommend their propsals. See article for their 11proposals. Think pay for performance in FFS needs adding. 

In the session, mention was made that ACA has already significantly lowered costs. I plan to get more details. This is a very important finding that needs more publicity.

John Reichard in CQ healthbeat has an excellent summary of the article and this session.
  
Here is his article republished by the Commonwealth Fund

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Newsletters/Washington-Health-Policy-in-Review/2012/Aug/August-6-2012/Seminal-Health-Cost-Debate-Starts.aspx?omnicid=16 

Reuters has an article about Walmart supporting this proposal:

Wal-Mart backs Democratic plan to cut healthcare costs.

http://www.reuters.com/article/comments/idUSBRE8701MS20120802 

here is an article on yesterday's session
http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/other/241971-overnight-health Liberal group touts plan to curb health spending

 

 

 

 

New Services to keep women healthy

http://content.govdelivery.com/bulletins/gd/USHHSHC-4c9be3?reqfrom=share

from healthcare.gov email

Join HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Annic Jobin, WebMD’s Director of News and Partnerships, for a live online discussion on Wednesday, August 1 at 1:30 p.m. EST.

1. Submit questions in advance on Facebook
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4. See what people are saying about prevention and share this video on YouTube
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