October 13, 2009

October 13: Health Care Reform News

By Kelley Luckstein

The Business of Innovation – Dr. Denis Cortese

Streamling the health care delivery system is what my next guests do best. Chief Executive Officer of the world renowned Mayo Clinic serving more than half a million patients each year, the Mayo Clinic a global leader in collaborative and innovative model for patient care. A respected voice in America's national health care reform debate, this doctor is the recipient of the 2009 National Health Care Leadership award.

 

CNBC, 10/12/09

 

 

Top stories

 

As Panel Votes Today, Democrats Look Ahead

The Washington Post
Oct. 12, 2009

The Senate Finance Committee will hold a landmark vote on health-care reform legislation Tuesday that is expected to underscore the deep partisan divisions that have emerged and hardened over five months of debate.  

Big Vote for Health Overhaul in Senate Committee
AP/The Washington Post
Oct. 12, 2009

The pivotal Senate Finance Committee was poised to approve sweeping legislation Tuesday requiring nearly all Americans to purchase insurance and ushering in a host of other changes to the nation's $2.5 trillion medical system.

Eyes on Key Republican as Panel Votes on Health Bill

The New York Times
Oct. 13, 2009

With the Senate Finance Committee set to meet today to vote on the big health care legislation, all the attention is focused on Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine.

Insurers Push Back as Senate Health Vote Nears

The Wall Street Journal
Oct. 13, 2009

 

Democrats are poised to push health-overhaul legislation through the Senate Finance Committee, but insurers are ratcheting up concerns with the bill.

 

Universal Healthcare Coverage Appears Elusive
The Los Angeles Times
Oct. 13, 2009

 

With Tuesday's planned Senate committee vote, hospitals and insurance companies fear the key goal will slip further away. Democrats insist they'll keep pushing for it.

 

Insurance

 

Insurers Face Blowback After Report

Politico
Oct. 12, 2009

In the health care reform debate, where playing nice has been the rule, a scathing insurance industry report looked to critics Monday like a grenade aimed at scuttling progress in Congress. But it also looked to some like too little, too late.

Related coverage:
Democrats Call Insurance Industry Report Flawed , The New York Times
Insurance Dispute Heats Up Before Vote, The Washington Post
M.I.T. Economist Rebuts Insurance Industry Report, The New York Times

Health Reform Carries Heavy Price, Insurers Claim
PBS NewsHour
Oct. 12, 2009

Analysis of the AHIP report, including interviews with Nancy-Ann DeParle, director, White House Office of Health Reform and Karen Ignagni, president and chief executive officer, America's Health Insurance Plans.

 

State news

 

Minn. Grants Fund Initiatives in Health Care

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Oct. 12, 2009

 Plenty of states fund programs to promote health, but Minnesota officials say the scope of theirs — dubbed the Statewide Health Improvement Program, or SHIP — is unique. SHIP funds projects in 86 of 87 counties and with two tribal governments to persuade whole communities to eat better, exercise more and stop smoking, said Cara McNulty, who manages the program for the state Health Department.

 

Pawlenty to Propose Health Care Reforms Today

Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Oct. 13, 2009

 

On the same day a key U.S. Senate committee plans to vote on a massive health care overhaul bill, Gov. Tim Pawlenty plans to weigh in -- again -- on the issue.

 

Geography is Health Insurance Destiny

Health Populi

Oct. 12, 2009

 

Where you live is a determining factor in whether you have health insurance.

 

Medicare/Medicaid

 

Mayo Clinic Faulted for Limiting Medicare Patients

The Washington Post

Oct. 12, 2009

The renowned Mayo Clinic is no longer accepting some Medicare and Medicaid patients, raising new questions about whether it is too selective to serve as a model for health-care reform. Separately, the Mayo branch in Arizona put out word a few days ago that under a two-year pilot program, it would no longer accept Medicare for patients seeking primary care at its Glendale facility.

Mayo officials said Monday that the two moves were "business decisions" that had grown out of longstanding concerns about what it sees as underpayment by Medicare and Medicaid. The officials said they were not meant to influence the national reform debate, in which Mayo has also been advocating against the creation of a government-run insurance option. But they said the moves were indicative of the need for the Medicare payment reforms it has been pushing in Washington.

Providers Nationwide Watch Medicare Experiment
San Antonio Express

Oct. 13, 2009

In an experiment taking place here and being closely watched across the country, Medicare is studying whether it can cut the cost of expensive procedures by letting everyone — patients, doctors, hospitals — share in the savings.

Reform efforts

 

Current Health Care Legislation Will Not Control Medical Costs, Experts Warn

The New York Times
Oct. 12, 2009

 

With Democrats increasingly confident that they can pass major health care legislation this year, some of the nation’s foremost experts are warning that the emerging bills do not do enough quickly to tamp down soaring medical costs — the biggest problem facing the majority of Americans, who already have insurance.

 

Congress Is Split on Effort to Tax Costly Health Plans

The New York Times

Oct. 13, 2009

 

A proposed tax on high-cost health insurance plans has touched off a fierce clash between the Senate and the House over how to pay for a health care overhaul.

 

Tags: health care reform, Health Policy, Health Policy

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