Latest California Healthline Stories
What Paul Ryan’s Reforms Would Mean for California
Mitt Romney’s running mate has authored several budget proposals that would transform Medicare and Medicaid. How would Ryan’s changes affect the Golden State, and how do they compare to the Affordable Care Act’s reforms?
CMMI: ‘Pork Project’ or Manhattan Project?
Some herald the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation as a transformative reform. Others say it’s a $10 billion slush fund. On the eve of another round of funding awards, here’s a look at both sides.
‘The Passage of Power’ and the Passage of Medicare
A long-awaited biography of Lyndon Johnson goes inside White House strategy in the early 1960s. Does the battle to pass Medicare hold any lessons for today?
Four Resolutions We Hope Lawmakers Will Keep This Year
The Republicans have promised a replacement for the health reform law. The Democrats had planned a payment advisory panel. Both parties want a “doc fix.” Will this be the year lawmakers stick to their promises?
Politics Have Always Been Part of Policy — but Have We Hit a New Low?
Berwick’s out. Overruling the FDA is in. A flurry of recent headlines recall another moment when politics and health policy collided and set the nation on a new course.
What a Waste: Why We Can’t Rein In Extra Health Spending
Don Berwick took a parting shot at the waste in the U.S. health system as he stepped down at CMS, reinvigorating a question as old as Medicare: Why isn’t our system more efficient?
When a Law Loses Its Teeth, Can the Reform Still Bite?
After months of industry criticism, CMS’ accountable care organizations are winning plaudits after the agency made the program less intimidating for participants. Some suggest that will make ACOs less effective tools of reform, too.
The Benefits of Changing Medicare’s Drug Benefit
Medicare Part D is Exhibit A in how a health reform can evolve from partisan legislation to beloved protection. Aware of the drug benefit’s popularity, but facing real fiscal concerns, lawmakers are broaching delicate changes to the program.
Reform’s Unanswered Question: To Trim or Transform Medicare?
More cuts to Medicare are looming, just months after the Affordable Care Act sliced billions in program spending. Whether the new changes will be sweeping or merely substantive remains to be seen.
Accounting for the ACO Backlash by Recounting DRG Fight
All kinds of health care stakeholders seem to agree: CMS’ proposed ACOs are profoundly disagreeable. But is this criticism truly new or just providers’ traditional resistance to federal efforts to overhaul health care payment?