Latest California Healthline Stories
Local, National Reforms Both Needed, Policy Leaders Told
BALTIMORE — Although their approaches may appear to be at odds with each other at the onset, a top federal bureaucrat and a national business leader assured health policy leaders Wednesday that government and commercial interests can work together effectively to reform the country’s health care system.
“We’ll figure it out together. We may not figure it out as quickly as people might like, but we will get there,” said Richard Gilfillan, director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.
Gilfillan and Andrew Webber, president and CEO of the National Business Coalition on Health, shared the podium to deliver a tandem farewell address at the National Academy for State Health Policy’s 25th annual conference.
Health Policy and Winnie-the-Pooh
BALTIMORE — How health care is like A Bear of Very Little Brain:
“Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it.”
— A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
“That is what we are here to do — think of another way of doing things,” said Richard Gottfried, chair of the New York State Assembly Committee on Health and moderator of a well-attended panel on payment reform Tuesday at the National Academy for State Health Policy’s annual conference.
How Wal-Mart May Have Just Changed the Game on Health Care
Wal-Mart last week announced a new bundled payment plan with six leading hospitals, which was immediately overshadowed by the presidential race. But the groundbreaking plan — the latest major health care development in the private sector in recent weeks — holds tremendous potential to change U.S. health care.
Educator Praises Health Policy Officials for ‘Noble Work’
BALTIMORE — “I would argue that what you face in health care is very similar to what we face in education — revenues are down and needs are up,” Freeman Hrabowski III said in his keynote address Monday at the opening of the National Academy for State Health Policy’s 25th annual conference.
Quoting poets William Carlos Williams and Maya Angelou and evoking the legacies of Franklin Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr., Hrabowski told state policy wonks “the work you do is noble, but the situations we face are not easy. It comes down to how you respond. Aristotle said ‘excellence is never an accident.’ I think we need to remember that as we move forward,” Hrabowski said.
Hrabowski — president of University of Maryland, Baltimore County and one of Time Magazine’s choices of the 100 most influential people in the world — did his homework before addressing the NASHP crowd.
Obama, Romney Health Care Differences Detailed in Study
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney would dismantle most of the federal Affordable Care Act and make sweeping changes to Medicare and Medicaid, according to a study released Wednesday by UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research.
The side-by-side analysis of health care proposals in the 2012 presidential contest found stark policy differences between the former Massachusetts governor and President Barack Obama, said Shana Alex Lavarreda, the report’s co-author and director of UCLA’s Health Insurance Studies Program.
“I think the choice is very clear,” she said. “It wasn’t hard to find major distinctions.”
How Should Exchange Handle Vision, Dental Coverage?
Federal guidelines provide some direction, but state insurance exchanges are largely on their own when deciding details of offering vision and dental coverage under the Affordable Care Act. We asked stakeholders and consumer advocates what California should do.
‘No Debate,’ Cleveland Clinic’s Great. But How To Replicate?
At last week’s debate, both President Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney agreed on one point: The Cleveland Clinic is a model for U.S. health care. But the men had different visions for how to realize similar reforms.
Watch Sears and Darden, Not Obama vs. Romney, for Future of Health Care
Sears Holdings and Darden Restaurants are adopting a new direct contribution model for their employees’ health benefits, a change that may prompt other major companies to follow suit.
FTC, Calif. AG Put Pressure on M&A — and Confuse Providers
Compete — or consolidate? Lawmakers can’t seem to decide which approach they want hospitals and doctors to follow, and the mixed messages are causing confusion.
Can Health Policy Contribute to Drop in Crime Rate?
Two significant changes in California’s health system — federal reform and realignment of state and county responsibilities for government health programs — offer new opportunities to improve the way things work in California on many fronts, including the criminal justice system, according to some. We asked experts to explain how.