The Medicare hospice benefit has played a large role in moving our nation forward providing quality care for our dying. Hospice care was incorporated to improve the dying experience by providing comfort care to alleviate pain, decrease the use of intense care, and decrease the costs associated with intensive treatments. Hospice care has been a … Continue reading
Category Archives: Healthcare
Insurance: Non-Profit vs. For-Profit
Lately, there has been a lot of discussion about for-profit insurance vs. not-for-profit insurance. The general consensus among the public seems to be that for-profit insurance is evil, because all they are doing is trying to please the shareholders. However, for-profit insurance might not be as bad as many think. Non-profits in the healthcare world … Continue reading
Medicaid Expansion: The Bigger Picture
With 63 million enrollees, Medicaid provides coverage to low-income families, individuals with disabilities, and elderly individuals on Medicare who need assistance with cost sharing or services not covered under Medicare (dual eligibles). In 2009, the Medicaid program dished out $346 billion on health care services, or $5492 per enrollee (obviously spending varies per person depending … Continue reading
The Politics of Healthcare Reform
It’s not often that an election is a major determinant to a single issue. Concerning the upcoming Presidential election, though, it “is all about health care.” One of the few things we know is true in this election is that if Barack Obama wins, the Affordable Care Act will be fully implemented. If Mitt Romney wins, we … Continue reading
Another Wrench in Obamacare
A proposed settlement to a nationwide class action suit filed in the U.S. District Court in Vermont could become yet another headache for the world of healthcare. The lawsuit was filed by patient advocacy groups asserting that Medicare eligibility was flawed regarding skilled nursing and home health care. Under current law, Medicare is only required to … Continue reading
Accountable Care Organizations: Straying Further from A Free Market System
Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are federal programs under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) that incentivize health care providers to reduce costs and improve quality of care. Theoretically, under the ACO model, physicians coordinate with hospitals to create a large organization that provides streamlined, coordinated care to patients. The ACO model hopes to … Continue reading
Healthy, not just “healthy”
Forbes has a list of 10 ‘healthy’ habits that drain your bank account. Those ten are: drinking bottled water, taking unnecessary supplements, having a gym membership and not using it, drinking soy milk, eating organic peanut butter, drinking diet soda, drinking orange juice, buying unnecessary skin treatments, colonics, and eating protein bars. These habits could … Continue reading
What’s Meaningful About Meaningful Use?
As I have learned more about electronic health records (EHR), I have quickly become familiar with the term “meaningful use.” It sounds like a state of utopia, that everyone should strive for, yet like most governmental programs, it is much more complicated than it seems. Meaningful use of EHR technology is when providers properly “improve … Continue reading
ACA Focuses on Access
At the American Action Forum, I have been fortunate enough to learn from some of the smartest people in Washington, including former CBO director, Doug Holtz-Eakin. In a meeting with all of the AAF interns, Dr. Holtz-Eakin told us, “It’s about making good policy good politics.” This has resonated with me throughout the past couple … Continue reading
More Regulation is Not the Answer
In response to the deadly meningitis outbreak, attention has been cast on compounding pharmacies, as their product of steroid injections has produced 119 illnesses and 12 deaths. Compounding pharmacies are in business to provide specific prescriptions of drugs that are not available commercially. According to the FDA, these entities should only be mixing drugs on … Continue reading
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