The demise of California's attempt at comprehensive healthcare reform this week means that advocates of overhauling the healthcare system will turn their focus back to Washington as an increasingly tough budget climate raises new questions about whether states can go it alone.
Shares of wellness program provider Healthways Inc. plunged today after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said the first phase of a pilot wellness program will end this year, as scheduled, but didn't indicate whether a Phase II expansion is in the cards. The Nashville-based company's shares fell $10.52, or 16 percent, to $55.85 in composite trading for the biggest decline since June 21, 2002.
With its major sources of funding flattening out, the University of Cincinnati plans to restructure its healthcare and medical operations and raise hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for it. University Hospital, the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and UC Physicians are finalizing a strategic plan to target four areas for clinical investment: cancer, neuroscience, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders including diabetes and obesity. The plan already is a focus of UC's $800 million capital campaign and critical to the university's future. The Academic Health Center, which includes the colleges of Medicine, Allied Health Sciences, Nursing and Pharmacy, University Hospital and several other parts, supports a budget of nearly $500 million.
Subsidizing claims of more than $15,000 a year for certain chronic diseases and requiring insurance companies to cover those claims is a centerpiece of a health-care reform bill introduced by Ohio Rep. Jim Raussen, R-Springdale, chairman of the House's Health Care Access and Affordability committee. The bill would also subsidize coverage for small companies, make it easier for children to be covered on their parents' policy and provide incentives for doctors and hospitals to computerize records. The proposals could cost $150 million to $500 million over the next six years.
Aetna is making a highly visible show of its support for the annual American Heart Association's Go Red For Women movement by lighting the cupola of its national headquarters red for the month of February. The company, headquartered in Hartford, CT is also supporting Go Red For Women luncheon events in California and Michigan, and encouraging employees nationally to wear red on Friday, February 1, which is "National Wear Red Day."
The failure of an ambitious plan to overhaul healthcare in California has illustrated the difficulty of sweeping reform and puts renewed focus on the presidential race, where healthcare has become a top domestic concern. Presidential candidates are proposing a raft of ways to solve a daunting social challenge, and their plans largely center on reining in costs and expanding coverage to the country's 47 million uninsured residents.