On February 2, 2015, the Office of Management and Budget released President Obama's budget for fiscal year (FY) 2016, which includes provisions related to Medicare. The President's budget proposal would use federal savings and revenues to reduce the deficit, replace sequestration of Medicare and other federal programs for 2016 through 2025, and pay for new spending priorities. The President's FY2016 budget proposal would reduce net Medicare spending by $423 billion between 2016 and 2025, and is estimated to extend the solvency of the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund by approximately five years. This brief summarizes the Medicare provisions included in the President's FY2016 Budget.
These doctors are concerned you won't be able to afford the medicines they want to prescribe you. A national group of more than 140,000 physicians on Tuesday joined a coalition dedicated to reversing the growing trend of high-cost specialty drugs, which are being blamed for straining the finances of patients, insurance plans and public health coverage programs. The move by the American College of Physicians came a day after the Obama administration said it is asking Congress to give it power to negotiate with drugmakers over the prices of costly prescription medication provided to Medicare beneficiaries.
A recommendation tucked into Gov. Rick Scott's proposed budget could help Jackson Health System avoid a $40 million budget cut. Scott wants to repeal the so-called "hospital tiering" law set to take effect later this year. Under the controversial policy, counties that use local dollars to attract federal matching funds for healthcare would have to share the money with counties that don't raise local funds. Hospitals like Jackson that serve a large number of poor and uninsured patients say the new funding formula would cost them millions.
"ABIM clearly got it wrong. We launched programs that weren't ready ... We want to change that," the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) began its statement addressing changes in the controversial Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program. Five key changes, including enrollment fees, program language, the internal medicine exam, a 2-year suspension of part IV practice performance projects, and self assessments, will be implemented immediately with ongoing updates. "There were parts of the program about which we've received a lot of negative feedback that our directors themselves agreed with. Therefore, we made the decision to commit to changing them, and we pulled back the ones we could not stand behind operationally," Richard J. Baron, MD, president and CEO of the ABIM, told MedPage Today in a phone interview.
Brooklyn's strongest independent hospital is eyeing a partnership with one of the nation's largest healthcare networks. Maimonides Medical Center on Tuesday announced negotiations with North Shore-LIJ Health Systems, a sprawling medical care system with 19 hospitals in New York City, Long Island, Westchester and New Jersey. The board of the nonprofit Borough Park hospital has spent the past 12 months looking for a like-minded regional partner, Maimonides President Pamela Brier said. "We look forward to our continuing discussions with North Shore-LIJ and both agree that benefit to the communities we serve will be our highest priority," Brier said in a statement.
Mayor Bill de Blasio is expected to announce today that the city has begun work on six new community health centers, part of a larger push by the administration to reduce health inequalities in certain neighborhoods. The mayor's plan, which he will unveil in his State of the City address, is consistent with the broader public health strategy being implemented by city health commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett, who is refreshing a 90-year old idea in an effort to improve health outcomes in some of New York's most challenged neighborhoods.