Digital technologies such as electronic medical records, mobile devices, and analytics offer the potential to transform health care. Whether it's a patient using her smartphone to better manage her diabetes, a provider monitoring a patient for arrhythmia remotely, or an electronic health-record system alerting a clinician of a potential drug allergy, digital technologies can create meaningful value for patients and practitioners alike. Yet there are significant barriers to the development and adoption of such technologies that academic medical centers are uniquely positioned to overcome. One of the primary barriers we see in digital health is the difficulty that start-ups face in accessing real-world hospital settings during the technology-development phase.
Millions of Americans receive help every year from a federal program they have never heard of: the 340B drug discount program, which allows public and nonprofit safety-net hospitals to better provide both affordable medications and vital services to the underserved. I helped write the legislation that created this program and worked to expand it in the 2010 Affordable Care Act. The program has been extremely successful in reducing drug costs and helping support the hospitals and clinics that provide care to the uninsured. But now pharmaceutical industry opponents of the law are trying rewrite history and limit 340B program eligibility for hospitals and patients -- even as they charge as much as $1,000 for a single pill for some drugs.
The Obama administration discreetly included dental plan sign-ups in its most recent report on the Affordable Care Act's enrollment numbers. The White House claimed in September that 7.3 million people had enrolled in insurance plans under Obamacare, surpassing President Obama's 7 million sign-up goal. But investigators from the House Oversight and Government Committee analyzed these enrollments and found that as many as 400,000 of the plans were simply for dental coverage, Bloomberg reports. In earlier reports, the administration had counted dental plans separately. Excluding dental plans, Obamacare enrollment would be around 6.7 million — missing the administration's stated goal.
One part of the Affordable Care Act is going according to plan, with U.S. states receiving and spending more money on the Medicaid health insurance program, a report released by the National Association of State Budget Officers on Thursday showed. States run Medicaid, which serves families who have low incomes, and receive partial reimbursements from the federal government. The healthcare overhaul known as Obamacare allowed more people to enroll in Medicaid and also gave states 90 percent to 100 percent reimbursements for new enrollees.
It's open-enrollment time for employers and their employees, the time when employees must choose a health insurance plan or confirm they'll remain on their current coverage for 2015. This is also the time when folks are eligible to purchase an individual health insurance plan on HealthCare.gov or one of the various state-based exchanges. For those plans, you have until Dec. 15 to purchase your 2015 health insurance. Regardless of where you get your health insurance, one thing is for sure: Your premiums for 2015 and the next several years are set to rise significantly.
On Wednesday we told you a story about an Obamacare program that helped poor children and saved taxpayer money. Because of the structure of our health care payment system, the program was also doomed to fail. Below, the health care CEO we profiled argues that today's payment models discourage quality improvement in health care, while driving up costs for everyone. David J. Bailey, MD, MBA, president and chief executive of Nemours: I am, first and foremost, a doctor. I am also the CEO of a regional children's health system. Curiously, alignment of the two roles is not always as easy as it should be, largely due to the way that our health care payment system is structured.