Carlos Puentes has relied on using urostomy bags since surviving bladder cancer a few years ago. Then, due to a gap in health care that occurred when his managed care company, Senior Whole Health, left the Capital Region over the winter, the 86-year-old Dominican Republic native found himself removing, rinsing out and reusing the bags. Puentes doesn't speak English, and when SWH left he no longer had a translator to help him navigate the maze of paperwork and phone calls that were needed to keep up delivery of his supplies.
Two years ago, over objections from the hospital industry, the U.S. announced it would add data about "potentially life-threatening" mistakes made in hospitals to a website people can search to check on safety performance. Now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is planning to strip the site of the eight hospital-acquired conditions, which include infections and mismatched blood transfusions, while it comes up with a different set. The agency said it's taking the step because some of the eight are redundant and because an advisory panel created by the 2010 Affordable Care Act recommended regulators use other gauges.
In the closing days of their legislative sessions, lawmakers in more than a dozen states are struggling with whether to expand Medicaid under the federal health-care law, with many of them leaning against participating in a program that is key to President Obama's aim of extending coverage to 30 million uninsured Americans. Twenty states and the District of Columbia have signed on to the expansion, and 14 are planning to decline. But 16 remain in limbo as lawmakers clash in the final days and weeks of the legislative calendar, when many must come to a decision in time for the provision to kick in next year.
A group of individuals and businesses filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration's healthcare overhaul on Thursday, hoping to stop the law in states that have not set up new insurance exchanges. The complaint filed in the Washington federal court challenges federal rules issued in 2012 for implementing the president's 2010 healthcare law which goes into full force in January 2014. The 12 challengers, ranging from a hospital chain to a restaurant franchise, argue that Internal Revenue Service rules issued last year should be invalidated because they contradict what Congress originally intended.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) is doubling down against ObamaCare this week with a new petition drive against the law. The GOP is preparing to deliver signatures of people who want ObamaCare "exemptions" to federal Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. The campaign also mentions allegations that congressional Democrats have tried to exempt Capitol Hill from the law. Leaders have flatly denied this claim and said they would not support an exemption policy for lawmakers and staff. "As public support for this law nears an all time low, it's time for the President's administration to realize that everyone deserves an exemption from ObamaCare — not just his Washington allies," said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus in a statement.
The nation's largest health insurers are far from leaping at the chance to join new state health insurance exchanges under President Barack Obama's reform law, making it likely that some markets will have little or no competition next year. These new insurance marketplaces are due to open their doors on October 1 to enroll millions of Americans who have not been able to buy coverage on their own. A key principle of Obama's health reform is that individuals will have a robust offering of insurance plans to choose from, and that competition for new customers in each state will help keep prices down for consumers.