Patients are demanding doctors' orders for over-the-counter products because of a provision in the healthcare overhaul that slipped past nearly everyone's radar. It says people who want a tax break to buy such items with flexible-spending accounts need to get a prescription first. The result is that Americans are visiting their doctors before making a trip to the drugstore, hoping their physician will help them out by writing the prescription. The new requirements create not only an added burden for doctors, but also new complications for retailers and pharmacies. Though the new rules on over-the-counter drugs amount to a small part of the massive overhaul of the health-care system, the unintended side effects show how difficult it can be to predict how such game-changing legislation will play out in the real world. Some doctors, irked by the paperwork and worried about lawsuits, are balking at writing the new prescriptions. Pharmacists and retailers say the changes mean they have to apply a personalized label on some 15,000 different everyday products for customers paying with certain debit cards.
The nation's Republican governors are raising a new complaint against the 2010 national health overhaul, which they deride as "Obamacare." They say it would drive up their Medicaid costs dramatically at a time they're already slashing their budgets to cope with debt. There's no question that the healthcare law will force states to expand their Medicaid services, but how that ultimately will affect states' costs is a matter of considerable dispute. The 2010 law requires that state Medicaid programs in 2014 begin covering all non-elderly people who earn up to 133% of the federal poverty level, which would comprise people with incomes of up to $29,400 for a family of four this year.
A poll that gauged the views of 468 health IT stakeholders shows that they view the proposed Stage Two and Three meaningful use objectives and measures as too aggressive when considering the work to be done, the targets to be met, and the timelines in which to achieve the stated goals. The survey was sponsored by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology, and was conducted to coincide with the Meaningful Use Workgroup of the Health IT Policy Committee's request for public comment on their proposed Stage Two and Three meaningful use objectives and measures. Survey participants were made up of providers (36%), EHR vendors (29%), and others (29%), and the results were summarized in a blog post by CCHIT chair Karen Bell.
First, we had the "stroke belt," a swath of the American South characterized by those with unmanaged high blood pressure and a sedentary lifestyle. Then, we got the "obesity belt," a portion of Southern geography inhabited by a number of folks with elevated cardiovascular disease as well as a sedentary lifestyle. Now, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have brought us the "diabetes belt," a county-by-county census of patients with type-2 diabetes. This swath of obesity and sedentary lifestyle also girds the American South, stretching down the southeastern seaboard, 'round the silty Mississippi Delta and following the Appalachian Mountains north across Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia. It lessens just inside the borders of Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Two federal reports issued this week highlighted problems in several areas at John Cochran VA Medical Center in St. Louis. The improper sterilization of dental equipment uncovered last year was "a long-standing problem that went unrecognized and unaddressed" by managers, according to a report released by the VA Office of Inspector General. Investigators revisited Cochran in August and September at the request of several members of Congress after the hospital informed more than 1,800 veterans that they may have been exposed to viruses. In a routine inspection the previous March, investigators had listed 21 problems in the dental clinic related to infection control — including tools that were visibly dirty after sterilization. Hospital staff were overwhelmed and undertrained, according to the federal report.The follow-up investigation concluded that the risk of contracting any disease from the dental tools was unlikely.
Insurance premiums for Georgia state employees, retirees, teachers and school personnel could increase by as much as 67% next year because the state has a $250 million shortfall in its health benefits program. If the state makes up the newly discovered shortfall only with premium increases, costs could rise by two-thirds for employees, teachers and state government retirees. That would mean an extra $100 to $200 or more per month for many of them. House leaders learned last week of new calculations showing a $250 million hole in the program, which was already slated to cost almost $3 billion, House Speaker David Ralston told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday.