Peter Orszag, President Barack Obama's budget director, rebuffed congressional demands for specifics on the administration's multibillion-dollar plans for healthcare, telling lawmakers that deciding how the money is spent is largely up to them. That response from Orszag, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, frustrated Republicans and a few Democrats as the Senate Finance Committee held the first of many hearings on overhauling the nation's healthcare system. The president's budget calls for a 10-year, $634 billion "down payment" on extending coverage to 48 million uninsured Americans.
New doctors who choose enter lower-paying primary-care positions may get a small gift from Indiana lawmakers under a bill that proposes up to $5,000 a year in loan reimbursement. The bill's author, Sen. Vi Simpson, D-Bloomington, acknowledged the amount was small compared to the average medical school debt, but she hoped it would entice some graduates to practice in Indiana once they finish school.
President Obama's 2010 budget proposes Medicare imaging preauthorization as one source of savings to support the new federal healthcare reserve fund, says Sg2 analyst Henry Soch. According to budget documents, over the next 10 years prior authorization by radiology benefit managers would contribute $260 million—or 4/100 of a percent—of the $634 billion Obama wants to generate for the reserve.
Indiana ranks dead last among states in getting federal funds to prevent disease and injuries, leaving it more vulnerable to higher healthcare costs at a time when the recession has cut state revenues, according to a report. Indiana collected just $12.74 per person last year from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for programs to inhibit disease and prevention programs, the nonprofit Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation said in the report.
California HMO regulators this week said insurers must pay for certain autism treatments, but stopped short of forcing them to cover a form of behavioral therapy at the center of a long-brewing fight between parents and their health plans. The therapy in question is a one-on-one form of early intervention that reinforces communication skills and appropriate behavior while discouraging destructive or negative behavior. While widely accepted as beneficial to children with autism, the therapy can cost $36,000 to $75,000 a year, and insurers have argued it's an educational, not a medical, service.
Millions of Americans struggled last year to pay for healthcare or medications, the largest poll ever conducted by Gallup shows.
As the economy fell, the percentage who reported having trouble paying for needed healthcare or medicines during the previous 12 months rose from 18% in January 2008 to 21% in December, according to the poll of 355,334 Americans. Each percentage point change in the full survey represents about 2.2 million people, says Jim Harter, Gallup's chief scientist for well-being and workplace management.
Nashville-based nonprofit United Neighborhood Health Services has received nearly $1 million from the federal stimulus package to expand affordable healthcare. The $973,593 award is believed to be the first federal stimulus money to become available for use in Tennessee. Together, the clinics are expected to provide healthcare for an additional 4,500 mostly uninsured patients in the Nashville area.
United Auto Workers members at General Motors Corp. will have to wait for an agreement on a union retiree healthcare fund before voting on labor concessions GM needs to keep U.S. Treasury loans.
GM must persuade the UAW to swap $20.4 billion in future obligations to the VEBA for half that in cash and the rest in equity as part of U.S. requirements to keep $13.4 billion in loans and win approval for as much as $16.6 billion more. GM has said it needs at least $2 billion in fresh aid or it will be bankrupt.
Children's Hospital Boston wants to move forward with the expansion of its main patient building by the end of the year. The hospital has notified city officials of a new plan that would add space for the hospital's radiology and operating departments, and room for 30 new patient beds.
Patients who can email with their doctors or talk to them on the phone end up making significantly fewer office appointments, according to statistics by California-based HMO Kaiser Permanente.
Kaiser found that office visits per member dropped by about a quarter between 2004 and 2007 in Hawaii. Secure email messaging began in 2005, and in 2007 members sent more than 51,000 messages. Scheduled telephone visits jumped during that period as well.
