A provision of the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (ACA) reveals that prescription drug companies spent $6.49 billion on various forms of payments to more than 600,000 physicians and 1,100 teaching hospitals in 2014.
Working to develop the Cures legislation have been Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), ranking minority member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ); Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), ranking minority member of the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee; Health Subcommittee Chairman Joe Pitts (R-PA) and ranking Health Subcommittee member Gene Green (D-TX), supported by a dedicated group of committee staff.
February 15, 2015 - On February 5, the Senate Finance Committee announced a new "Obamacare Replacement Plan," called the PatientChoice, Affordability, Responsibility and Empowerment (CARE) Act. They ballyhooed it as a new alternative to Obamacare, which continues to be under constant attack by Republicans. But, based on an analysis by The Center for Public Integrity February 9, the GOP’s CARE Act would more truthfully be named the No-CARE-At-All Act. "We got a glimpse last week of what would happen to our health care system if Republicans increase their control of congress and win the White House in 2016," wrote analyst WendellPotter.
February 10, 2015 - G-Net Strategic Communications, a Washington, D.C.-area business communications advisory firm, has just posted a new online presentation outlining in a fast 02:30 its key services and what the firm can do for clients that include associations, publications and individual companies. G-Net is a virtual company led by senior editor Bob Gatty that includes independent entrepreneurs who are available to clients as their services are required. Bob is a 30-year communications veteran experienced in journalism, government affairs, association communications, and editorial services.
January 16, 2015 - Congress continues to play Russian roulette with Medicare, beneficiaries and the physicians who care for them. Come March 31, unless something is done on Capitol Hill, Medicare physicians will be treated to a 21.2 percent pay cut for their services. It’s been happening for years, and whether it will play out any differently with this Republican-controlled Congress remains to be seen. But hanging in the balance is the ability of physicians across the nation to continue accepting and treating Medicare patients.
January 14, 2015 - As Politico pointed out in a December 30 article, as the Obama administration becomes increasingly involved in what Americans eat, "from requiring school children to be served fruit to eliminating trans fats in doughnuts," you can expect the new Republican-controlled Congress to fight back. A number of administration initiatives are on tap for 2015, and it will be no surprise to see conservative, budget conscious lawmakers who now run both houses of Congress to step in and say "no." For example, the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill approved just before the 113th Congress adjourned in December included provisions to allow states more flexibility to exempt schools from the Department of Agriculture’s whole-grain standards if they can show hardship and to halt future sodium restrictions.
January 12, 2015 - Last December Congress - yes, the dysfunctional ideologically crazed U.S. Congress – passed a new law that helps the families of disabled individuals save for health-care costs, housing, lifelong education and other needs. It was called the ABLE Act.
Today, Christmas Eve, my wife, Jackie, and I decided to take some clothes - warm jackets, jeans, sweaters and such – to an organization called Second Chances, affiliated with the Carroll County, MD Human Services program in Westminster, the county seat. It was a cold, rainy day, with temperatures in the low 40s, and when I arrived at Second Chances to drop off the clothing, probably a dozen or so people were gathered outside the front door waiting to see what they could get. It is hard to believe that in a country as wealthy as ours that people, many of them homeless or nearly so, and all of them desperate, must stand in the cold and rain for a coat or gloves, or whatever. Perhaps some were even hoping for something they could give as a Christmas gift. How sad...
Back when the Affordable Care Act was freshly enacted and Republicans were screaming that it would set up a “death panel” to “ration health care,” their protestations fell on largely deaf ears, especially in the Senate, controlled by Democrats, and in the Oval Office. All of that rhetoric was brought about by a provision establishing the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), whose purpose is to keep Medicare costs from skyrocketing out of control. The Board is to have virtually unfettered power, able to take action to curtail Medicare expenditures, unless Congress votes to overturn that action. Physicians who treat Medicare patients, while avoiding the hyperbole of “death panel” rhetoric, strongly oppose the IPAB because they realize that to reduce Medicare costs, a relatively easy solution for the Board would be to slash the amount of money doctors get paid for specific services provided to Medicare patients...
Well, here we go again. Medicare docs and patients alike must now wait to see if the Republican-controlled Congress will fix a problem that has persisted for 17 years and has become more serious and more expensive. It all involves the complicated formula used to determine how much doctors who treat Medicare beneficiaries get paid for their services. Under that formula, doctors are due to take a 21.1 percent cut for next year unless Congress fixes the problem before March 31...