Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
To answer this question the best place to look is Paul Ryan’s budget proposal. The proposal would convert Medicare and Medicaid into voucher-based programs. Individuals and families not covered by either of these programs would receive assistance through a refundable tax credit based on the individual’s income. You can find more information on Mr. Ryan’s…
In the not to distant future, the answer may be yes. A report by Frazier and Foster (2009) examine how difficult it is for Medicare beneficiaries in Alaska to find a primary care doctor. “About 85% [of primary-car doctors in Alaska] choose the standard Medicare process (“participating”). Another 4% still work with the Medicare system…
The answer is by using exceptions/loopholes to payment rules. The Medicare Wage Index adjusts payments to hospitals based on hospital worker wages wages in the hospital’s labor market. Payment exceptions, in this case the rural floor, causes payments to hospitals in Massachusetts to increase by 16.4 percent simply by having one hospital reclassify. Here is…
The Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Health Reform, Obamacare) mandates that Medicare provide an annual wellness visit (AWV) to all beneficiaries free of charge. Today, I answer some questions related to CMS’s implementation of the mandated annual wellness visit requirement. What is included in an annual wellness visit? The AWV includes “the establishment of, or update…
According to a recent Dartmouth Atlas study: “The nation’s most elite cancer care centers performed only modestly better than community hospitals at meeting recognized quality standards for treating dying cancer patients, displaying similar patterns of relatively aggressive, high-intensity treatments in the final weeks of these patients’ lives… The Dartmouth researchers also found that even among…
Medicare recently released the Medicare Spending per Beneficiary (MSPB) measure on Hospital Compare. This measure includes all payments to doctors, hospitals or other facilities for services provided to a patient during the three days before the hospital stay, during the stay, and during the 30 days after discharge from the hospital. Kaiser Health news provides…
Medicare’s Hospital Compare website evaluates hospital quality. One of the most recent measures to be added to Hospital Compare is a measure of efficiency. The measure calculates a price-standardized, case-mix adjusted measure of spending during period before, during and after a hospital admission. The Healthcare Economist (Jason Shafrin) and a team at Acumen (including Tom…
Grand Junction has been lauded as one place that offers some of the best healthcare in the nation, at the lowest cost. “Grand Junction ranks near the top in Medicare’s Composite Quality of Care index, with a score of 91. That’s 21 points higher than McAllen. But costs in Grand Junction are among the lowest in…
What is an RHC? An FQHC? Using a research from Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), this post provides the answer. Rural Health Clinic (RHC) The Rural Health Clinics Act (P.L. 95-210) was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Carter in 1977. The goal of this Act was twofold. First, it encouraged…
Government spending on wasteful projects is legendary. There is the Bridge to Nowhere, Star Wars, and many more. In Medicare, the government also has a reputation of overpaying for durable medical equipment. For instance, critics claim that Medicare is both paying too high a price for motorized wheelchairs and buying wheelchairs for people who do not…