The Case of the Missing $115 billion
The printed version of the final health reform Act (PL 111-148) comes in at 907 pages (yes, lots of white space and pretty small pages – and yes, including an detour into student loans – but still, a very big Act any way you look at it). Many have noted the sweeping nature of the Act and how it touches …
Read more >The Ann Arbor News: State backs Washtenaw County push for federally-qualified health center
CHRT director Marianne Udow-Phillips comments on news that Gov. Granholm supports an exception for Washtenaw County to allow public health clinics to apply for status as a federally-qualified health center, despite difficulties in arguing the area is “medically underserved.”
Read more >The Wrong Policy: Physicians, Medicare Payment, and What Congress Could Learn from Private Sector Experience
Bruce Vladeck has a terrific piece in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine describing the problems with how physician fees are currently adjusted under Medicare. The Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula, put in place in by Congress in 1997 – was designed to use physician fees as a tool to control health care spending. That is, total physician payments …
Read more >The Paradox of Accountable Care Organizations
In the run up to health care reform, there was considerable discussion and advocacy for the idea of encouraging the implementation of something called accountable care organization (ACOs). Count me as a hope-to-be proved-wrong skeptic of this idea. The definition of an ACO is somewhat vague. Essentially the idea is to have groups of providers (group practices, individual providers, hospitals) …
Read more >Crain's Detroit Business: PPO creation, Medicare payment changes altered local health care
CHRT director Marianne Udow-Phillips is quoted in an examination of the tremendous changes in Southeast Michigan’s health care industry since 1985.
Read more >A Challenge and an Opportunity: Health Reform at the State and Local Level
Many commentators have noted that the success or failure of health reform will be determined by how well it is implemented by the Department of Health and Human Services – in particular, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS). There is no question this issue is critical, and it is precisely why HHS is quickly issuing regulations for the elements …
Read more >Advancing Social Justice and Equity: The Federal/State Balance in Health Care Reform
One of the most interesting stories in the new health reform Act – and vastly under-reported – is the significance of the roles established for state and federal governments. These roles represent a historic shift in the philosophy of health care policy-making in this country: a shift I think is all to the good. Because we live in the moment, …
Read more >Detroit Free Press: Health reform: Policy we can build on
CHRT director Marianne Udow-Phillips addresses the impact of the recently-enacted Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Read more >A New Theory of Health Insurance: Preventive Care and Health Care Reform
In all of the commentary about The Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act, little has been said about the dramatic change in the theory of health insurance that was embedded in the Act. While there are many changes to health insurance in the bill, most of them affirm the original foundations of health insurance in America: community rating, guaranteed …
Read more >Crain's Detroit Business: $600 million to fund research on best treatment methods
CHRT director Marianne Udow-Phillips highlights the potential for Michigan researchers to compete for new Federal funding for research to study the effectiveness of medical technology, treatments and diagnostic procedures.
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