Public Cooption
When are the banksters and war-looters going to be put on a diet?
"Pay for care a new way, state is urged; Hospitals and doctors may be put on budget" by Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff | July 17, 2009
A state commission.... wants private insurers and the state and federal Medicaid program to pay providers a set payment for each patient that covers all that person’s care for an entire year and to make the radical shift within five years. Providers would have to work within a predetermined budget, forcing them to better coordinate patients’ care, which could improve quality and reduce costs.
And WHAT if you have an UNEXPECTED ACCIDENT?
Massachusetts would be the first state to adopt such a broad “global payment’’ system, and commission members are acutely aware that Congress and the Obama administration are watching how the state moves forward as the federal government overhauls healthcare nationally....
Anytime I hear or see the word "global" now I cringe!
NOPE, DO NOT WANT THAT, whatever it is!!!!
Commission members stressed that failing to control medical spending - which is growing by more than 8 percent annually in Massachusetts, driven largely by the high price and heavy use of hospitals - could threaten the state’s model health insurance law and bankrupt employers and patients.
Maybe Partners could quite gouging us.
Why the Nation Doesn't Need Massachusetts Health Care
Massachusetts Health Care Takes a Seat on the S***ter
The Boston Globe Shuts Off Its Spotlight
Yeah, that last link is interesting, isn't it?
Still, while commission members who represent doctors and hospitals endorsed the change, they have serious reservations. They are afraid that a new payment system could create serious financial problems for providers if the yearly fees are too low and if they are not adjusted upward for patients who are very sick or at risk of serious disease and require more care.
How come the PATIENT is always the LAST CONSIDERATION?
Low payments were one reason for the downfall of a similar payment system (called capitation) tried in the 1990s, providers said.
Yeah, let's try SOMETHING that DOESN'T WORK and call it "reform!"
Providers want to know that if they have a lot of very sick patients, “they won’t be penalized for that,’’ said Dr. Alice Coombs, an anesthesiologist and commission member.
Just die, will you?
Lynn Nicholas, president of the Massachusetts Hospital Association and a commission member, said payments must also be adjusted for socioeconomic factors, because “someone who lives in Brockton and doesn’t speak English’’ might require more intense care than “someone who lives in Newton or Wellesley with a lot of other resources around them.’’
But if you say illegal immigrants cost our health care system, you are a racist!
Dr. Mario Motta, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, said that very few doctors could succeed under global payments today and that they will need financial and technical help to establish new legal structures and electronic medical records....
Consumer advocates said patients are going to have to be educated about the new system.
We don't want to be educated, we don't want to be handed a bill!
Patients could find it harder to get procedures they want but are of questionable benefit if doctors are operating within a budget.
So when do we get the banksters and war-looters on a budget, huh?
And they might find it more difficult to get care wherever they want, if primary doctors push to keep patients within their accountable care organization....
The approval of the federal government would almost certainly be needed....
Why? Why do we need their fascist approval?
Because of the health insurance law, about 97 percent of all Massachusetts residents are covered, the highest rate in the nation. But soaring costs threaten to make state subsidies for lower-income residents and their out-of-pocket payments too expensive....
But TRILLIONS for WARS and BANKS, and.... awwwwww, forget it!
