"Bill aims to curb health spending in Massachusetts; Allowable increases would be tied to growth of economy" by Liz Kowalczyk | Globe Staff, July 31, 2012
Legislative leaders announced a compromise Monday to tame soaring health care costs, setting the stage for Massachusetts to become the first state to establish a target limiting how much providers and insurers spend on medical care.
Looks like RATIONING to ME!
The plan — expected to be voted on by the House and Senate on Tuesday, the final scheduled day for passing legislation — would allow health spending to grow no faster than the state economy overall through 2017. For the five years after that, spending would slow further, to half a percentage point below the growth of the state’s economy, although leaders would have the power under certain circumstances to soften that target.
Supporters believe the bill will help moderate increases in insurance premiums for consumers and businesses.
That is what we were told regarding the initial law, remember? Didn't happen, and I can't hazard a gue$$ why.
While the measure does not spell out specific cuts, health providers are expected to expand efforts already underway to slow the proliferation of some medical procedures, better coordinate care to keep patients healthier and out of the hospital, and steer patients to lower-cost caregivers.
You get what you pay for in AmeriKa, right?
Providers and insurers that do not meet the spending targets would have to submit “performance improvement plans’’ to a new state commission. Failure to implement their plans could lead to a fine of up to $500,000.
“This is going to save us $200 billion over the next 15 years, and it’s going to provide better quality of care and better access,’’ Senate President Therese Murray said in an interview Monday night. “This is a big plus for us. We’re once again in the forefront on health care in the nation.’’
Murray said the 350-page bill, if signed by Governor Deval Patrick, will build on the state’s 2006 landmark health insurance mandate, which became the model for President Obama’s national health care legislation.
Related:
"Patrick has said he is eager to put his signature on the sweeping bill to control health care costs, which was his top priority. He has not set a date for that signing, although it is almost certain to come with some pomp. When Governor Mitt Romney signed the state’s universal health insurance law in 2006, he held a gala ceremony at Faneuil Hall, complete with a fife-and-drum corps dressed in tricorn hats and breeches."
I'll bet he's wishing he didn't do that.
Also see: Deval Patrick signs repeat offender crime bill in private State House ceremony
That might have been better looking back, Mitt.
House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo said in a written statement that “while this bill may seem complex, its goal is simple: to cut health care costs that burden businesses and consumers while not interfering with the high quality of health care Massachusetts residents enjoy.”
Uh-huh.
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Amy Whitcomb Slemmer — executive director of Health Care for All, a Boston-based consumer advocacy group — said the organization is pleased with the plan and believes it “will lead to better integrated care’’ for residents.
Related: The Massachusetts Model: Upset Stomach
The Massachusetts Machete
Health Hypocrite Mitt
Have a Seat in the Supreme Court Waiting Room
The doctor will see you now.
The legislation requires Medicaid and other state-funded health care programs to adopt new ways of paying hospitals and doctors by 2014, including so-called global payments, which give doctors a budget to provide all their patients’ care.
The so-called rationing I've been typing about.
It also establishes a certification process for accountable care organizations — large groups of providers that provide all a patient’s care in a coordinated fashion — and gives them a preference in contracting with state programs.
Related: Obama's HMOs
It's ACOs now!
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Also see: Sunday Globe Special: Spotlight Goes On and Off
It's off on this i$$ue, and I can't imagine why.
"Mass. lawmakers pass health care bill; Governor says he’ll sign cost-control plan, but some experts skeptical of its success" by Liz Kowalczyk and Chelsea Conaboy | Globe Staff, August 01, 2012
A massive health care cost-control experiment....
Really, what can be so complicated about delivering health care when so may other nation's have figured it out? Being the subject and object of an "experiment" isn't making me feel any better!
A first-in-the-nation statewide medical spending target....
a budget-minded payment system....
“A great bill,” Governor Deval Patrick told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “We’re going to crack the code on cost control.”
Related:
"a good start to the latest chapter in a very old story"
Now I'm feeling sick.
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Success is far from guaranteed....
Still, many consumer and business groups applauded the legislation as a reasonable start to solving a tangled problem.
The Senate passed the cost-control legislation unanimously, while the House gave its approval in a 132-to-20 vote....
Some House members grumbled about having to vote on the 350-page plan, a compromise between previously passed House and Senate bills, less than 24 hours after it was filed, giving them little time to review it. “I can’t get through a book I like in 24 hours,’’ Representative Daniel Winslow, a Republican from Norfolk, said in an interview.
Related: The Perils of One-Party Politics: Massachusetts' Democracy
$ee why it is $uch a great bill?
Representative Steven Walsh, a Democrat who led the House effort on cost control, responded, “For two years, we’ve accepted criticism for not moving fast enough.”
So shoving it down our throats when no one can read it is okay? Talk about EXTREMISM!!
Representative Ronald Mariano, a Quincy Democrat who helped negotiate the final legislation, said that as the state is held to spending targets, “you are going to see people making smarter decisions on buying insurance products; you’re going to see doctors making different decisions on how they treat people.”
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In his remarks yesterday, Patrick said he does not believe the legislation will lead to layoffs and hospital closings. “There are going to be changes,” he said. “But if those changes mean we get lower-cost and higher-quality care because care is being delivered in different settings — in homes, for example, in neighborhoods, in communities, rather than in hospitals — then I think that’s something we all ought to strive for and will strive for.”
It looks to me like you BETTER NOT GET SICK in Massachusetts!
The legislation requires the state Medicaid and state employee health care programs to move to new payment systems, such as so-called global payments, which give providers a budget to care for groups of patients. This system would replace paying a fee for every visit, test, and procedure, which is blamed for driving up spending because it has few limits on the number of services.
Yeah, everyone knows there are NEVER EMERGENCIES or UNFORESEEN MEDICAL PROBLEMS!
Maybe we could HOLD BACK some of the WAR or WALL STREET MONEY, 'eh?
The bill encourages but does not require private insurers to do the same....
Because then they will just dump 'em, folks.
In many ways, the model outlined by the bill mimics health maintenance organizations that gained popularity in the 1980s and 1990s and lost favor as patients and doctors decided they were too restrictive.
Because they DID NOT LIKE RATIONING!!
The difference is....
NOT MUCH! It's asking a dumbed-down, drug-addled public to participate.
find a good, less-expensive doctor.
What?
Unlikely, said Dr. Ashish Jha, associate professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health. The kitchen-sink approach to slowing health costs is a good one, Jha said. But he is skeptical about whether people will change their behavior as a result of having more information available.
Me, too, because the AmeriKan public has an amazing capacity to hear or see the truth and then go right back to believing lies. I see it all around me every day.
“It’s not because there’s no evidence that they do,” Jha said. “It’s because there’s very good data that they don’t.”
That is because Americans don't want to be bothered with all that shit!! They want a GOOD, DECENT, CARING SINGLE-PAYER SYSTEM like those in other countries!
It's like the bank$. WHY DO YOU NEED to READ FINE PRINT and all that other baloney? Are we NOT ALL IN THIS TOGETHER? Isn't the PRIMARY CONCERN of the altruistic insurance companies the PATIENT'S HEALTH, or am I wrong there?
Joshua Archambault, director of health care policy at the Boston-based Pioneer Institute, said the law falls short because it does not require patients to foot more of the bill.
Please deposit that into corporate profits.
“Until you fully engage the consumers and they feel like they’re spending their own health care dollar, you won’t be able to save money,’’ he said.
That's why I avoid care.
Archambault also pointed out that in Medicare experiments with accountable care organizations — large provider groups that coordinate all of a patient’s care — some saved money, but many did not. They are a key component of the Massachusetts plan.
But it's a GREAT BILL!
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Related: Cost-control bill aims to reduce illnesses
Then it's failing because it is making me sick!
