I hope you are ready for this first item:
"Health law turns Obama and insurers into allies" by Robert PearNew York Times November 18, 2014
WASHINGTON — With the health insurance marketplace now open for a second year, President Obama will be depending more than ever on the insurance companies that five years ago he accused of padding profits and canceling coverage for the sick.
Those same insurers have long viewed government as an unreliable business partner that imposed taxes, fees, and countless regulations and had the power to cut payment rates and cap profit margins.
But since the Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010, the relationship between the Obama administration and insurers has evolved into a powerful, mutually beneficial partnership that has been a boon to the nation’s largest private health plans and led to a profitable surge in their Medicaid enrollment.
(Blog editor nearly cries when it is now so obviously clear that this was never about you and your health)
I don't always like or listen to his stuff; however, he has his points.
The insurers in turn have provided crucial support to Obama in court battles over the health care law, including a case now before the Supreme Court challenging the federal subsidies paid to insurance companies on behalf of low- and moderate-income consumers.
Last fall, a unit of one of the nation’s largest insurers, UnitedHealth Group, helped the administration repair the HealthCare.gov website after it crashed in the opening days of enrollment.
I'm so happy that disaster $erved someone $o well. How much were they paid to fix it?
“Insurers and the government have developed a symbiotic relationship, nurtured by tens of billions of dollars that flow from the federal Treasury to insurers each year,” said Michael F. Cannon, director of health policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute.
Now we know who$e health they are really concerned about.
The relationship is expected only to deepen as the two sides grow more intertwined.
“These companies all look at government programs as growth markets,” said Michael J. Tuffin, former executive vice president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, the main lobby for the industry.
Look at that pot of tax loot -- even as your care is scaled back and rationed!
*************
So much money is at stake that insurers may soon be on a collision course with the Republican majority in the new Congress. Insurers, often aligned with Republicans in the past, have built their business plans around the 2010 law and will strenuously resist Republican efforts to dismantle it.
Then the courts, Congre$$, and the next executive will not repeal it.
We are STUCK WITH OBUMMERCARE, folks!
Since Obama signed the law in March 2010, share prices for four of the major insurance companies — Aetna, Cigna, Humana, and UnitedHealth — have more than doubled, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has increased about 70 percent.
At least stock prices are healthy, and thus the coffers of the 1% are being fully filled. Thank God.
Over the next three months of the enrollment period, consumers will hear the same messages from insurance companies and the government urging them to sign up for plans sold on the exchanges. Federal law requires most Americans to have coverage, insurers to provide it, and the government to subsidize it.
Maybe you will get a subsidy.
See: Courting Your Health
I'm already sick of the propaganda, 'er, public relations effort on taxpayer dime.
“We are in this together,” Kevin J. Counihan, the chief executive of the federal insurance marketplace, told insurers at a recent conference in Washington. “You have been our partners,” and for that, he said, “we are very grateful.”
Notice who is being left out, patients?
Insurers and the administration still have many disagreements, but open conflicts are rare.
Yeah, to know otherwise would make you sick of the political theater.
“With all the politics of the Affordable Care Act, people don’t realize how much the industry has benefited, and will continue to benefit, from the law,” said Jay Angoff, the Obama administration’s top insurance regulator from 2010 through 2012.
Did you get that?
One insurer, Humana, derives about 65 percent of its revenue from its Medicare Advantage plans. Enrollment in these plans climbed 17.5 percent, to 2.9 million, in the year that ended Sept. 30, the company said.
At UnitedHealth Group, Medicaid and Medicare Advantage together are expected to provide more than $60 billion in revenue, or slightly less than half of the company’s total, this year. United expects to participate in insurance exchanges in 23 states next year, up from four this year.
“The government, as a benefit sponsor, has been increasingly relying on private sector programs,” United said in a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “We expect this trend to continue.”
In another sign of the close relationship, the administration has recruited specialists from the insurance industry to provide operational expertise.
Just like bankers do the bank regulating, oil men do the oil regulating, gas men do the gas regulating, coal men do the coal regulating, pharmaceuticals own the FDA, etc, etc, etc. Why would health insurance be any different in AmeriKa?
Eight months after Optum, the unit of UnitedHealth Group, helped repair HealthCare.gov last fall, the administration hired a top Optum executive, Andrew M. Slavitt, as the number two official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The administration waived conflict-of-interest rules so Slavitt could participate in decisions affecting UnitedHealth and Optum.
Who cares about laws when a president can dictate whatever he damn well pleases??!!
Add another article to the Christmas list long of impeachment charges.
Now, as millions of Americans shop for insurance, federal officials are eager to collaborate with an industry they once demonized.
“The relationship between the marketplace and insurers is really critical to a successful program,” said Ben Walker, director of open enrollment for the federal exchange. “Without that, we don’t have any coverage.”
Yes, we are all subject to the whim of crappy corporate health care. Two years of a filibuster-proof Democrat majority and this is all we got.
And you wonder why the country went Republican this time?
--more--"
Related: Address economic flaws in Obamacare
Yeah, right.
"Higher bar for health law in second sign-up season" by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar | Associated Press November 10, 2014
WASHINGTON — With a bright look to its rebuilt website, version 2.0 of President Obama’s health insurance overhaul represents another chance to win over a skeptical public.
These guys are delusional.
But more than possible computer woes lurk as HealthCare.gov’s second open enrollment season begins Nov. 15.
The risks include an unproven system for those renewing coverage and a tax hit that could sting millions of people.
At least that tax hit we were told wouldn't hit should remove all that skepticism, right?!!!!!
Those tax issues are the result of complications between the health care law and income taxes, and they will emerge during next year’s filing season.
Yeah, Obama delayed it with a waiver so it wouldn't hurt Democrats in the 2014 midterm elections.
And wait until you see the forms!
‘‘Things will not be perfect,’’ said Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell, trying to set expectations. ‘‘We are aiming for a strong consumer experience, and it will be better.’’
They gotta SELL YOU on it, and I AM SO SICK of being SOLD $HIT by THIS GOVERNMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Obama administration cannot afford to repeat last year’s online meltdown.
Why? The election is over.
Congress will be entirely in Republican hands in 2015, and GOP lawmakers will be itching to build the case for repeal. The Supreme Court’s decision Friday to hear another challenge to the law is casting a shadow.
No it isn't, and no they won't. See the above article leading this post.
********
This new sign-up period will be the first time that renewal has been tried for current customers, and it overlaps with the first tax-filing season that the law’s requirements are in effect.
See: Obamacare Plans Forecast Unhealthy Fall For Democrats
Ah, for once a forecast not full of f***ing fart-mist!
On the plus side, premium increases are expected to be modest in many states. New insurers have come into the market, promoting competition, and regulators look at anything above a 10 percent increase.
Actually, I was told something completely different:
New health care payment model lowering costs
Not to put too fine a point on it, but it's what is called rationing -- you know, what we were told would not happen along with keeping your doctor, keeping your plan, etc, etc.
Is being constantly lied to by authority, government, and propaganda pre$$ good for one's health?
The online application for most new customers is down to 16 screens from 76. Website security is better, thanks to aggressive monitoring. The government and insurers have added call center staff.
Yeah, keep pimping for them, AP.
The administration had said last week that consumers would be able to get an early peek at 2015 plans and premiums this past weekend. It looked like that early goal was slipping.
AGAIN?!!!
Officials said Sunday that window shopping would be available overnight, without giving a specific time.
I'm so sick of this prevaricating bunch of pathological liars.
*********
For those signed up, coverage will renew automatically if you do nothing. That may sound good, but you could miss lower premium options and get stuck with an outdated and possibly incorrect subsidy. You have until Dec. 15 to update income information or change plans if you want to have everything in place by Jan. 1.
Or wait until you see the tax bill -- along with seizure of your return.
The Nov. 15-Feb. 15 open enrollment is half as long as last time, and it overlaps with the holidays. Advocates urge recipients to get familiar with some of the basic health insurance trade-offs. A low-premium silver or bronze plan may not make sense if you’ll wind up with high out-of-pocket costs for the deductible and copayments. In that case, you might be better off going for the gold.
What garbage crap journalism!
Go for the gold, Amurkn!
--more--"
Yeah, about those costs and premiums that are being lowered by the model:
"Premium hikes in store for many renewing health plans" by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar | Associated Press November 15, 2014
WASHINGTON — Many of the 7 million consumers who got insurance under President Obama’s health care law will see their premiums rise next year unless they switch to another plan, independent analysts said as the government released details Friday.
I just signed up last March! Haven't even used it yet!
The Health and Human Services department released a massive computer file of 2015 premiums one day ahead of the start of open enrollment. Those numbers will take time to fully analyze.
Late Friday, the administration said some HealthCare.gov functions were to be turned off overnight in the transition to sign-up season. Spokeswoman Lori Lodes said consumers will be able to start enrolling for 2015 coverage sometime early Saturday morning.
Premiums are the first thing most consumers look at.
Overall, the premiums for a type of low-price plan that the government uses to set subsidies for consumers will cost roughly the same as this year, about $330 a month on average.
Many people will pay much less after subsidies, about 25 percent of the cost, which will be good news for first-time customers.
But there is a catch if you are already a customer: Your plan may no longer be the low-cost benchmark in your community. In that case, you’ll pay more unless you switch.
Why does there have to be a CATCH in my HEALTH PLAN!!!!!!???????
‘‘Just because you enrolled in a low-cost plan this year is no guarantee that your plan will also be low-cost next year,’’ said Larry Levitt of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
Never a campaign issue. All these articles came out afterwards, and it was still not enough to save Democrats.
*******************
‘‘Last year’s low-cost plans will experience premium increases, meaning the majority of consumers will experience cost increases if they re-enroll in the same plan,’’ said Caroline Pearson of Avalere Health, a private market analysis firm....
I thought I was a patient not a consumer, but that really $ays it all, doesn't it?
That's the mind$et those who care so much about you that are willing to lie to and loot you. You are not a patient who needs care, you are a con$umer who has money!
Consumers should be wary of national and even state averages, and instead focus on what’s happening with their own plan, the analysis said.
Oh, I am -- in everything I read each morning.
The shifts are due to the ups and downs of the market, and to cost-saving provisions written into the law.
Yeah, whatever lame-a$$, $wirling $teamer of a $tinking excu$e needs to be plated out there.
The Affordable Care Act offers subsidized private health insurance to people who don’t have access to coverage on the job.
HealthCare.gov and state insurance markets are launching their second annual sign-up season, which runs through Feb. 15. This year, 85 percent of their customers received tax credits to subsidize their premiums.
Those existing customers will be renewing coverage for the first time. Some could face sticker shock.
Some Republicans saw the predicament as more fodder for their campaign against the health law.
‘‘Last year, many who liked their plan were surprised to learn they couldn’t keep it,’’ said Senator Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican. ‘‘This year, many who like their plan will likely have to pay more to keep it.’’
At least it will reduce skepticism!
--more--"
So what is it going to do for stupidity?
"Health law architect’s ‘stupidity’ comments stir controversy" by Felice J. Freyer | Globe Staff November 13, 2014
MIT economist Jonathan Gruber has gotten into hot water again over comments captured on video, in which he refers to the “stupidity of the American voter” and “lack of transparency” in the drafting of the federal health care overhaul.
That type of elitism is not winning anyone over, and it gives you an insight into the mindset of benevolent scum.
Gruber, often described as an architect of both Obamacare and the Massachusetts health care law, was speaking at an academic conference a year ago at the University of Pennsylvania. He said the bill was “written in a tortured way” to make sure that the Congressional Budget Office did not consider the mandate to buy insurance a tax.
He also said that the law’s requirements to prevent the exclusion of sick people from health insurance would never have passed if they had been made more explicit: “In terms of risk-rated subsidies, in a law that said healthy people are gonna pay in — if it made explicit that healthy people are gonna pay in, sick people get money, it would not have passed. ...Lack of transparency is a huge political advantge. And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical to get anything to pass.”
Yeah, everything has to be obfuscated and distorted to get it past us dumb folk. Except it is no longer getting past us.
Gruber, who also serves on the board of the Massachusetts Health Connector, caused a similar hubbub in July when a video surfaced in which he seemed to support the arguments against allowing subsidies in the federal health insurance exchange. A case before the US Supreme Court asserts that only people who buy insurance through state-based exchanges can get federal subsidies to lower their premiums; if this argument prevails, it could up-end a central provision of the Affordable Care Act.
I've already explained why it will not.
The latest video was posted earlier this week on the Daily Caller, a conservative news website, and was quickly circulated among right-wing commentators, who cited it as evidence that Obamacare was, as one put it, “built on a foundation of lies.”
Yeah, those bad guys!
By mid-week, the Washington Post reported that a Congressional Republican had called for hearings, while writers at other media outlets rose to Gruber’s defense.
Gruber told the Globe earlier this week that he was speaking “off the cuff” at an academic conference but declined to comment further. Later, he apologized in an interview on MSNBC.
He didn't think us dumb phoques were listening.
Philip Klein, commentary editor at the Washington Examiner, wrote that “Gruber’s comments get to the heart of what’s wrong with liberalism. At the end of the day, liberals not only believe that they’re smarter than the public, but that they have a better sense of what’s good for the people than Americans themselves.”
I know you hate it, but he's right.
But Neil Irwin, writing in the Upshot blog in the New York Times, said Gruber was merely being honest about the way the legislative sausage is made in Congress. “Mr. Gruber was exposing something sordid yet completely commonplace about how Congress makes policy of all types: Legislators frequently game policy to fit the sometimes arbitrary conventions by which the Congressional Budget Office evaluates laws and the public debates them.”
Bu$ine$$ as u$ual, huh?
That's a great excuse and defense for arrogant condescension!
And in New York magazine, Jonathan Chait provided a detailed parsing of Gruber’s words, concluding: “He was trying to explain how the law’s architects had to compromise the simple technocratic purity they might use to design the law in an academic setting to account for an irrational political system in which tiny bits of fact can be decontextualized and manipulated by demagogues.”
Yeah, that is what we have now. Zionist and corporate control over the whole country with mouthpiece ma$$ media acting as megaphones.
--more--"
He ended up getting fired -- which means he now has to sign up for Obummercare!
"Administration cuts goal for health law sign-ups" Associated Press November 11, 2014
WASHINGTON — With sign-up season launching this weekend, officials sharply reduced expectations Monday for the second year of President Obama’s health insurance law.
Look at the effort put into perception management!
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell said she is aiming to have 9.1 million paying customers enrolled in 2015 for subsidized private coverage through HealthCare.gov and state insurance markets.
That’s more than now but well below the 13 million that the Congressional Budget Office had projected.
After a chaotic rollout last year, Obama’s signature program faces another tough test this time around. The public remains skeptical and Congress is now fully in the hands of Republicans committed to repeal it.
Oh, the skepticism is all taken care of -- along with our stupidity, duh!
Until now the congressional numbers have been used as the yardstick for the program’s success, and critics suggested the White House just moved the goal posts.
‘‘People aren’t signing up because they realize it’s not a good deal for them,’’ said Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, adding that the administration is ‘‘spinning the facts about enrollment.’’
When don't they spin?
Burwell said she based her goal on new estimates from number crunchers in her department that between 9 million and 9.9 million paying customers will enroll for 2015.
‘‘It’s not about a number,’’ she said. ‘‘I came in and asked the team, let’s analytically build it, and that’s what we did.’’
Oh, now it's not about.... sigh!!!!!!!!!
--more--"
Related: Administration says health care website working well
Oh, really?
"HealthCare.gov stymies applicants with green cards" by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press November 20, 2014
WASHINGTON — HealthCare.gov is working better, but immigrants are running into what looks like an obvious slip-up.
Call it the green card glitch: The website has no clear path to upload the government identification document, which shows an immigant is a legal resident, entitled to benefits under the health care law.
It’s a baffling omission.
It is, especially in light of all the bull$hit be slung at us.
An Obama administration spokesman, Aaron Albright, said a fix is in the works....
I'm not even going to comment.
‘‘These are the same type of glitches that immigrant families encountered last year during the first open enrollment,’’ said Angel Padilla, health policy analyst for the National Immigration Law Center.
They didn't fix $hit!!!!!!!!!!
Reaching immigrants is a priority as the administration seeks to increase the number of people signed up for subsidized private health insurance through federal and state exchanges. Latinos are the largest pool of immigrant applicants, and many hesitated to sign up last time.
But numbers do not matter, blah-blah.
About 7 million people are enrolled overall, and the Health and Human Services secretary, Sylvia M. Burwell, has set a target of 9.1 million for 2015. That would be a 30 percent increase but would be well below the 13 million the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office forecast for 2015. The markets are for people who can’t get coverage on the job.
Compared with last year’s website dysfunction, the green card glitch is just an irritant.
Yeah, what are you getting angry about? Forget the tax loot lost and the lies that came with this piece of crap.
‘‘Last year, people were getting kicked out; the system was constantly being shut down,’’ Colvin said. ‘‘We welcome the changes and improvements.’’
--more--"
At least the state sites are working better:
"Health exchanges prepare for open enrollment; State officials hope site glitches have been restored" by Abby Goodnough | New York Times November 12, 2014
WASHINGTON — Massachusetts and Minnesota have sharply increased the number of call center workers who will help people enroll in health plans through the states’ insurance exchanges. Colorado has created an online avatar named Kyla to guide consumers through the sign-up process. And Maryland has replaced its exchange, which foundered last year, with Connecticut’s successful model.
Across the country, many of the states that created their own insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act are rushing to complete improvements before Saturday, when a new open enrollment period begins. Though some had smooth sailing last year, a few experienced worse technical problems than the federal marketplace serving 36 states, which had a disastrous rollout.
In Maryland, where frozen screens and error messages persisted for months, the state has raced to adapt the software used by Connecticut in time. Along with Massachusetts, which has also replaced a defective exchange on a tight time frame, Maryland will draw special scrutiny in the coming weeks as consumers start testing the new systems.
Maryland officials say they are confident things will run smoothly because they are relying on a proven model and have tested it extensively. Like several other states, they switched vendors, replaced exchange managers, and spent millions of additional dollars to avoid repeating last year’s technical failures.
“It’s like a night-and-day difference,” said Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, the state’s health secretary and chairman of the exchange. “We have adapted software that fundamentally works.”
But the task will be more complicated this time. In addition to signing up new customers, the exchange, Maryland Health Connection, will need to re-enroll about 50,000 people who bought subsidized private coverage during last year’s enrollment period. Those consumers will lose their subsidies if they do not reapply by Dec. 18 because the exchange cannot transfer information from the old system to the new. The exchange is reaching out to them by phone, letter, and e-mail; their insurers are contacting them as well.
Dr. Peter Beilenson, chief executive of Evergreen Health Co-op, one of four insurers offering coverage through the Maryland exchange, said the new system would be “vastly better.” But he worries that consumers haunted by last year’s well-publicized failures will not try it.
“The $64,000 question is not how well it’s going to work but are people going to come to it?” Beilenson said. “There’s a lot of cynicism and distrust and a huge lack of knowledge.”
The new website, built by Deloitte Consulting, will have a simpler application process and allow for anonymous browsing.
Oh, no!
Related: State Scraps Health Website
They also helped build the unemployment site that didn't work.
Ever notice the only good software produced is for bank ATMs and that's all?
Seems a little $elf-$erving to me, this $hit programs do.
Last year, customers had to create an account before seeing the details of insurance plans, which led to major bottlenecks — a problem that also affected the federal exchange and several other state exchanges.
Other exchanges also have tried to streamline the enrollment process and the look of their websites. Many will have more workers in their call centers this year and more enrollment events to help people through the sign-up process. California’s exchange, Covered California, is opening 200 storefronts across the state where people can get one-on-one help.
Nevada and Oregon, which had two of the worst-performing exchanges last year, are using the federal marketplace this time. Idaho is opening its own exchange after using the federal site, HealthCare.gov, last year. In all, 37 states will rely on the federal exchange for the coming enrollment period, and 13, as well as the District of Columbia, will run their own. Of the 8 million people who enrolled in private health plans under the Affordable Care Act during the first sign-up period, 2.6 million used state-run exchanges.
Managers of Vermont’s troubled exchange, which has been offline for repairs since September, are asking customers who already have coverage to avoid using the website during open enrollment to keep volume down. Asked last week whether the exchange would be working by Saturday, Governor Peter Shumlin said, “I’ve been discouraged so many times by this website that I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Minnesota is also still fixing defects in its exchange website, officials there said. Its exchange, MNsure, has increased the number of call center representatives to nearly 300, from about 25 when it opened last fall.
In Massachusetts, more than 300,000 residents who were temporarily enrolled in Medicaid when the state exchange faltered last year will have to reapply through the new system if they want to stay covered. So will as many as 140,000 people with private exchange plans.
The exchange will have 680 customer service representatives and application processors — more than twice as many as last year — and will be able to handle 3,500 concurrent website users on an average day, said Kimberly Haberlin, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts exchange. “We are on the cusp of standing up a product that we are confident is going to work,” she said.
I'm not, but I'm sure the agenda-pu$hing promoter known as the new$paper will regurgitate government garbage.
--more--"
Turned out to be a pretty good diagnosis:
"State rolls out campaign to reintroduce the Connector; Rebuilt site will debut Saturday" by Felice J. Freyer | Globe Staff November 14, 2014
A crucial test for the Patrick administration starts Saturday, when the newly rebuilt website for the Massachusetts Health Connector opens its virtual doors to tens of thousands of people seeking health insurance.
How well the software performs will determine whether Massachusetts residents have easy access to coverage, whether taxpayers get their money’s worth from $254 million in technology costs, and whether departing Governor Deval Patrick achieves redemption from one of the starkest embarrassments of his tenure.
Nothing can redeem that horrible shit, and it is already not worth the money.
At least some software firm got paid!
The state is supporting the effort with a $13.2 million plan, funded by a federal grant, to contact the 400,000 people who need to enroll within just three months -- and probably don’t know it.
The Connector has already begun making robocalls and sending out mailings about the change.
I haven't gotten anything yet.
On Saturday the agency will launch an advertising campaign (“Need health coverage? Now’s the time”) and start sending out canvassers, with the goal of eventually knocking on 200,000 doors....
I'm sure they will come up short on the goal, and isn't there a better way to spend the money rather than a public relations propaganda effort? Like, actual CARE for people?
--more--"
Related: "Although some glitches are inevitable, officials said, the essential functions will work smoothly."
I, uh.... (blog editor can't....)
"Health Connector website sees heavy activity on first day" by Felice J. Freyer | Globe Staff November 15, 2014
Nearly 6,000 Massachusetts residents were able to accomplish a task Saturday that was impossible a year ago — determine online what health plans they are eligible for.
Despite some hassles, confusion, and delays, the new website of the Massachusetts Health Connector showed no evidence, on its first day of operation, of the kind of massive software failure that afflicted the agency last year. Sixty people got as far as choosing and paying for their 2015 health plans.
Only 60 people completed the process?
“We’re very pleased with how the site performed and how it held up,” said the Connector’s Kimberly Haberlin. “The performance and the service is only going to get better.”
I'm glad because it sure cost enough.
Meanwhile, dozens of canvassers knocked on doors around the state, trying to make sure that people who need to reapply for health care coverage know how to do it.
In Massachusetts as well as around the country, Saturday was the first day of a three-month open enrollment for people who don’t get health insurance from their employers.
The New York Times reported that health insurance marketplaces like the Connector functioned well in other states, too, free of the spinning wheels and frozen screens that tormented consumers last year.
The Massachusetts experience was not complaint-free, however.
Tom Kennett, a computer programmer from West Wareham, told the Globe that he was able to buy a policy for his wife in 58 minutes, but he encountered multiple problems along the way, such as having to repeatedly go back a page.
“It’s far better than last year, when this wouldn’t happen at all,” Kennett said by phone.
He was not impressed with his experience, however: “It’s like saying the dead car in your yard has been replaced by a 10-year-old model that now will start.”
The call center was bogged down in the morning, with wait times averaging 20 minutes, in part because customer service representatives were required to read the website’s terms and conditions to callers, which took 10 minutes. After Connector officials changed that rule, and added 60 customer service representatives to the 70 already on the job, the average wait time dropped to six minutes in the early afternoon.
By midafternoon, callers had no wait, and over the course of the day, the center took 1,713 calls, officials said.
Some people were frustrated to find their old log-ins didn’t work. Because the state is using an entirely new system, customers had to create new usernames and passwords.
Some also had trouble finding the correct numbers to copy off their green cards, a problem addressed with a photo added to the “frequently asked questions.”
While commenters on Facebook complained of slow-loading pages, Connector officials said that the average response time was quarter-second to a half-second. Its Facebook page also featured comments from customers who said they completed their applications smoothly in an hour or less.
Officials had said they expected most people to browse anonymously Saturday and work on selecting a plan later because most people have until Dec. 23 to make their choice. But the site attracted many eager to get the process started.
As of 6:30 p.m., 5,967 people had used the Connector website (MAhealthconnector.org) to find out what type of plan they were eligible for.
Of them 2,660 enrolled in MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid program, according to Haberlin, who is senior adviser to Maydad Cohen, the governor’s special assistant for project delivery.
The remaining 3,307 learned they were eligible to shop for a private health insurance. Of those, 1,704 selected a plan and 60 paid online (which is not required until Dec. 23).
The new website went live nearly a half-hour earlier than planned, at 7:35 Saturday morning, amid cheers and applause from a hundred or so people gathered in a Government Center conference room.
“Congratulations, everyone,” said Cohen, who is overseeing the website project, as the new site appeared on a large screen. “Now comes more of the hard work.”
Within minutes, the screen showed that 75 registered users were clicking away at the website.
“I don’t think I got an hour of sleep,” said Anita Bachmann, senior vice president of Optum, the company hired by the state to manage the rebuilding of the Connector’s website. “It was an extremely dramatic and exciting moment,” she said of the launch. “It was very emotional just to see the website go up.”
“The key to this kind of delivery is to keep your cool,” said Nilu Kundagrami, vice president of hCentive, the Virginia-based company that designed the Connector’s software. “I was stressed, not nervous.”
Kundagrami managed to get two hours of sleep the night before. What lies ahead is equally important, he said: “No matter how much time you spend on testing, you can never predict what the consumer will do.”
While sleep-deprived tech workers studied their computer screens in the command center, a cadre of hardy canvassers headed out into the chill to knock on doors.
Among them was Shannon Katramados, who was hired by Health Care for All, an advocacy group under contract with the Connector, to work a section of the South End.
She had a list of 127 names, and hopes of getting to talk to about a fifth of them. At each doorbell, Katramados would stand back to let the resident have full view of her, in her gray Health Care for All sweatshirt.
For those who opened the door, she explained who she was and that she wanted to talk about health insurance, asking what coverage the person had. “Are you aware that you need to reapply?” she asked. “Do you know how? We just want to make sure you reapply.”
She left a brochure at each door and then logged the information into an app on her iPhone. She said that Health Care for All will follow up with those she didn’t reach, including the many who do not speak English.
--more--"
Everybody clapping, yaaaaaay!
"Technology costs for the Connector will total $254 million — $80 million more than if the site worked the first time.
Meanwhile, Patrick just cut $329 million from social services while leaving the $80 million dollar subsidy to profitable Hollywood intact.
Optum, the company hired to manage the rebuild, focused on core functions — enabling people to create accounts, find out whether they are eligible for Medicaid or state and federal subsidies, and shop for a plan and select one. But there are functions the website still cannot perform, officials said. It cannot make changes in submitted applications, and it cannot serve people who are buying only dental insurance; they will have to submit paper applications. “The system is always going to need tweaks and upgrades,” said Maydad Cohen, the top official leading the rebuilding of the website.
I'm so $ick of being bull$hitted by authority and it's $hit-shoveling pre$$. Sorry.
“They’ve set a very low bar for success,” said Joshua Archambault, director of health care policy for the Pioneer Institute, a longtime critic of how the state handled the website rollout. “They’re just looking for something to work. From a taxpayer perspective, the return on investment is still very poor. It’s been a very expensive process to get this up and running.” Over the weekend, he said, the website snagged on names containing apostrophes. Of course, there were some snarls and frustrations associated with the website, but there were also these numbers:"
You know who has all the answers?
"Program for needy patients struggles; Costs high in state, enrollment low for unique One Care initiative" by Kay Lazar | Globe Staff November 10, 2014
An experiment to improve care for thousands of Massachusetts’ sickest residents is proving more complex and expensive than health insurers and regulators envisioned, forcing the state and federal governments to shoulder more costs for the first-in-the nation program.
Called One Care, the initiative was designed to better coordinate health care services for about 95,000 disabled and low-income adults under age 65 when it launched last October. But the state’s latest count shows fewer than 18,000 enrolled, and officials have repeatedly declined to release detailed information about the program’s finances or the quality of patient care because they say they want to be able to analyze a year’s worth of data first.
One of the three insurers managing patients’ care for the program said in an internal memo that the company was losing $1 million a month at one point. And executives at all three companies with contracts to manage patients’ care said even locating patients can prove daunting, often because of errant information from state regulators.
WTF?
The experience with the trial so far opens a window onto the remarkably complicated needs of patients whose conditions include paralysis, severe mental health problems, and addiction. Executives from the three companies said they have been surprised by the extent of patients’ needs, but soaring health care costs nationwide, particularly for patients with complex medical needs, prompted federal regulators to announce a new initiative that aims to better coordinate patients’ mental health, medical, dental, and substance-abuse services, hoping to avoid more expensive hospitalizations.
I was told modest increases if not savings!!!
WTF?!!!!!!!!!!!!!
States were invited to design their own programs that combine the money from Medicare and Medicaid into one streamlined service that would offer better care for less money.
And then the loot was stolen and no care given. That seems to be our $y$tem.
Massachusetts was the first state to sign on, and four other states have launched similar initiatives, with similar complications.
The program in Massachusetts scraps the traditional model of paying physicians for every blood test, medical scan, or other health service they provide. Instead, companies in One Care receive a lump sum each year to manage all of a patient’s care, often coordinating and paying for services not typically handled by an insurer, such as transportation, housing, and even food deliveries.
That is RATIONING!
Robin Callahan, deputy director of Massachusetts’ Medicaid program, said the state didn’t have anyone to copy from when it launched One Care a year ago and said regulators are doing their best while learning as they go.
OMG! Your LIFE is LITERALLY in THIER HANDS and they are LEARNING AS THEY GO!
Callahan acknowledged that the state recently increased the amount it will pay to manage patients’ care to the three companies in One Care — Commonwealth Care Alliance, Fallon Total Care, and Tufts Health Unify. She said the state also agreed to share more of the companies’ losses for the next two years because of the large number of unexpected difficulties they faced.
But Callahan declined to release details. While only scant information about One Care has been released by the state, officials have disclosed monthly enrollment figures and preliminary results from a recent survey of 375 patients.
That survey indicated 94 percent said they were “completely or somewhat satisfied” with One Care, but fewer than half said they had been connected with a coordinator to manage their services long-term — a feature considered critical to successfully managing their care.
“This is a basic benefit that people are not getting,” said Al Norman, executive director of Mass Home Care, a network of nonprofit agencies focused on home-based care. “Millions of dollars in public money have been invested in this experiment. We need full disclosure.”
Who stole the money?
The lack of information has frustrated patient advocates, who say it is impossible without details about finances and the quality of patient care to gauge whether the program is effective and should be continued.
“Our concern is that people will say, ‘Where are the savings?’ and we will not have the information to say we anticipated losses in the first year, but here is why the costs are high,” said Dennis Heaphy, cochairman of both a disability rights coalition and an independent council appointed by state regulators to promote “accountability and transparency” in One Care.
Heaphy, a 53-year-old Boston quadriplegic, is one of One Care’s biggest champions. Since enrolling a year ago, Heaphy said he has access to bandages that help prevent pressure sores from his wheelchair and bed. Medicare often balked at paying for the bandages because, under its complex guidelines, bandages used for preventive care were not covered, Heaphy said. One Care has also helped Heaphy get a hospital bed in his apartment and a machine that helps him cough.
“My health plan makes the guidelines now and goes with what the person needs, rather than some bureaucratic guidelines,” he said.
Leaders of the health plans say one reason they are facing such high costs is a lack of appropriate housing for patients with serious mental illnesses. Robert Master, chief executive of Commonwealth Care Alliance, a nonprofit that oversees health care for about half of the patients in the One Care program, said his plan often has as many as 60 people in psychiatric hospitals at a cost of $1,100 a day, when many of them would be better served in community-based crisis stabilization units at half the cost. But there are few such units in Massachusetts.
They all get thrown into Bridgewater (another Patrick legacy).
An August memo from Master to staff members said their company was losing about $1 million a month because of this problem. So the company is creating its own units and opened its first in October in a renovated floor it leases at Carney Hospital in Dorchester. A second is slated to open in January in a renovated Boston Victorian.
Master said the company’s significant losses have eased since August, but he declined to share details.
“I think we are going to come out of the year with manageable losses,” Master said. But “we do not think we will get to break even until 2016.”
See: Earnings rise for largest Mass. health insurers
Whatever.
Creative approaches have sprung from the obstacles confronted by the health plans, particularly in tracking down homeless patients. The plans are required to complete a comprehensive assessment of each patient within 90 days of enrollment.
“Part of the challenge here is, how do you come up with highly customized care for members that meets their needs, but do it in a way that you can produce data and that gives us reproducible outcomes?” said Dr. Christopher “Kit” Gorton, president of public plans for Tufts Health Unify.
Tufts officials noticed that while the homeless are not inclined to visit a clinic, they are diligent about filling prescriptions. So the insurer started leaving notes that pharmacists hand to patients telling them a nurse wants to meet to talk about their health. That has helped Tufts complete face-to-face assessments with at least 80 percent of its enrollees, Gorton said.
Fallon has had better luck catching up to homeless patients in the hospital.
“If someone is hospitalized, staff get up and drive over to see them,” said Dr. Dan Rome, a medical director at Fallon Total Care, which manages care for about 6,100 patients.
The fact that people in such condition are homeless at all is a scandal.
--more--"
Someone who will not be re-upping for the job:
"Judge, Coakley tangle over Partners deal; Talk of politics brings sharp reply; court may call on AG-elect Healey" by Priyanka Dayal McCluskey | Globe Staff November 10, 2014
A Suffolk Superior Court judge on Monday suggested that Attorney General Martha Coakley’s gubernatorial ambitions may have played a role in the expansion plan negotiated with Partners HealthCare, and said she might consult with the incoming attorney general, Maura Healey, before ruling.
Related: Maura Healey setting her course as attorney general
The comments from Judge Janet L. Sanders, near the end of a daylong hearing, provoked a tense exchange with Coakley, a Democrat, who just lost a tight election to Charlie Baker, the Republican governor-elect.
“I want to be clear that the decisions that we made had nothing to do with whether I was running again for attorney general, or whatever office I was seeking, because the court seems to be suggesting otherwise,” Coakley said.
“I didn’t mean in any way to impugn your integrity,” Sanders responded.
“Well I think you have, your honor,” Coakley shot back.
The exchange culminated a day of pointed questions from Sanders as she expressed skepticism about a settlement that would allow Partners, the state’s biggest health system, to acquire three community hospitals. Sanders gave no indication on when she might rule on the deal, which has the potential to reshape the state’s health care industry, but said she might wait for Healey to take office in January....
--more--"
You won't have to watch out for the sharks much longer, Marty.
Time for your pill, shot, what have you:
"In reversal, FDA approves Genzyme’s bid to sell MS drug in US" by Robert Weisman | Globe Staff November 15, 2014
Eleven months after rejecting a powerful multiple sclerosis drug considered key to the future of Cambridge biotech Genzyme, federal regulators Friday reversed themselves and approved sale of the medicine, called Lemtrada.
The Food and Drug Administration decision came after MS patients across the country called for more treatment options and Genzyme submitted a new analysis of clinical data to address FDA concerns about how the company had designed trials to test the drug’s safety and effectiveness.
Patients have been anxiously awaiting the ruling on Lemtrada because studies showed people using it suffered fewer flareups of the potentially debilitating autoimmune disease, and about 70 percent of them were able to stop taking the injectable drug after two treatment courses.
“This is a great day for the MS community,” said Melissa J. Burdick, an MS patient from Waterford, Conn., who lodged one of several citizen petitions with the FDA after it refused to approve Lemtrada last December. “I’m absolutely thrilled beyond words to have this choice. Many people, including me, have wanted another treatment option.”
The company announced the FDA approval at about 9 p.m. Friday.
Genzyme executives said Lemtrada will be priced at $158,000 for two courses of treatment over two years. Rebif, a competing drug compared with Lemtrada in clinical studies, costs $134,600 for a similar treatment regimen, or 17 percent less. But the Genzyme executives pointed out that patients on Lemtrada suffered 50 percent fewer relapses than those taking the other drug....
--more--"
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
Genzyme parent running at ‘full speed,’ chairman says
"Dental-plan error has Republicans seeking details" by Alex Wayne, Bloomberg News November 22, 2014
WASHINGTON — The US health secretary, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, said her agency made a mistake when it added dental-plan customers to recent figures on enrollment in the federal health care program.
Republicans said she owes them an explanation.
The disclosure by Burwell’s department that it accidentally added almost 400,000 people in dental plans to enrollment figures under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provided a new opening for critics....
It's already a piece of swiss cheese, and the official figures are 2 million below the lowered expectations as well as no transparency at all regarding the "error" of double counting things.
These people are un-flipping-believable.
--more--"
She was supposed to be the savior after the disaster that was Sebelius and it's just the same old s**t, isn't it?
"House GOP brings lawsuit against Obama" by Alan Fram, Associated Press November 22, 2014
WASHINGTON — House Republicans filed a federal lawsuit Friday accusing the Obama administration of exceeding its constitutional powers in carrying out President Obama’s prized health care law, giving legal voice to conservatives who have long protested that he has abused his office’s authority.
It's a bulls**t half-measure; either impeach like you are required to under the laws of this land or get off the pot.
Democrats said Obama had acted legally and mocked the case as an unwinnable, politically motivated attack. Legal analysts expressed doubts that the GOP would prevail or that the case could be concluded during Obama’s presidency.
What did I just say?
The suit echoed Republican complaints about Obama’s Thursday night announcement of executive orders preventing the deportation of 5 million people who immigrated to the United States illegally. GOP lawmakers said those unilateral actions were unconstitutional and have promised unspecified congressional action.
Related: Obama Order on Immigration is Impeachable
Not only that, it's treason.
Friday’s lawsuit did not address immigration. A Republican official said party leaders might amend the suit to include Obama’s immigration actions, which would require approval by the GOP-run House. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal Republican deliberations.
In a written statement, House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said Obama ‘‘has chosen to ignore the will of the American people’’ and cast the battle as one with important implications.
‘‘If this president can get away with making his own laws, future presidents will have the ability to as well,’’ Boehner said. ‘‘The House has an obligation to stand up for the Constitution.’’
Asked about the lawsuit, White House spokesman Eric Schultz said, ‘‘At a time where we, I think, the American people want Washington focused on jobs and the economy, the House Republicans choose to sue us, sue the president for doing his job.’’
He's not doing his job. He's acting like a dictator.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, called the lawsuit ‘‘a baldfaced attempt to achieve what Republicans have been unable to achieve through the political process.’’ Her written statement added, ‘‘Republicans are prioritizing the special interests and the howls of impeachment-hungry extremists before the needs of the nation.’’
Never have I seen a more pathetic and despicable example of such a piece of excrement in all my life when I saw the contrasting video of her endorsing by name then denying the elitist scum Gruber.
Speaking of that scum:
"North Carolina’s state auditor on Thursday terminated a contract with Jonathan Gruber, the MIT economics professor and health care expert whose comments on the Affordable Care Act have generated fury among conservatives. Auditor Beth Wood, a Democrat, had hired Gruber last November to analyze the state’s Community Care program; the month before, he had appeared at a conference in Pennsylvania, where he credited ‘‘the stupidity of the American voter’’ with helping pass the Affordable Care Act. The comments — and others in which Gruber insults voters and taxpayers — were fodder this month on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show, Fox News, and conservative websites."
Guilty as charged, I suppose -- although I endorse none of those pos, either.
Pelosi also said Republicans found ‘‘a TV lawyer to file their meritless lawsuit’’ and criticized them for its cost to taxpayers — at what the contract said would be $500 hourly. The lead attorney is George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, who has done legal commentary on television networks.
Oh, now the liberal law professor who was welcomed when he criticized Bush is now persona non grata with disgusting Democrats.
Democrats are unprincipled and totally feckless pieces of excrement. They are proving it after this election.
The House Majority PAC, a Democratic campaign committee, sent a fund-raising e-mail to supporters calling the suit ‘‘an obvious political stunt to rile up Boehner’s Tea Party allies.’’
OMG!!
They are SO SHAMELESS that they are trying to RAISE MONEY of this suit!
Really, can a group of scum really go any lower?
Friday’s lawsuit said that, despite constitutional strictures, ‘‘the administration repeatedly has abused its power by using executive action as a substitute for legislation.’’
Then impeach like you are supposed to!
In the past, Republicans have accused Obama of overreaching by trading five Taliban prisoners for captured Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl and blocking earlier deportations of immigrant children illegally in the country.
You can add that as an article as well. I think torture should also be included.
Congressional Republicans have all opposed the health care overhaul, and the House has voted more than 50 times to repeal it.
Friday’s suit was filed against the departments of Health and Human Services and the Treasury. It was assigned to US District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer, a 2003 appointee of President George W. Bush.
It accuses Obama of unlawfully delaying the 2010 health care law’s requirement that many employers provide health care coverage for their workers.
He waived everything but the cash-grabbing individual tax penalty for noncompliance.
That so-called employer mandate requires companies with 50 or more employees working at least 30 hours weekly to offer health care coverage or pay fines. Businesses with fewer than 50 workers are exempt.
The requirement initially was to take effect this year. Now, companies with 50 to 99 employees have until 2016 to comply while bigger companies have until next year.
Oh, yeah, he also favored big business in all this.
And look at this afterthought snuck in at the end:
The suit also accuses Obama of illegally preparing to make an estimated $175 billion in payments over the next decade — plus $3 billion paid out this past year — to insurance companies, even though Congress hasn’t provided money for that purpose.
No wonder they are allies now (return to top of post, read again).
--more--"
