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Sunday, March 14, 2010, 12:15 PM - 1:45 PM
What is a better way to learn more about the inner workings of the government regarding healthcare reform than to listen to two insiders! This is definitely the place you want to be on Sunday at noon. I’d suggest arriving early to get a good seat as this is the hottest topic in town.
The proposed Medicaid expansion is characterized as the largest public administration challenge that states have ever faced, but with adequate support from government and private philanthropies, the program has the potential to become a national leader in effective, high-quality care over the next five years, according to a recent article in Health Affairs.
The preliminary injunction and expedited discovery motions, related to the American College of Cardiology’s (ACC) recent suit against the Department of Health and Human Services over the Medicare 2010 Payment Rule, was dismissed from court Tuesday, according to a letter ACC CEO Jack Lewin, MD, sent to members.
Thirteen state attorneys general have asked Congress to delete from final healthcare reform legislation a provision contained in the Senate’s healthcare bill that would exempt Nebraska from having to pay for newly eligible Medicaid recipients.
A subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives last week passed the Cybersecurity Coordination and Awareness Act of 2009, which included an amendment requiring the National Institute of Standards and Technology to add health IT systems to its cybersecurity research and development.
With the exception of evaluation and management services, nearly all services that cardiologists perform will see cuts ranging from 10 percent to more than 40 percent for individual services phased in over four years, according to the just-released Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule final rule. The cuts will be phased in over a four-year period, which is a slight change from the proposed rule.
Shelagh B. Coutts, MD, was granted the first Distinguished Clinician Scientist 2009 award by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health and AstraZeneca Canada during the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress this week in Edmonton, Alberta.
The recession has put more people on Medicaid and sharply increased state spending on the program, forcing state officials to cut costs even with help coming from the federal government through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
Last night, President Barack Obama made his healthcare reform speech to Congress, adamantly expressing his determination to be the final U.S. president to take up this cause.
Despite the promising findings of the PROTECT Pilot study, the larger PROTECT trial found no difference with Merck’s experimental selective adenosine A1 antagonist, rolofylline, versus placebo in heart failure patients with respect to the primary and main secondary end points of the study, according to findings presented Tuesday at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
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The U.S. Senate yesterday passed legislation that will delay the date of a 21.2 percent Medicare payment cut to physicians until Oct.1.
Legislation introduced by Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-Texas, to hold cardiology practice expense values at the 2009 rates, while allowing other specialty practices to operate at 2010 physician practice information survey values, has garnered 82 co-sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Written by Justine Cadet
Cardiovascular Research Technologies is an interventional cardiology boutique conference that is focusing this year’s content on how clinical, economic and regulatory considerations will “Impact Clinical Practice,” said course chairman Ron Waksman, MD, in an interview. The conference takes place Feb. 21-23 in Washington, D.C.
The U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday passed a $636 billion defense appropriations bill, which included a provision to delay the 21.2 percent reduction in Medicare physician payment until March 2010.
Written by Justine Cadet
Since the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its 2010 physician fee final rule last week with cuts to cardiology practices averaging 27 percent, the American College of Cardiology has expressed adamant opposition, and its CEO, Jack Lewin, MD, said that this will cause the shuttering of practices. However, former CMS Administrator Thomas A. Scully explained how the agency is limited by finite funding and growing pressures to fund other areas of healthcare.
Democrats from the U.S. House of Representatives on Oct. 30 unveiled a revised healthcare reform proposal—H.R. 3692, the Affordable Health Care for America Act—which the Congressional Budget Office estimated carries an $894 billion price tag for the federal government.
The Senate Finance Committee voted today in favor of its version of proposed healthcare reform legislation in a 14-9 vote, including the approval of Olympia Snowe, R.-Me.
Consumer education and advocacy group Consumer Watchdog is urging members of Congress to avoid healthcare-related lobbying and fundraising efforts until after it deals with healthcare reform.
Makers of approved drugs and biologics generally are meeting their regulatory obligations and completing their post-marketing studies in a timely manner, according to a report released Sept. 3 by the FDA.
For economists and policy makers to understand the true value of the costs and savings of preventive health programs for chronic disease, the Congressional Budget Office should incorporate longer-term clinical outcomes data and look beyond the current 10-year window standard when making cost estimates, according to research published in the Sept. 1 issue of Health Affairs.
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Middle age introduces itself in many ways; one is atrial fibrillation (AF). My onset of AF seems to have coincided with a mountain bike accident in the woods of North Carolina that resulted in some cracked ribs.
The use of health IT to reduce rehospitalizations will be welcome but also disruptive, said Stephen Jencks, an independent consultant in healthcare safety during a Feb. 24 webinar on the potential use of health IT to mitigate rehospitalizations, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).