In the news today 2/23/2011

From HHS:
State will be able to get support in moving medicaid beneficiaries out of institutions into their own homes or to community homes. I think living at home will help beneficiaries improve their ADLs ( activity of daily living) which might get them to be less reliant on the medicaid programs. And shared-cost, a practice practice by community homes will reduces medicaid's bill and foster the use of organized care by provider care.

From NPR's morning edition:
A Pennsylvania program that helps low-income adults who do not qualify for medicaid pay for insurance will close due to lack of funds. The funds was originally funded by a tobacco sentiment.
The only alternative available for those affected between now and 2014 is the high risk pool mandated by the new health care law. But since its enactment, enrollment has been slow probably because it is costly and also potential enrollments have to be without insurance for 6 months before they can enrolled. This will not be plausible for the couple featured in the story because it will be difficult for them to pay the $283 monthly fee. In the low-Income adult program, their cost was $36.

Retire's Health Insurance face scrutiny

Face with growing budget deficit some state at taking a second look at retire's health insurance, they are considering amongs other measures,having retirees pay co-pays, and eliminating benefit for future retirees.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/business/14retirees.html?_r=1&hp

HHS announces regulations aim at improving Student Insurance

HHS releases a new proposed regulation today as part of the affordable care act, to help improve school’s health insurance. The new regulations includes, no lifetime limits on coverage, no arbitrary rescissions of insurance coverage and no pre-existing condition exclusions for students under age 19. This regulation aims to stabilize the student insurance market, by making insurance affordable to student.

This regulation is much needed, I was one of those students who had to buy one of these student health insurance policies, and I use to have to pay most of my medical cost, which ended on my credit card of course.


http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2011pres/02/20110209a.html

The voice, some cannot hear

God speaks to us all but only few hears him.
The non-stop chatter of the voice drowns his voice,
the non-stop chatter in our mind does the same.

Blogginghead.tv discuss health care reform

http://www.bloggingheads.com/diavlogs/34068

Interview with "Individual Mandate" Creator

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2011/02/an_interview_with_mark_pauly_t.html

HHS secretary outlines Federal support for State's Medicaid program.

http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2011pres/01/20110203c.html

The type of cost saving cited in the article is very doable and It will improve the efficiency of the medicaid programs. The suggests are as follows:

-Modifying benefits- by limit for example length of stay at hospital or optional treatment such as dental services.
- Managing Care for High-Cost Enrollees More Effectively- adopting a medical home model for chronically ill children
-Purchasing Drugs More Efficiently- Get accurate information regarding drug pricing when setting State's pharmacy pricing.
- Assuring Program Integrity- police the system to curb fraud.