On the day before a scheduled meeting in Philadelphia between President-elect Barack Obama and the nation's governors, state officials stopped short of specifying how much added federal Medicaid spending should be included in a massive new economic stimulus package to be taken up by the 111th Congress, other than to say it should exceed the sum states received in 2003 tax legislation. Read more »
Now that Tom Daschle is President-elect Barack Obama's choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), he will live and breathe health care policy—especially because Obama also expects him to spearhead a new initiative to overhaul health care early next year. And thanks to a book that the former South Dakota senator published this year, readers can glimpse the likely shape of a Daschle-driven bid to remake the system. Read more »
Premier Healthcare Alliance's QUEST hospital initiative could reduce patient mortality by 17 percent and could improve reliability of care by 13 percent if the nationwide project obtains its goals, according to an analysis the company released. Read more »
It seems as though hardly a day goes by without someone putting out a plan to overhaul the American health care system, and last week the health insurance lobby stepped up with its own version. Read more »
To ensure a successful overhaul of America's health care system, President-elect Barack Obama should take a page from the playbook of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who used a combination of political savvy and sheer will to help enact Medicare and Medicaid programs in 1965, say two policy experts in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Read more »
Federal outlays for the private health plans in Medicare will rise slightly next year compared to spending on the traditional fee-for-service part of the program, according to data released by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). Read more »