"Vowing to “make New York City the single-payer laboratory in the country” if he is elected
Click here to read: "Weiner Wants City to Test Single-Payer Health Care" The NY Times
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query health care. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query health care. Sort by date Show all posts
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Single Payer A Possibility for New York City Employees
The single payer medical benefit system, a program that brings workers compensation into a universal care program, maybe the future for NY City employees. Anthony D. Weiner, a Democratic Candidate, is proposing the change.
"Vowing to “make New York City the single-payer laboratory in the country” if he is elected
mayor, Anthony D. Weiner on Thursday presented an ambitious plan to create a Medicare-like system for the coverage of municipal workers, retirees and uninsured immigrant residents left out of the Affordable Care Act."
Click here to read: "Weiner Wants City to Test Single-Payer Health Care" The NY Times
"Vowing to “make New York City the single-payer laboratory in the country” if he is elected
Click here to read: "Weiner Wants City to Test Single-Payer Health Care" The NY Times
Friday, March 15, 2013
Workers' Compensation is Riding on the Road to Wellville with Obama Care
As Obama Care [The Affordable Care Act] launches, workers' compensation programs will start to undergo subtle changes The innovation of wellness programs and new treatment protocols will eventually cause major shifts to the delivery of workplace medicine.
Workers' compensation's future, ironically, has actually been viewed primarily in a rearview mirror. The shift to break with old habits has been a major struggle. The inertia will give way to a creative future based on new technologies and socio-economic challenges.
In a recent article by The Honorable David B. Torrey, Judge of Workers' Compensation ["The Affordable Care Act and Effects on the Workers' Compensation System, (7 PAWCSNL 114 at 30, March 2013)], the significance of Obama Care is reported. Judge Torrey recognizes that even those with major pecuniary interests in the compensation business have been unable to halt the momentum of change.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
NIOSH Seeks Occupational History for Inclusion in Electronic Health records
 |
| NIOSH logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The instructions for submitting comments can be found at www.regulations.gov. Written comments submitted to the Docket will be used to inform NIOSH with its planning and activities in response to the 2011 letter report “Incorporating Occupational Information in Electronic Health Records” written by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee on Occupation and Electronic Health Records.
Input from primary care providers, occupational and public health specialists, EHR vendors and others with interest in the topic is sought on the questions listed below pertaining to the collection and use of work information in the clinical setting. NIOSH is interested in input both from those who are currently using EHRs as well as those who are not.
(1) For providers of primary health care: When do the clinicians in your practice setting currently ask patients about their work?Show citation box
Specifically, what information on patients' work is collected?Show citation box
If you currently use an EHR:Show citation box
Where in the health record (either paper or electronic) is patient work information stored and/or viewed? For example, is the work information entered in the `social history' section of an EMR? Where would you prefer patient work information to be stored and/or viewed in the EHR?Show citation box
Does your EHR maintain a history of the information so that you can identify how long and when a patient was in a given occupation?Show citation box
If you currently do not use an EHR, where do you record this information in the paper record? Is it available to the care provider during the patient encounter? Is there a history of the patient's work information available to the care provider?Show citation box
In your clinical practice, who (which personnel) besides the clinicians collect patients' work information (e.g., registration personnel or nursing assistants)?Show citation box
Have those personnel been trained specifically in how to collect information about patient's work i.e., how to gain an accurate job title etc.?Show citation box
Do you collect work information from teenagers?Show citation box
Do you collect work information from retirees?Show citation box
Are questions about work routine question or triggered based on specific complaints?Show citation box
How is work information used to inform patient care?Show citation box
Please provide an example/description of the usefulness of patient work information in providing care to a patient.Show citation box
Please provide any additional comments you have about collection or use of patient work information in the clinical setting.Show citation box
(2) For providers of occupational (specialty) health care: At your clinical facility, how is the patient's work information collected?Show citation box
Specifically, what information on patients' work is collected?Show citation box
Is the work information entered in the administrative record used for billing purposes?Show citation box
Is patient work information collected on paper or in an EHR? Is it available to the care provider during the patient encounter?Show citation box
Is there a history of the patient's work information available to the care provider?Show citation box
If you use a standardized form to collection information about patients' work, please briefly describe its main elements.Show citation box
In your clinical practice, who (which personnel) besides the clinicians collect (e.g., registration personnel or nursing assistants)?Show citation box
Have those personnel been trained specifically in how to collect information about patient's work i.e., how to gain an accurate job title, etc.?Show citation box
Where in the health record (either paper or electronic) is the information stored? For example, is the work information entered in the `social history' section?Show citation box
What are the most important ways that clinicians can use to inform clinical care of patients?Show citation box
Please provide an example of the usefulness of work information in providing care to a patient.Show citation box
Do you have any other comments about collection or use of patient work information in the clinical setting?Show citation box
(3) For developers and vendors of EHR/software: Does your base/basic EHR product contain pre-ordained fields for Industry, Occupation, Employer or other information about patients' work? If not, have you been asked to provide these fields?Show citation box
Regardless of whether they are in the base system or added on request, how are the values in the fields for Industry, Occupation, or other work information formatted (e.g., narrative text, drop-down menus, other)?Show citation box
Are these values coded and if so, what coding schema are used (e.g., NAICS, SOC, Census codes, user defined)?Show citation box
To the best of your knowledge, how are the data captured in these fields used by end users of your EHR/product?Show citation box
Please share challenges you anticipate in managing a history of employer, industry and occupation (current and usual) for multiple employment situations as both text and coded fields in your system, if your system does not already perform these functions?Show citation box
Could your system access and retrieve information from another web-based system via web services (such as an automated coding system for coding industry and occupation)?Show citation box
Your comments are appreciated. They will be used to improve NIOSH's electronic health records efforts.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Freeing Workers From the Insurance Trap
The Congressional Budget Office estimated on Tuesday that the Affordable Care Act will reduce the number of full-time workers by 2.5 million over the next decade. That is mostly a good thing, a liberating result of the law. Of course, Republicans immediately tried to brand the findings as “devastating” and stark evidence of President Obama’s health care reform as a failure and a job killer. It is no such thing.
The report estimated that — thanks to an increase in insurance coverage under the act and the availability of subsidies to help pay the premiums — many workers who felt obliged to stay in a job that provided health benefits would now be able to leave those jobs or choose to work fewer hours than they otherwise would have. In other words, the report is about the choices workers can make when they are no longer tethered to an employer because of health benefits. The cumulative effect on the labor supply is the equivalent of 2.5 million fewer full-time workers by 2024.
Some workers may have had a pre-existing condition and will now be able to leave work because insurers must accept all applicants without regard to health status and charge premiums unrelated to health status. Some may have felt they needed to keep working to pay for health insurance, but now new government subsidies will help pay premiums, making it more possible for them to leave their jobs.
The report clearly stated that health reform would not produce an increase in...
[Click here to see the rest of this post]
….
Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman 1.973.696.7900 jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Workers' Compensation Medical Benefits are in Critical Condition
Now that Barach Obama is a going to be at the helm of the US, greater attention is being focused on the need for a national health care system incorporating workers’ compensation medical coverage. With private insurance companies failing, unemployment increasing, the cost of medical care soaring, more attention has now been placed on the elimination of medical care as a workers’ compensation benefit paid by Industry.
It is not all surprising that Dr. Peter Barth reported to the WCRI Conference in Boston, that workers’ compensation programs may be swept up into a national health care system. He reminds us that this was attempted in the Clinton proposal. The enactment of such a proposal looks even more urgent now.
The medical system overall is now being stressed by: an aging workforce; medical conditions manifested by stress and aging; consumerism in health care; the attempt to shift costs from major medical plans and CMS to workers’ compensation; new and expensive treatment modalities, procedures and pharmaceutical products,and the expansion of palliative and “end of life care.” It is anticipated that the average cost may amount to $500.000 per claim.
The workers’ compensation system just can’t deliver medical treatment quickly and cheaply enough. The systems are frough with administrative costs delay. It is adversarial requiring legal timetables of investigation, litigation, adjudication and appeals. The progress of disease is not subject to court rules or judicial administration. Immediate and emergent medical treatment protocols follow a biological timetable not a legal one.
National health reform that embodies workers’ compensation as an element is a long awaited solution to coordinate and advance the delivery of health care to all Americans. Old, inefficient and archaic systems need to be abandoned if progress is to advance. Moving forward to the inclusion of workers' compensation into a universal and nationalized program for health care is an important and innovative change. The change is crticial and necessary to advance with science, the economy and the social structure of America.
It is not all surprising that Dr. Peter Barth reported to the WCRI Conference in Boston, that workers’ compensation programs may be swept up into a national health care system. He reminds us that this was attempted in the Clinton proposal. The enactment of such a proposal looks even more urgent now.
The medical system overall is now being stressed by: an aging workforce; medical conditions manifested by stress and aging; consumerism in health care; the attempt to shift costs from major medical plans and CMS to workers’ compensation; new and expensive treatment modalities, procedures and pharmaceutical products,and the expansion of palliative and “end of life care.” It is anticipated that the average cost may amount to $500.000 per claim.
The workers’ compensation system just can’t deliver medical treatment quickly and cheaply enough. The systems are frough with administrative costs delay. It is adversarial requiring legal timetables of investigation, litigation, adjudication and appeals. The progress of disease is not subject to court rules or judicial administration. Immediate and emergent medical treatment protocols follow a biological timetable not a legal one.
National health reform that embodies workers’ compensation as an element is a long awaited solution to coordinate and advance the delivery of health care to all Americans. Old, inefficient and archaic systems need to be abandoned if progress is to advance. Moving forward to the inclusion of workers' compensation into a universal and nationalized program for health care is an important and innovative change. The change is crticial and necessary to advance with science, the economy and the social structure of America.
Friday, November 22, 2013
California Doctors Prescribe More Name-Brand Drugs Than Any Other State
The only thing that perhaps matched the vastness of the spread or the depth of the traction of the "death panel" lie was the predictability that such a lie would come to be told in the first place. After all, this was a Democratic president trying to sell a new health care reform plan with the intention of opening access and reducing cost to millions of Americans who had gone without for so long. What's the best way to counter it? Tell everyone that millions of Americans would have increased access ... to Death! The best account of how the "death panel" myth was born into this world and spread like garbage across the landscape has been penned by Brendan Nyhan, who in 2010 wrote "Why the "Death Panel" Myth Wouldn't Die: Misinformation in the Health Care Reform Debate." |
Friday, November 15, 2013
More Obamacare Enrollees In California Than In 36 States Combined
Today's post was shared by Huffington Post and comes from www.huffingtonpost.com
 Obamacare California The only thing that perhaps matched the vastness of the spread or the depth of the traction of the "death panel" lie was the predictability that such a lie would come to be told in the first place. After all, this was a Democratic president trying to sell a new health care reform plan with the intention of opening access and reducing cost to millions of Americans who had gone without for so long. What's the best way to counter it? Tell everyone that millions of Americans would have increased access ... to Death! The best account of how the "death panel" myth was born into this world and spread like garbage across the landscape has been penned by Brendan Nyhan, who in 2010 wrote "Why the "Death Panel" Myth Wouldn't Die: Misinformation in the Health Care Reform Debate." You should go read the whole thing.But to summarize, the lie began where many lies about health care reform begin -- with serial liar Betsy McCaughey, who in 1994 polluted the pages of the New Republic with a staggering pile of deception in an effort to scuttle President Bill Clinton's health care reform. As Nyhan documents, she re-emerged in 2009 when "she invented the false claim that the health care legislation in Congress would result in seniors being directed to 'end their life sooner.'"Nyhan: "McCaughey's statement was a reference to a provision in the Democratic health care bill that would have provided funding for an advanced care planning for Medicare recipients once every five... |
[Click here to see the rest of this post]
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Now Available On-Line: Complete Letter Report On Incorporating Occupational Information in Electronic Health Records
Incorporating Occupational Information in Electronic Health Records: Letter Report
The National Academies Press
The National Academies Press (NAP) was created by the National Academies to publish the reports issued by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council, all operating under a charter granted by the Congress of the United States. The NAP publishes more than 200 books a year on a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and health, capturing the most authoritative views on important issues in science and health policy. The institutions represented by the NAP are unique in that they attract the nation’s leading experts in every field to serve on their award-wining panels and committees. The nation turns to the work of NAP for definitive information on everything from space science to animal nutrition.Author:
David H. Wegman, Catharyn T. Liverman, Andrea M. Schultz, and Larisa M. Strawbridge, Editors; Committee on Occupational Information and Electronic Health Records; Institute of Medicine
84 pages PAPERBACK $35
Each year in the United States, more than 4,000 occupational fatalities and more than 3 million occupational injuries occur along with more than 160,000 cases of occupational illnesses. Incorporating patients' occupational information into electronic health records (EHRs) could lead to more informed clinical diagnosis and treatment plans as well as more effective policies, interventions, and prevention strategies to improve the overall health of the working population. At the request of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the IOM appointed a committee to examine the rationale and feasibility of incorporating occupational information in patients' EHRs. The IOM concluded that three data elements - occupation, industry, and work-relatedness - were ready for immediate focus, and made recommendations on moving forward efforts to incorporate these elements into EHRs.
Recommendations:
Initial Focus on Occupation, Industry, and Work-Relatedness Data Elements
Recommendation 1: Conduct Demonstration Projects to Assess the Collection and Incorporation of Information on Occupation, Industry, and Work-Relatedness in the EHR
NIOSH, in conjunction with other relevant organizations and initiatives, such as the Public Health Data Standards Consortium and Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) International, should conduct demonstration projects involving EHR vendors and health care provider organizations (diverse in the services they provide, populations they serve, and geographic locations) to assess the collection and incorporation of occupation, industry, and work-relatedness data in the EHR at different points in the workflow (including at registration, with the medical assistant, and with the clinician). Further, to examine the bidirectional exchange of occupational data between administrative databases and clinical components in the EHR, NIOSH in conjunction with IHE should conduct an interoperability-testing event (e.g., Connectathon) to demonstrate this bidirectional exchange of occupational information to establish proof of concept and, as appropriate, examine challenges related to variable sources of data and reconciliation of conflicting data.
Recommendation 2: Define the Requirements and Develop Information Models for Storing and Communicating Occupational Information
NIOSH, in conjunction with appropriate domain and informatics experts, should develop new or enhance existing information models for storing occupational information, beginning with occupation, industry, and work-relatedness data and later focusing on employer and exposure data. The information models should consider the various use cases in which the information could be used and use the recommended coding standards. For example, NIOSH should consider how best to use social history templates to collect a work history and the problem list to document exposures and abnormal findings and diagnoses with optional work-associated attributes for possible, probable, or definite causes; exposures; and impact on work.
Recommendation 3: Adopt Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) and North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Coding Standards for Use in the EHR
NIOSH, with assistance from other federal agencies, organizations, and stakeholders (e.g., Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census Bureau, Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists [CSTE], National Library of Medicine, National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Uniform Billing Committee, Health Level 7 International [HL7]), should recommend to the Health Information Technology (IT) Standards Committee the adoption of SOC and NAICS to code occupation and industry. Furthermore, NIOSH should develop models for reporting health data from EHRs by occupation and industry at different levels of granularity that are meaningful for clinical and public health use.
Recommendation 4: Assess Feasibility of Autocoding Occupational Information Collected in Clinical Settings
NIOSH should place high priority on completing the feasibility assessment of autocoding the narrative information on occupation and, where available, industry that currently is collected and recorded in certain clinical settings, such as the Dartmouth-Hitchcock health care system, Kaiser Permanente, New York State Occupational Health Clinic Network, Cambridge Health Alliance, and hospitals participating in the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System.
Recommendation 5: Develop Meaningful Use Metrics and Performance Measures
Based on findings from the various demonstration projects and feasibility studies, NIOSH, with the assistance of relevant professional organizations and the Health IT Policy Committee, should develop meaningful use metrics and health care performance measures for including occupational information in the meaningful use criteria, beginning with the incorporation of occupation, industry, and work-relatedness data, and later expanding as deemed appropriate to include other data elements such as exposures and employer.
Recommendation 6: Convene a Workshop to Assess Ethical and Privacy Concerns and Challenges Associated with Including Occupational Information in the EHR
NIOSH should convene a workshop involving representatives of labor unions, insurance organizations, health care professional organizations, workers’ compensation-related organizations (e.g., International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions, National Council on Compensation Insurance), and EHR vendors to
.. assess the implications for the patient and clinician of incorporating work-relatedness in the EHR, with respect to workers’ compensation; and
.. propose guidelines and policies for protecting the patient’s non-workrelated health information from inadvertent disclosure and to ensure compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, workers’ compensation, and other privacy standards.
Enhance the Value and Use of Occupational Information in the EHR
Recommendation 7: Develop and Test Innovative Methods for the Collection of Occupational Information for Linking to the EHR
NIOSH should initiate efforts in collaboration with large health care provider organizations, health insurance organizations, EHR vendors, and other stakeholders to develop and test methods for collecting occupational data from innovative sources. Specifically, NIOSH should evaluate collection methods that involve
.. patient input through mechanisms such as web-based portals and personal health records, and
.. other means such as health-related smart cards, health insurance cards, and human resource systems.
Recommendation 8: Develop Clinical Decision-Support Logic, Education Materials and Return-to-Work Tools
NIOSH, relevant professional organizations, and EHR vendors should begin to develop, test, and iteratively refine and expand
.. clinical decision-support tools for common occupational conditions (e.g., work-related asthma);
.. tools and programs that could be easily accessed for education of patients and caregivers about occupational illnesses, injuries, and workplace safety;
.. training modules for administrative staff to collect occupational information in different care settings; and
.. tools to improve and standardize functional job assessment and return- to-work documentation in EHRs, including standards for the transmission of these forms.
Recommendation 9: Develop and Assess Methods for Collecting Standardized Exposure Data
NIOSH should continue to work with occupational and environmental health clinics and other relevant stakeholders to develop and assess methods for collecting standardized exposure data for work-related health conditions. NIOSH should explore the feasibility of
.. listing possible or probable exposures in the problem list or elsewhere in the EHR;
.. linking occupational information in the EHR to online occupational, toxicological, and hazardous materials databases, such as the Occupational Information Network (O*NET), the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics, and Haz-Map, to enhance diagnosis and treatment of work-related illnesses and injuries; and
.. automatically generating codes for exposures based on narrative text entries.
Recommendation 10: Assess the Impact of Incorporating Occupational Information in the EHR on Meaningful Use Goals
NIOSH, in conjunction with relevant stakeholders (e.g., Public Health Data Standards Consortium, CSTE, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials), should
.. develop measures and conduct periodic studies to assess the impact of integrating occupational information in EHRs, and
.. estimate the economic impact of EHR-facilitated return-to-work practices for both work-related and non-work-related conditions.
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Many Cancer Patients Overtreated In Final Days
Cancer care for injured workers' is extremely costly. The final year of life equates to a large proportion of medical costs. Ehical and moral factors enter into the balance for spending deicision though. Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from www.kaiserhealthnews.org
While most older people say they don't want aggressive care at the end of life, many get it anyway.
Care in the last month of life for Medicare patients with advanced cancer typically is even more aggressive in the Philadelphia area than in the nation as a whole, concludes a report from the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, which studies regional differences in care. It released a report last week that showed the percentage of cancer patients who died in hospitals in 2010, or were hospitalized or in an intensive care unit in their last month. Oddly, participation in hospice, which should relieve symptoms rather than prolong life, is above average in the Philadelphia area. Throughout the nation, though, the average patient waits until the last week or two to join hospice. The Dartmouth researchers believe the regional variations reflect differing physician practices and available resources rather than patient preferences or quality. The conclusion is that many patients here are being overtreated and are not communicating well with doctors, said David Goodman, coprincipal investigator of the Dartmouth Atlas. "I think most people would agree that most health-care systems have got some real work to do," he said. "Patients have no idea what is the style of care in the place that they're receiving care, and it's not easily identifiable." He said doctors find it hard to pull back as their patients worsen. The study included hospitals that cared for at least 80 Medicare patients... |
Related articles
- Health Care Workers Suffer Exposures to Antineoplastic Drugs (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Medicare To Punish 2,225 Hospitals For Excess Readmissions (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- What to Do About Futile Critical Care (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Health Spending Over The Coming Decade Expected To Exceed Economic Growth (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Night Shift Work Causally Linked to an Increase in Breast Cancer (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- An "F" for Quality (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- The Shocking Truth About Medication Errors (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
Monday, September 16, 2013
What to Do About Futile Critical Care
By Neil S. Wenger, MD
Of course, we’re fortunate to have such fantastic technology at our disposal — but we must address how to use it appropriately when the patient may not benefit from high-intensity measures. When aggressive critical care is unsuccessful at achieving an acceptable level of health for the patient, treatment should focus on palliative care. In our study, my colleagues and I quantified the prevalence and cost of “futile” critical care in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. This can be seen as the first step toward reevaluating the status quo and better optimizing care for critical care patients. After convening a group of critical care clinicians to determine a consensus definition of “futile treatment,” our research team analyzed nearly 7,000 daily assessments of more than 1,000 patients. We found that 11 percent received futile... |
Related articles
- Needlestick Injuries Are a Costly Problem for the Health Care Industry (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- US Supreme Court Asked to Review MSP Preemption Issue (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Statement on malignant mesothelioma in the United Kingdom (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Health Law Adds New Expense For Farmers: Insurance For Field Workers (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Despite backlogs, VA disability claims processors get bonuses (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- CA DWC Posts Proposed Changes to the Medical Treatment Utilization Schedule Regulations Online for Public Comment (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
….
Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman 1.973.696.7900 jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Growth in U.S. Health Care Spending Slows
It is a sweeping trend that should mean bigger paychecks for middle-class households and hundreds of billions of dollars in savings for the government. Yet only one in 20 Americans is aware of it. Nationally, spending on health care is growing at the slowest pace ever recorded. Annual spending on health care often grew more than 10 percent a year during the 1970s and ’80s. Growth dipped in the 1990s, only to rise again, but starting in the early 2000s, the rate began falling. It is now just about 4 percent a year. Yet in the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, just 5 percent of all Americans — and 3 percent of uninsured respondents — said that health care spending has moderated. Half of respondents said that costs have been going up at a faster rate lately. That might be in part because Americans are paying more out of pocket for their health care. For instance, deductibles — the amount a covered individual has to pay for health care before the plan kicks in to cover the remaining costs — have become more common and more expensive. The percentage of Americans enrolled in a health plan with a deductible of at least $1,000 has climbed to 38 percent in 2013 from 18 percent in 2008, according to a recent survey by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. And over the same period, the average deductible has increased to $1,097 from $735. Normally, that moderation in health spending would mean households would receive higher wages: Businesses... |
[Click here to see the rest of this post]
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Obama Vows Better Health Care, Other Initiatives, For Vets, Military
Addressing the American Legion’s national convention, the president announced steps to expand access to mental health care and an initiative to lower home loan costs for military families. He also promised a new "culture of accountability' at the Department of Veterans Affairs. The New York Times: Obama Tells Veterans He Will Fix Health System, As New Report Lists Lapses President Obama on Tuesday promised several thousand military veterans that he would fulfill his “sacred trust” to those returning from America’s wars by overhauling a dysfunctional health care system, even as a new report documented “unacceptable and troubling lapses” in medical treatment (Baker and Philipps, 8/26). Los Angeles Times: Obama Tells American Legion He's Working To Regain Veterans' Trust The list included seemingly straightforward changes, such as making it easier for veterans to earn commercial driver's licenses, and new funding for complex research. The Pentagon and the National Institutes of Health have launched a study on early detection of suicide risk, post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain disorder, while the VA will invest $34.4 million in a national clinical trial on suicide prevention involving 1,800 veterans at 29 hospitals, the White House said (Hennessey, 8/26). The Washington Post: Obama Pledges Better Mental Health Services, Other Initiatives For Military, Vets Heralding a new... |
Monday, February 22, 2021
NJ Airport Workers' Pay Bill Clears Senate
In order to ensure wage guarantees, greater protections and health care benefits for workers at Newark Liberty International Airport and Train Station, the Senate passed the “Healthy Terminals Act.” The bill, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, Senator Linda Greenstein and Senate President Steve Sweeney, provides that “prevailing wage” rates will be a minimum standard rate of compensation for those workers, and makes the requirements subject to the “New Jersey Prevailing Wage Act.”
Thursday, June 25, 2015
The Path to Federalization: US Supreme Court Again Validates the Affordable Care Act
The US Supreme Court again affirmed the validity of The Affordable Care Act. The Obamacare program, as it has been nicknamed, will continue to lead to a medical delivery program than eventually will have major repercussions on the antiquated and ineffective medical care system of the existing patch work of state workers' compensation insurance acts.
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Senator Gillibrand: We Have a Moral Obligation to Care for 9/11 Heroes, Survivors & Their Families
As the Zadroga Act slowly journeys to expiration, Senator Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) declared that, “We Have a Moral Obligation to Continue to Provide the Critically Needed Care and Compensation That Our 9/11 Heroes, Survivors and Their Families Deserve."
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Health Care Spending Will Peak Around 2025 and Then Flatten Out
This is apropos of nothing. I happened to be fiddling around with CMS health care expenditures and decided to take a look at how spending has increased year-over-year as a share of GDP for the past four decades. (Example: If spending increases from a 16 percent share of GDP to a 16.4 percent share of GDP, that's a year-over-year 2.5 percent growth rate.)
The chart below is a rolling 5-year average to smooth out the noise. Roughly speaking, it shows a steady decrease in the growth rate. If things continue along these lines, health care spending will continue increasing until it reaches about 21-22 percent of GDP sometime in the mid-2020s. The aging of the baby boom generation might send that number a little higher, but not by a lot, I suspect. The mechanism is simple: As spending goes up, our collective resistance to higher spending increases, and that's the ultimate brake on health care expenditures. I'm willing to bet that U.S. spending on health care will never top 25 percent of GDP. It might not even top 23 percent.  |
Related articles
- Democrats Jump on the 'Death Panel' Bandwagon (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Law Will Shift Demographics For Medicaid Toward Healthier Group, Study Finds (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- For Workers Leaving Their Jobs, Health Exchanges Offer Insurance Choices Beyond COBRA (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Has the Internet Raised or Lowered Healthcare Costs? (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Medical Transparency: Resistance is Futile (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- What to Do About Futile Critical Care (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Building an Accountable Care Organization and Its Impact on Workers' Compensation
Suppose for a moment that you are an administrator in an organization that provides health care and your job is on the line for delivering both savings and improved care. Because you want to be part of the solution to the health-care-cost problem, you have signed contracts with payers that reward your institution or system for reducing the costs of care. These same contracts require you to pay a penalty if the costs of care go up more than inflation. What would be your first, second, and third move?
This is not a hypothetical question. More than 300 hundred administrators of accountable care organizations (ACOs) across the United States are facing it. My team at Partners HealthCare in Boston is faced with this exciting (and daunting) challenge. Having signed shared-savings contracts with both commercial payers and Medicare, our CEO, Gary Gottlieb, established a Population Health Management unit. A major focus of our work is to achieve shared savings in our contracts. That means controlling costs for the populations cared for by our primary care physicians. Since doctors and hospitals within Partners bill for a majority of the care these patients receive, you could say our success depends on reducing the income of our colleagues. Harvard Business School’s Clayton Christensen has taught us this is not possible — that an organization will not cannibalize itself. So when we go knocking on... |
Monday, July 26, 2021
California Implements First-in-the-Nation Measures to Encourage State Employees and Health Care Workers to Get Vaccinated
The State of California is taking decisive action to combat the spread of COVID-19 and protect vulnerable communities – implementing a first-in-the-nation standard to require all state workers and workers in health care and high-risk congregate settings to either show proof of full vaccination or be tested at least once per week, and encourage all local government and other employers to adopt a similar protocol.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Powerful New Videos Encourage Those Who Qualify to Seek Care through the World Trade Center Health Program
Though the September 11th attacks were over a decade ago, thousands of people who were in the affected areas continue to experience physical and mental health symptoms as a result of their experience in the days, months, and even years following 9/11. They may not recognize that some cancers, a chronic cough, difficulty sleeping, or frequent heartburn that they— or their children— experience could be a 9/11 related health condition.
NIOSH is teaming up with our community partners to spread the word that help is available through the World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program. Created by the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010, the WTC Health Program provides medical monitoring and treatment for responders at the World Trade Center and related sites in New York City, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, PA, and for survivors who were in the New York City disaster area. All care for covered conditions is provided at no out of pocket costs for those who qualify.The WTC Health Program has helped thousands regain their health following the September 11th terrorist attacks. This year the Program is launching a digital campaign to make sure that those who may qualify for care, but are not enrolled, get the help they need and deserve. The campaign features videos of members telling their stories. Both responders and survivors describe... |
Related articles
- More than 1,100 have cancer after 9/11 (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Feds add prostate cancer to list of 9/11 health-related conditions (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Deadline for Filing 9-11 Claims Approaches - Cancer Claims Soar (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Why Health Care Is Stuck - And How to Fix It (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Health Spending Over The Coming Decade Expected To Exceed Economic Growth (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Health Care Spending Will Peak Around 2025 and Then Flatten Out (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- NJ Court Sets the Evidentiary Proof Standard for a Pulmonary - Cardiovascular Claim (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)