Health Care Reform Updates
June 7, 2010 Managed care pharmacists will play a key role in reforming the current health care system by continuing to develop innovative programs that reduce costs and improve quality of care, said Mark McClellan, MD, PhD, director of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. He discussed the effects of the recent health care reform legislation in a presentation at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy meeting. More »June 7, 2010 Little progress has been made in eliminating health care–associated infections (HAIs), according to the 2009 National Healthcare Quality Report and the National Healthcare Disparities Report recently issued by the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).1 More »June 7, 2010 The effect of payment delays on the normal functioning of community pharmacy operations has been documented. We undertook a study to evaluate and compare pharmacists’ perception regarding reimbursement rates and processing time for prescription drug claims processed for Medicare Part D, Medicaid, and commercial managed care plans. More »June 7, 2010 Common behaviors of patients taking prescription drugs, such as forgetfulness and procrastination, may result in wasteful spending of $163 billion annually, according to the recently released 2009 Drug Trend Report from Express Scripts. More »June 4, 2010 The treatment of patients with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and their various complications has become one of the most discussed and demanded insurance coverage mandates in multiple states. Insurance mandates are being heavily pushed by advocacy groups, especially Autism Speaks, with good success. More »June 4, 2010 Several months have passed since the publication of the latest US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) breast cancer screening guidelines. The initial, sharp outcry, mainly over the task force’s recommendation against routine screening mammography for women aged 40 to 49 years, has somewhat subsided, but the overall significance of the group’s decision remains undetermined. More »May 19, 2010 Now that President Obama has signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 into law (signed March 23, 2010), what will happen? More »April 16, 2010 As publicly funded health care payment programs have grown over decades because of demographic shifts and expansion of coverage, comparative effectiveness research (CER) has emerged to address value in health care. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2008 (ARRA) included $1.1 billion for CER initiatives, and the new health care legislation created the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, which will be funded with $500 million or more annually. In these efforts exist the... More »April 16, 2010 The recent signing of health reform legislation signals a watershed event in the delivery of health care in our country. It is the culmination of a tangled legislative battle, but it ignores 3 of the 4 pillars of health reform. In this article, I describe these pillars, and then outline where recent legislation falls short. More »April 16, 2010 The sweeping health care reform bill signed into law in March will eventually provide coverage to 32 million more Americans, but the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that about 23 million will still be without health care by 2019.1 Even those with insurance may continue to have high out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses, because coverage premiums and medical services outpace household incomes. More »April 16, 2010 The pharmaceutical industry aggressively supported efforts to pass health care reform, even pledging to trim drug costs by $80 billion.1 In addition, it pumped millions of dollars into lobbying and ad campaigns to push the legislation to a successful conclusion, even joining with groups such as Families USA, which ironically spent years attacking drug makers in the early part of the decade.2 More »March 29, 2010 The sweeping health care reform bill signed into law in March will eventually provide coverage to 32 million more Americans, but the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that about 23 million will still be without health care by 2019. More »March 29, 2010 The recent signing of health reform legislation signals a watershed event in the delivery of health care in our country. It is the culmination of a tangled legislative battle, but it ignores 3 of the 4 pillars of health reform. In this article, I describe these pillars, and then outline how recent legislation falls short. More »March 25, 2010 Owing to the recent senatorial election results in Massachusetts, anticipated health care reform agendas for the United States are undergoing change again as the electorate and Congress struggle with a burgeoning health care system. More »March 25, 2010 By 2012, federal and state programs will pay slightly more than half of the nation’s health care costs whether or not any health care reform measures are passed, according to a recent report by the Office of the Actuary of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.1 As expected, the shift to a government-dominated health care sector is approaching faster than expected because of an economy in recession and because of the aging of the baby boomers, millions of whom will soon start signing up... More »
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For decades, our country's health care system and its government have struggled with the challenge of providing immunization coverage for all children. Starting with the Section 317 legislation of 1962, numerous policy initiatives have been passed in an effort to ensure that sufficient supplies of vaccines are available, that the cost of vaccines for low–income children is covered—and that these vaccines are actually administered to the children that need them. As our legislators craft their bills, the media is feeding us a relentless diet of health care debate coverage. TV, newspapers and journals, and the blogosphere report and opine tirelessly on questions of whether there will be a public option, how much health care reform will cost, how it wilil be financed, and others.
 David B. Nash, MD, MBA, the Dr Raymond C. and Doris N. Grandon Professor of Health Policy and founding dean of the Jefferson School of Population Health at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, provides an expert’s perspective on comparative effectiveness research and the current health care debate. Click here to listen.
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