Massachusetts could be a canary in the coal mine of the nation’s health care reform.
The New England state has been experimenting since 2006 with ways to reform its health care system. A big part of the goal is to get to universal health care — every person in the state covered by health care insurance. Gov. Deval Patrick says his state is close to being there.
Pres. Barack Obama and many members of Congress also favor universal health care for the nation.
Behavioral Health, Interoperability and eConsent: Meeting the Demands of CMS Final Rule Compliance
In a webinar on April 16 at 1pm ET, Aneesh Chopra will moderate a discussion with executives from DocuSign, Velatura, and behavioral health providers on eConsent, health information exchange and compliance with the CMS Final Rule on interoperability.
Its latest proposal is to pay doctors a set amount that would cover a patients medical care for a whole year, according to the Boston Globe.
Currently, insurers pay doctors and hospitals a negotiated fee for each procedure or visit. Critics say this encourages over-use and waste of health care.
The current system rewards doctors for the quantity of care they provide rather than quality of care.
Massachusetts’ Special Commission on the Health Care Payment System plan to urge Gov. Patrick and the legislature to become the first state to adopt a system that would put doctors and hospitals on a budget to restrain health care spending, the Globe said.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
More stories worth a read:
- Â Government reports criticize health care system (New York Times)
- Rangel bars any taxes on workers’ health care (New York Times)
- Taxing those with insurance to pay for t hose without (New York Times)
- GE commits billions to Healthymagination (Chilmark Research blog)
- GE launches ‘Healthymagination’; will commit $6 billion to enable better health focusing on cost, access and quality (General Electric press release)
- Department of Health and Human Services: Fiscal Year 2010 Budget in Brief, May 7, 2009Â (pdf)
- Obama wants $300 million more for FDA (Wall Street Journal; paid subscription required)
- Senators offer their support to FDA nominee (New York Times)
- University Hospitals’ cancer hospital taking shape with promise to heed patient wishes (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
- Sadra Medical raises $30M for aortic valve replacement (VentureBeat)
- Mason medical facility to be rehabbed (Cincinnati Enquirer)
- Forum on commercializing and funding biotechnology opportunities (DialIn calender item)
