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Highlights of the important and the interesting from the world of health care:
To conference we will go: While it appears (though it ain’t over ’til it’s over) that Senate Democrats have the votes to pass their health overhaul legislation at a vote scheduled for 8 a.m. on the day of Christmas Eve, the task of reconciling the House and Senate bills in conference committee remains. That work is expected to begin in January, and due to the fragility of the agreement in the Senate, the House “is likely to be under enormous pressure to compromise,” the Wall Street Journal says. The pressure’s on to have the House-Senate compromise in place by late January, when President Obama is expected to give the annual State of the Union address.
With the Rise of AI, What IP Disputes in Healthcare Are Likely to Emerge?
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
MinnPost points out three issues that are likely to cause House and Senate negotiators the most pain: financing, the public option and abortion. The public option figures to be a nonstarter, but expect interest groups on either side of the other two issues (and many others) to engage in intense campaigns to sway legislators. In any case, expect the real winners to be, as usual, the lobbyists, who are on track to shatter last year’s record of $3.3 billion in receipts, Politico reports.
Why reform is so much harder in the U.S.: Writing at The Health Care Blog, the chairman of research firm Harris Interactive takes a look at a few reasons why making changes to the health care system in the U.S. is so much more difficult than in other countries. To critics of U.S. health care, the list looks like a rundown of everything that’s wrong with our system — yawning inefficiency resulting from thousands of different payers, a lack of universal coverage (having universal coverage frees other countries to focus on improving quality and reducing cost, allowing them to avoid “ideological debates” about the role of government vs. the private sector) and of course, perhaps the biggest culprit, the influence of corporate money on our political process.
The author, Humphrey Taylor, closes with the curious statement “One wonders if the uniquely American barriers to change and reform are really desirable.” The statement strikes “one” as being way, way too soft on American health care. Given the documented facts that health care in the U.S. is more expensive and lagging in quality compared to other countries, why would “one” possibly wonder that? It’s entirely clear that our uniquely American health-care system is failing nearly everyone in this country — except those whose bank accounts benefit from its problems — if not due to the lack of quality then due to the high costs that eat into all of our paychecks.
Bartender, make it a light-colored beverage: For those looking have a sippy sippy (or two), during the holidays, a new study holds a key finding — light-colored alcohol results in less-severe hangovers than its darker counterpart, the New York Daily News reports. In the kind of experiment many of us would’ve lusted to be a part of in college, 95 men and women who were healthy but heavy drinkers drank bourbon or vodka to get them to the same level of drunkenness (and earned $450 in the process), then were asked how they felt the next morning. The results revealed that those who drank vodka said they felt better than those who imbibed bourbon. The reason has to do with something called “congeners” or toxic compounds that are byproducts of alcohol fermentation and partly responsible for a drink’s color.
A Personalized Approach to Medication Nonadherence
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
Darker liquors and wines have more congeners than lighter ones — for instance, the amount of congeners in bourbon is 37 times the amount in vodka, according to the study.
