This should be a headline, but it’s only reported in a wonky healthcare blog:
While our elected representatives wrangle over slicing entitlements, virtually no one seems to be paying attention to an eye-popping fact: Medicare reimbursements are no longer accelerating at a break neck-pace. The new numbers should be factored into any discussion about healthcare spending: From 2000 through 2009, Medicare’s outlays climbed by an average of 9.7 percent a year. By contrast, since the beginning of 2010, Medicare spending has been rising by less than 4 percent a year. On this, both Standard Poor’s Index Committee and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) agree.
Why? Socialism, that’s why:
Zeke Emanuel, an oncologist and former special adviser for health policy to White House Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag, is certain that this is what is happening. When I spoke to him last week, Emanuel, said: “This is not mere chance: this is directly related to the initiation of health care reform.” It is not the result of reform, Emmanuel emphasized. The reform measures that will rein in Medicare inflation have not yet been implemented. But, he explained, providers are “anticipating the Affordable Care Act kicking in.” They can’t wait until the end of 2013: “They have to act today. Everywhere I go,” Emanuel, added, “medical schools and hospitals are asking me, ‘How can we cut our costs by 10 to 15 percent?’
Now that we have that out of the way, what kind of gun is Rick Perry packing today?
(via OTB)
Update:: Kay posted on this yesterday – sorry about that.
TheMightyTrowel
read that earlier today on a great blog you might want to read….
gnomedad
Well, sure, now that the Death Panels have euthanized Grandma.
Danny
But, but the Public Option would have prevented Clarence Thomas from being a right wing hack, and the PPACA is a giveaway to Big Business, and it’s the most non-progressive legislation ever passed!
debit
More confirmation you guys don’t read the damn blog. Jeez.
mai naem
I happen to work in the world of healthcare and what I think wastes an incredible amount of resources is the gazillion number of forms out there. About the only thing that is somewhat uniform is billing where I believe there’s only two maybe three different forms to bill in. And from what I can see EMR isn’t going to change that problem much. Why does one have to fill out those forms each time you go into a doctors. Why cannot somebody carry in a flash drive or something that automatically transfers the info into the doctors systems?
Also too, I am already sick and tired of Rick Perry and his manly man phallic crap. The way he had the one leg up on the bale of hay with his dong practically sticking out, omg, are you kidding me? This is followed by Obama with the same pose. I don’t know how I am going to live through a Perry/Obama presidential campaign, much less a Rick Perry campaign. Seriously, this is what the GOP is down to? Rick “Bush Jr Jr”Perry, Michelle “Crazy” Bachmann and Mitt”Bain Capital” Romney? Hope Huntsman is willing to dump his own money to last him through the campaign.
boss bitch
shit sandwich!
Reading Up on Sam Houston
Accusing a Senator of branding a man by the use of an innuendo, Sam Houston gave an illustration:
“A manufacture of bologna sausage accused a man whom he had discharged of spreading a report that the manufacturer’s sausage was made of dog meat. The accused man protested: I never said any such thing, but I will tell you what I did say. I said that where bologna sausages are plentiful, dogs are scarce.”
El Cid
Perhaps they anticipate when either real cuts are made to Medicare by the Republicans inviting their base to be Kamikazes against Medicare, or just more actual die-offs by the increasingly impoverished and generally hopeless population.
artem1s
yes, what Emanuel said. Also.too. NPR did a piece this morning on how seniors are finding cheaper options for their script than the disastrous Bush Part D.
http://tinyurl.com/pharmacy-benefit-managers
many are switching to pharmacy benefit managers who are, of course, allowed to negotiate costs with pharma companies for the drugs. Which only goes to prove if you design a government system that is unwieldy, inefficient and expensive enough the public sector has no problem competing with it. Market forces baybee!
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
I’m not sure which forms you’re talking about here but I can see a number of system security concerns with plugging random flash drives into a practice’s system. However, I’m seeing more practices with secure online systems that allow the patient to enter information prior to the appointment.
mistermix
@debit: Shit happens. Who could have predicted? Could have happened to anyone.
mai naem
@Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen: Isn’t that why they have virus scans?
Danny
@El Cid:
So anxious to find the glass half empty that you’d actually want to give the republicans credit for this? That’s tasteless, even as sarcasm.
General Stuck
Medicare costs would go even lower if we primaried Obama.
And kudos to commentor Martin, who was saying this would happen when few were confident (moi included) regs alone could slow down the rocketing cost of medicare. But when you think about it, the human element in the totally unregulated health care arena had no bounds whatsoever on it, like an undisciplined child, that suddenly has some rules put in place, and is acting in accordance with that new reality.
Talk about troll protection. The post haz it.
danimal
Bending the cost curve of healthcare just isn’t as exciting as threatening the fiscal integrity of the US. Obama just isn’t as dramatic as the GOP. For that, I think we should seriously consider a primary challenge.
Frankensteinbeck
@mai naem:
Good news, then. It includes a country-wide electronic medical records system. I can tell you from experience that they take years to put into action, but your problem IS being fixed!
Danny
@danimal:
PPACA: commonsense legislation with loads of provisions that fixes loads of real world problems, bends the cost curve, helps million of poor and working class americans by progressively taxing the rich.
But it’s just so damn unsexy.
john b
@mai naem:
i hope you’re kidding
Frankensteinbeck
@Danny:
People debate the ACA as if it’s just a mandate, and that’s it. Those two thousand pages the Republicans were whining about were two thousand pages of medical and insurance industry regulations.
@mai naem
Two words: ‘HIPAA violation’.
General Stuck
And lo and behold, tucked inside the failed stimulus, were some big chunks of change to streamline health care IT, and other cool shit to improve efficiency and lower long term health costs all around.
What I believe they call, a long game.
Danny
@General Stuck:
But, but half the people online says the ARRA and ACA legislation is a sochiulist takeover and the other half says its a corporate giveaway and sell out of workers and unions? They cant be just as full of sh-t all of them, can they?
jfxgillis
Mr. Mix:
I wish you front-pagers would quit apologizing for double- or cross-posting on a topic. I LIKE when that happens.
It’s great signal that something important sprang up and it’s an excellent source of reinforcement and supporting links.
Be PROUD of your cross-posting!
Sentient Puddle
@mai naem:
Partly yes, but virus scanners are nowhere near perfect. Most work by checking executables against a list of known malware, and that sort of thing is easy to get around for anyone who wants to bad enough.
Not that the idea of carrying patient info in some easy-to-use format is a bad idea. It’s just that any competent IT department will say that USB sticks are right out.
Frankensteinbeck
@Sentient Puddle:
They will also say ‘I will refer you to our HIPAA lawyer. He will laugh at you.’ Trust me.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
@Frankensteinbeck: Especially when that flash drive sucks up all the data on the computer. Whoopsie.
There are number of ways people intent on stealing data or just shutting down a provider’s system have gotten around virus scans, firewalls or any other protective measures the practice puts in place. When data is lost (or THOUGHT to be compromised) the provider then has to inform various official types, its patients and possibly the entire community about its boo-boo. That’s if the provider is lucky and doesn’t get dragged into court.
Samara Morgan
Perry 29% Romney 18%
if Bachman throws in with Perry, that is 42%. Cole called this.
Samara Morgan
Here’s the man on the white horse.
Ryan/Palin 2012.
Sentient Puddle
@Samara Morgan and @Samara Morgan: Can you at least pretend to be on topic?
Jay in Oregon
@Sentient Puddle:
I dunno, I think pie makes for a good breakfast food…
Villago Delenda Est
@Jay in Oregon:
I disagree. Cake. Cake and ice cream.
bob h
With regard to the jet black 61 year old hair-does he or doesn’t he?
FlipYrWhig
No, this is a disaster mixed with a tragedy. All slowed increases in spending on Medicare count as billions in “cuts” and tear away the fragile safety net progressives spent a lifetime building. The damage is incalculable, and it’s all Obama’s fault. I read it on a blog.
The Other Bob
@mai naem:
Maybe they should whip ’em out. More manly man wins!
James E. Powell
Even if it were reported widely the general public is not going to get excited about cost savings in Medicare. The only thing they know about ACA, if they know anything at all, is the mandate.
What the general public knows is that the economy is bad in that unemployment remains high, wages are either stagnant or going down, and nobody is going to do anything about it.
Danny
@James E. Powell:
You sure know how to put the pig on the lipstick, dont you?
Just taking note that the FDL crowd have been attacking ACA mainly over insufficient cost controls (no Public Option!). I’m sure they’re gonna be very happy about reporting the good news to their readers.
Of course the ACA does a lot of others stuff, such as transferring huge amounts of money from billionaires and millionaires to the middle class and working poor, starting 2013. So someone is, in fact, doing something about it. You could help – by telling people about that.
kay
@James E. Powell:
As a practical answer. James, the ACA is itself stimulus. It releases money, in big chunks, as each piece kicks in.
So if stimulus is what we’re after, the ACA is a mechanism that is already in place to pump money into the economy. I know it isn’t what you’re after, but that’s a fact.
Ira-NY