Health Care Delivery

Debate on the House floor covered familiar ground: Republicans called for an end to the individual mandate and decried rising premiums and fewer insurers on the exchanges, while Democrats blasted the proposed cuts to Medicaid. The late change to cut essential health benefits cost House leaders a key moderate vote.

As House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, and President Donald Trump endeavored to round up enough Republican votes to pass the American Health Care Act this week, a major sticking point for some reluctant GOP legislators was the inclusion of the Affordable Care Act’s essential health benefits in the replacement bill. Reports indicate that the essential health benefits requirement will be cut from the bill that will go to the House for a vote today.

House leaders and White House negotiators are unable to break the impasse created by conservatives, who say the bill does not sufficiently unravel Obamacare, and moderates who worry about lack of coverage for constituents.

At the 22nd Annual Conference of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, held March 23-25, 2017, in Orlando, FL, policy researchers with interest in cancer care disparities discussed the source of existing disparities and how they can be successfully addressed.

House leaders are balancing the need to win votes from conservative members with the need to not put moderate members at risk.

As part of Republicans’ fast and furious push to repeal the Affordable Care Act, there is a vote scheduled today in the House of Representatives on the American Health Care Act. However, there have been serious doubts in the days leading up to the Thursday vote that there were enough votes in the House to pass the bill.

The report, which provides an update on all the monumental changes witnessed by the field of oncology over the last year, highlights 3 key achievements: new investments in science and insurance coverage, payment models that emphasize quality, and rapid-learning healthcare systems.

The Republican healthcare law repeals several provisions in former President Barack Obama’s health law; however, while the GOP's American Health Care Act does provide financial assistance, similar to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Americans will find that those dollars don’t go as far as they did under the ACA.

The increased emphasis that the Affordable Care Act and Medicare accountable care organizations (ACOs) placed on prevention is important in reducing the high cost of older patients, especially as the baby boomer generation reached retirement age, explained Mariétou Ouayogodé, PhD, post-doctoral fellow at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.

Difficulty in making pricing and reimbursement decisions for rare diseases has prevented patients from having universal access to new medicines despite increased investment in their research and development. In Europe, a group has proposed 9 principles to guide value assessment, pricing, and funding.

HHS Secretary Tom Price, MD, continued to downplay the Congressional Budget Office’s report on the GOP healthcare bill, promoted how the plan gives Americans more choice, and clarified an earlier statement made about the financial health of patients during a CNN town hall moderated by Wolf Blitzer and Dana Bash.

Affordable Care Act exchange enrollees in California and Colorado reported significant improvements in access to care and fewer barriers to receiving care due to costs.

Improving patient collections in fast-paced, high-volume clinical environments.

Raj Toleti, CEO and founder of HealthGrid, has created patient-driven technologies to help empower them when they are accessing care.

Groups say the approach of the Republicans' plan moves away from prevention, which had been a chief aim of the Affordable Care Act. A large cut to the CDC would leave the future of the Diabetes Prevention Program unclear.

Up to 24 million people would lose health coverage under the American Health Care Act, the Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to a report released today by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). That would include up to 14 million in the first year alone, or two-thirds of the 21 million who have gained coverage under the ACA.

On May 4-5, 2017, The American Journal of Managed Care's ACO & Emerging Healthcare Delivery Coalition will head back to Scottsdale, Arizona, to bring together stakeholders from across the industry.

Every week, The American Journal of Managed Care® recaps the top managed care news of the week, and you can now listen to it on our podcast, Managed Care Cast.

Advocates note that the cuts would put the nation's health system in reverse, away from stopping health problems before they get out of hand.

This week, the top managed care news included a bill from House Republicans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, a new program at Walgreens to train pharmacists on an advanced cancer-care curriculum, and findings that health coaching helps the neediest patients most.