October, 2007
House Fails to Find
Veto-Proof Majority on New Version of SCHIP Bill
By a 265-142 vote, the
House again failed to approve legislation (H.R. 3963) reauthorizing the State
Children's Health Insurance Program by a veto-proof margin, despite changes
made by Democrats to garner additional Republican support for the bill.
Forty-three Republicans joined 222 Democrats in voting for the measure. The
White House has said President Bush would veto the latest bill, as he did its
predecessor (H.R 976), saying in a statement of administration policy that the
modified measure did not address "in a meaningful way" Bush's
objections to the legislation.
Study Finds Children Get
Recommended Health Services Less Than Half the Time
Children received the
recommended preventive care and health treatment "less than half of the
time," according to a study published in the Oct. 11 issue of The New
England Journal of Medicine. The study found that "deficits in the
delivery of indicated care to children (for which the overall adherence rate
was 46.5%) are similar in magnitude to those previously reported for adults
(for which the overall adherence rate was 54.9%)." Most adverse outcomes
from lack of proper care could be rectified, the study said, citing the use of
medications for children with asthma.
Not All Preventive Care
Services Save Money, and Some Add to Costs
Each preventive care
service should be evaluated for cost effectiveness on an individual basis, and
some increase health care costs, according to a National Coalition on Health
Care study - Prevention's Potential for Slowing the Growth of Medical
Spending. The study said the cost impact of vaccines, health screenings,
and life style changes depend on the type of intervention, a target
population's risk for developing a disease, and where and how often the
preventive care is provided.
CMS Proposes Medicaid
Rule Changes on Outpatient Services, Reimbursement
The Centers for Medicare
& Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a proposed rule to change the Medicaid
definition of hospital outpatient services by removing nonfacility services
provided by practitioners, school-based, and rehabilitative services, and to
set Medicaid upper limit payments to what Medicare would pay for equivalent
outpatient services (72 Fed. Reg. 55158). The proposed rule would require that
a provider-based entity have a "legal relationship" with a main
provider that has been granted provider-based status under Medicare requirements
in order to bill Medicaid for outpatient services.
FTC Favorable to
A proposed
California Governor
Unveils Draft Health Care Reform Bill
Nine months after he
proposed a comprehensive health care reform plan, California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger (R) released his proposal in draft bill form. The 200-page
Health Care Security and Cost Reduction Act was drafted into bill form at the
request of Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. Schwarzenegger told reporters he
hoped the Legislature, which he called into special session last month to take
up health care reform, could enact his plan by the end of October.
The Kansas Health Policy Authority
finalized recommendations intended to address the rising cost of health care. The
recommendations included "more modest ideas designed to tweak the existing
system rather than reinvent it," as the panel had discussed earlier. The
recommendations include a statewide smoking ban; a 50-cent-per-pack cigarette
tax increase; implementing a series of technical insurance changes to encourage
better insurance rates for small businesses; extending an existing premium subsidy
to more childless adults; creating standardized insurance cards; and promoting
physical education and nutrition in schools. Another recommendation would
establish an insurance mandate for children if other efforts to enroll eligible
children in existing health care programs are unsuccessful. The recommendations
will be presented to lawmakers next month.
Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts (D) called for
changes to the state's health care system, including a requirement that all
residents obtain health coverage. Under Roberts' plan, every resident would
have some form of insurance based on a sliding income scale, and small
businesses would have the same insurance rates savings as large employers. She
said the state also would "work with insurance companies to make sure
doctors get paid to keep their patients healthy."
State Health Policy Data Available
Statehealthfacts.org,
from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, provides free, up-to-date, and
easy-to-use health and health policy data on all 50 states.
Statehealthfacts.org has data on more than 500 health topics including Medicaid
and SCHIP, Medicare, health coverage and the uninsured, health costs and
budgets, providers and service use, minority health, women’s health, and
HIV/AIDS.
Statehealthfacts.org has
recently added new and updated data on Demographics & the Economy, Health
Coverage & Uninsured, and Medicaid & SCHIP. You can also view a list of
all recent updates at http://cme.kff.org/Key=13348.2f.C.C.H8zMZC.