Federal News
President Pressing Health Care Overhaul
With Congress working to pass legislation by early August, the once-improbable goal of significant health care reform stands a chance of becoming a reality. When legislation emerges, parts are certain to provoke opposition, and the obstacles to health care reform should never be underestimated. [Read article]
4 Reasons Why Obama's Health Plan Is No Bargain
Analysis: While a goal of reform is to cut costs, the emerging package may do just the opposite. [Read article]
Health Reform - What's Happening and Why
This blog talks about the prospect for reform why reform is possible. [Read article]
Caring for Our Youth
The SAMHSA’s Health Information Network has developed a webpage loaded with substance abuse prevention resources. Learn what to ask, look for, expect, and do to help keep the teens in your life drug free. [Website]
Front and Center: Ensuring that Health Reform Puts People First
This Commonwealth Fund report uses the "Path" health reform framework to detail how such reform will affect different groups of Americans, including the uninsured and underinsured, people working in small businesses, and people who buy their insurance in the individual market. [Read article]
Senate HELP Committee's Health Reform Bill Includes IT Measures
The legislation would require all U.S. residents to be insured, reorganize the insurance industry and help make health care more accessible for low-income U.S. residents. [Read article]
Social Media and Employee Communications: An Opportunity to Experiment
Most employers are using blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other social media channels to communicate with employees.
Senator Proposes Insurance Cooperatives as an Alternative to Public Plan Option
In the United States, there are rural electric co-ops, milk co-ops, child care co-ops, and food co-ops. So why not healthcare co-ops? The idea of member-run healthcare insurance cooperatives was proposed as an alternate approach to proposed public health insurance options in healthcare reform legislation pending on Capitol Hill. [Read article]
What Would a Health Overhaul Cost? All Eyes on the CBO
Douglas Elmendorf, Congressional Budget Office, faces the toughest task of his brief tenure: attaching a price to a monumental overhaul of the nation's health-care system, which holds out the promise of delivering care to millions of uninsured Americans, cutting costs for an overburdened federal government and sealing the political legacy of a popular new president. [Read article]
Have a RAC Question? CMS Has Some Answers
While none of the newest Recovery Audit Contractor FAQs released by CMS - it published 15 in the last week - are particularly surprising, they are perhaps a sign that CMS is continuing to make every effort to share RAC information providers need to know through as many channels as possible. [Read article]
