Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
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Addressing Chronic Illness Can Help Cure the U.S. Budget Deficit
Chronic illness represents $3 of every $4 of annual health spending in the U.S. That’s about $1.5 trillion. Living Well With Chronic Illness, a report from The Institute of Medicine (IOM), issues a “call for public health action” to address chronic illness through...
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All Parties Ignore the One Way to Reduce Health Care Costs: Single-Payer
...business managers are the decisionmakers about computer purchases in most hospitals and large practices, and they're choosing off-the-shelf software that gives priority to maximizing billings and addressing management's needs. As our studies show, these management-led systems have increased health costs...
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Analysis: Obamacare Can't Fail
The standard of success for the Affordable Care Act keeps getting weaker. Whether in enrollment numbers, federal savings, or the workings of its website, the White House has repeatedly lowered the bar for the law when it has missed expectations, replacing initial standards with ones that are lower, squishier, or nonexistent. Read More »
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Coverage Expansion Fail: Less Than One-Third Of Obamacare Exchange Enrollees Were Previously Uninsured
At the end of the day, for all of the rhetoric and promises about what Obamacare would achieve, the health law’s most ardent supporters have stuck to their guns because of one thing: coverage expansion. But new data suggests that Obamacare may fail even to achieve this goal. Instead of expanding coverage to those without it, Obamacare is replacing the pre-existing market for private insurance. [...] Read More »
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Crowdfunding Health Innovation: Disruptive Companies And Funders Meet To Change Health Delivery
Two of the most significant pieces of legislation in decades, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, are poised to transform the entire spectrum of health care. The ACA regulates everything from health insurance requirements to tax collection.
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EHRs And Multi-Provider Use: Lessons From The VA
With billions of dollars of stimulus funds available and the President and state governors promoting them, electronic health records (EHRs) are likely to become commonplace in the U.S. health care system. [...] While EHRs are praised for their promise to increase efficiency and safety, it is still an open question how much of those benefits will be realized or when. Read More »
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Even Supporters Need To Realize That Obamacare Needs A Fundamental Fix
The administration has confirmed that the individual policies that were supposed to be cancelled because of Obamacare can now remain in force another two years. For months I have been saying millions of individual health insurance policies will be cancelled by year-end — most deferred until December because of the carriers’ early renewal programs and because of President Obama’s request the policies be extended in the states that have allowed it.
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Fate Of Veterans' Clinics In Limbo As Budget Cutting Looms
A veterans' health clinic in Brick, N.J., is in such disrepair that when the snow gets heavy, patients have to go elsewhere for fear the roof might collapse. Another in San Antonio has extensive mildew and mold problems that could prove a health hazard for employees and patients in the coming years. Read More »
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For Hospitals on the Edge, Health IT is the Tipping Point
Without question, massive health IT expense and the predominant proprietary IT model are threats to a hospital or health system’s financial viability, to its solvency. We’re seeing some examples even now. Michigan’s Henry Ford Health System recently reported a 15 percent decrease in net income as a result of uncompensated care and $36 million spent on a proprietary EHR system. According to health system CEO Nancy Schlichting, “We knew that 2012 and 2013 would not be easy years for the system because of the Epic costs.” Read More »
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How Can Government Battle A 'Suicide Epidemic' Among Veterans?
The Fort Hood shooting is an extreme and shocking example of what has become a chronic concern for the military: soldiers with mental-health problems taking their own lives. And it's not just the active-duty military who face what has become an increasingly daunting problem.
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IBM Expands U.S. Federal Healthcare Practice
IBM announced it will be using its big data and Watson cognitive computing technology in its federal health care practice.
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IBM Expands US Federal Healthcare Practice
IBM today announced new investments in its US Federal Healthcare Practice to address the rapidly growing technology needs of public sector health institutions. The company added big data solutions for advanced clinical care from its IBM Watson Group, new collaborations with IBM Research focused on data management and an expansion of the team with the naming of a Chief Medical Information Officer for IBM’s US Federal practice.
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In Military Care, a Pattern of Errors but Not Scrutiny
Since 2001, the Defense Department has required military hospitals to conduct safety investigations when patients unexpectedly die or suffer severe injury. The object is to expose and fix systemic errors, often in the most routine procedures, that can have disastrous consequences for the quality of care. Yet there is no evidence of such an inquiry into Mrs. Zeppa’s death.
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Industry Groups To Congress: 4 Ways To Prioritize Telehealth
A cadre of healthcare industry associations has called on Congress to prioritize telehealth and remote monitoring...
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Lawmakers Seek Lower Price On Bill For Vets’ Health Care
Stung by sticker shock, members of Congress are scrambling to lower the cost of a bill to fix veterans’ health care amid a growing uproar over long waits for appointments and falsification of records to cover up the delays at Veterans Affairs hospitals...
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