Issue brief (George Washington University. National Health Policy Forum : 2005)最新文献

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act authorizes an estimated $38 billion in incentives and supports for health information technology (IT) from 2009 to 2019. After years of sluggish HIT adoption, this crisis-driven investment of public funds creates a unique opportunity for rapid diffusion of a technology that is widely expected to improve care, save money, and facilitate transformation of the troubled U.S. health system. Achieving maximal effect from the stimulus funds is nevertheless a difficult challenge. The Recovery Act strengthens the federal government's leadership role in promoting HIT. But successful adoption and utilization across the health system will also require development of a supportive infrastructure and broad-based efforts by providers, vendors, state-based agencies, and other health system stakeholders. Optimal use of IT for health care may require extensive reengineering of medical practice and of existing systems of payment. The future course of HIT adoption will also be subject to the effects of any health care reform legislation and of technological innovation in the fast-changing world of electronic communications

The Medicare drug benefit (Medicare "Part D"), provides federal subsidies to pay premiums and cost sharing for low-income beneficiaries--almost 10 million in 2009. Yet there are several policy issues concerning these low-income beneficiaries under Part D. First, over 2 million individuals who may qualify for the subsidies have not enrolled. Second, in some states, low-income beneficiaries have little choice of plans (while non low-income beneficiaries have dozens of choices), unless they pay out-of-pocket for premium amounts above what the subsidy covers. And third, millions of those who have enrolled in the benefit face the prospect each year of switching drug plans or paying more to keep their current drug plan. What led to this state of affairs? Are there lessons to be learned from Medicare Part D as Congress debates how to provide health insurance subsidies on behalf of low-income individuals?

Many reform proposals call for the creation of one or more health insurance exchanges, intermediaries that can help individuals or small employers navigate the insurance market. An exchange might be public or private, national or local. It might serve simply as a clearinghouse for plan information or could play an active role in setting benefit packages, choosing high-quality plans, and negotiating premium rates. This paper begins with a summary of recent experience with insurance exchanges and similar systems. It then reviews basic issues in the design of an exchange.

Responding to policymakers' concerns, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) implemented significant new hospital community benefit reporting under Schedule H of its revised Form 990, the return used by tax-exempt organizations. This issue brief considers the policy implications of the quantitative and qualitative information that hospitals are now mandated to report through Schedule H, including the costs associated with charity care, bad debt, and the unreimbursed costs of Medicaid and Medicare. The paper examines unresolved issues related to the new reporting requirements, such as controversies regarding the scope of Schedule H, and considers the potential for these reports to influence IRS oversight activities, legislative action, and hospital policies and practices.

Overview: Health care-associated infections (HAIs) have emerged as a significant concern in policy as well as clinical circles. An HAI is an infection acquired during treatment for another condition. Some of the HAI-causing bacteria have become drug-resistant; methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, is a familiar example. Tied to perhaps 100,000 deaths and $20 billion in health care costs each year, HAIs have given rise to state laws, legislative proposals at the federal level, public-private initiatives, and work at the hospital system and individual hospital level. However, much remains to be done. This issue brief reviews the prevalence of HAIs and the strategies for and barriers to reducing their incidence. It examines the roles of public- and private-sector entities in reporting, monitoring, and eliminating HAIs. Policy responses such as research funding, training specifications, and payment adjustments are considered.

This document provides a brief overview of some of the policy and programmatic issues that were addressed in legislation to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program (Title XXI of the Social Security Act) during the summer and fall of 2007. This overview provides a background for understanding the elements for a second round of reauthorization that will likely be debated in the early days of the 111th Congress. The paper reviews several of the key issues under discussion and summarizes some of the related provisions in the reauthorization bills that were considered in 2007.

Medicaid costs for health and long-term care services for low-income individuals are substantial. As a result, each state's "match rate," or federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP), which determines the share of Medicaid benefit costs the federal government pays, has enormous implications for state budgets and state economies, as well as for Medicaid beneficiaries and providers. Shifts in the FMAP from year to year, even minor ones, can mean the gain or loss of tens or hundreds of millions of federal matching dollars, depending on the size of the state's Medicaid program. This paper explains the FMAP formula, examines the limitations of this method for distributing federal Medicaid financing, and highlights options to address the formula's shortcomings.

Primary care, a cornerstone of several health reform efforts, is believed by many to be in a crisis because of inadequate supply to meet future demand. This belief has focused attention on the adequacy of primary care physician supply and ways to boost access to primary care. One suggested approach is to raise Medicare fees for primary care services. Whether higher Medicare fees would increase physician interest in primary care specialties by reducing compensation disparities between primary care and other specialties has not been established. Further, many questions remain about the assumptions underlying these policy concerns. Is there really a primary care physician crisis? Why does compensation across physician specialties vary so widely? Can Medicare physician fee changes affect access to primary care? These questions defy simple answers. This issue brief lays out the latest information on physician workforce, compensation differences across physician specialties, and Medicare's physician fee-setting process.

Physician profiling, that is, the comparison of the health care services used by a physician's patients to average service use or another benchmark, has been proposed as a way to improve Medicare. It has been used by private health plans and physician groups to identify both efficient practice patterns and the physicians who practice efficiently. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) have recommended that Medicare adopt physician profiling to slow spending growth and improve efficiency. Recent legislation would mandate that Medicare employ profiling. This issue brief reviews MedPAC and GAO's analyses of profiling, concerns about using this type of information, and the obstacles in incorporating profiling in the Medicare program.

This issue brief examines the recent history and trends in state budgets and considers how those trends have influenced the role of the Medicaid program. The paper offers several indicators for predicting the future of states' fiscal standing, cautioning that, although the "stormy" period from 2001 to 2003 is over, states face many challenges in he near future. This issue brief also poses several questions regarding the appropriate rules of state and federal governments in administering the Medicaid program. These questions become particularly important as the population ages and states increasingly take the lead in developing solutions for covering the uninsured.