About: Nicole Fisher

This morning The Hill published a report on the H.R. 3519 legislation filed earlier this week that would exempt the entire Medicare program from sequestration.  The Democrats who filed the legislation claim that this exemption falls under the Budget Control Act. Interestingly, the Budget Control Act makes it clear that reductions in Medicare payments to providers are capped at 2 percent.  ThisContinue Reading

Last week the Federal Trade Commissioner (FTC) J. Thomas Rosch remarked that accountable care organizations (ACOs) could lead to more expensive health care and lower quality of care.  Specifically, he said, “The net result” of ACOs, “may therefore be higher costs and lower quality health care—precisely the opposite of (PPACAs) goal.” ACOs are the health law’s main tool for supposedly making the USContinue Reading

A geat article was released yesterday looking at the various ways the medical industry has hedged its bets; playing both Republicans and Democrats (including paying lobbyists) in the health care battle: http://m.californiahealthline.org/road-to-reform/2011/follow-the-money-how-industry-is-lobbying-to-preserve-reform-law.aspx

For the first time in a Kaiser Family Foundation poll an equal number of people believe the President’s health reform law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), will and won’t make the country better off. Public support sunk to an all-time low in October of 2011 the new poll finds. According to Kaiser,Continue Reading

A monthly health tracking poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation had some interesting results this month. The poll found that a staggering 47 percent of the uninsured don’t believe the President’s Health Reform Law, also known as ObamaCare, will make much difference to them. This is far greater than the 31 percent who believe theContinue Reading

Kaiser Health News has created a helpful spreadsheet to keep you updated on where the declared GOP Presidential hopefuls stand on health care… Makes the life of a conservative health care blogger a LOT easier

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has scared many state’s legislators into starting the process of setting up health insurance exchanges by saying that if the states fail to do so the federal government will step in and set up exchanges on the state’s dime. However, this week a small kink in theContinue Reading

The Office of the Inspector General for HHS released a report indicating that Medicaid gets deeper discounts on many prescription drugs than Medicare. Much of this is attributed to Medicaid getting its discounts through health-related laws. Medicare, on the other hand, negotiates prices with private insurers and drug companies. As indicated in a NYT article,Continue Reading