Obamacare Suffers Devastating Rebuke
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, AP Graphics
President Barack Obama's main idea for getting quality health care at less cost was in jeopardy Wednesday after key medical providers called his administration's initial blueprint so complex it's unworkable.
Just over a month ago, the administration released long-awaited draft regulations for "accountable care organizations," networks of doctors and hospitals that would collaborate to keep Medicare patients healthier and share in the savings with taxpayers. Obama's health care overhaul law envisioned quickly setting up hundreds of such networks around the county to lead a bottom-up reform of America's bloated health care system.
But in an unusual rebuke, an umbrella group representing premier organizations such as the Mayo Clinic wrote the administration Wednesday saying that more than 90 percent of its members would not participate, because the rules as written are so onerous it would be nearly impossible for them to succeed.
"It's not just a simple tweak, it's a significant change that needs to be made," said Donald Fisher, president of the American Medical Group Association, which represents nearly 400 large medical groups around the country providing care for roughly 1 in 3 Americans. Its members, including the Cleveland Clinic, Intermountain Healthcare in Utah, and Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania, had been seen as the vanguard for accountable care.
The medical groups say they are worried they will be left holding the bag for losses, that the government has designed things so there is no easy way to tell which patients are part of the program, and that there's no reliable way to adjust for patients who are sicker and require closer follow-up and more expensive treatments.
The deadline for public comments on the proposed regulations is still weeks away, but Fisher said "we needed to get their attention early on, so (the administration) could be thinking about how major changes are needed to make these regulations viable."
Medicare spokesman Brian Cook said the agency is doing extensive outreach to explain and take feedback on the regulations and hat "we will carefully consider this input."
"We are confident that providers' decisions on whether to participate in the program will be made on the basis of the final rule, which will reflect the feedback we receive," added Cook.
Many in the health care industry were silent partners backing Obama's overhaul law, but disappointment over the accountable care rules has put a chill into the relationship. During the congressional debate, Obama extolled Mayo and Geisinger, holding them up as a model of what he wanted to achieve for the nation. Industry criticism of his administration's proposal has been building up for weeks in online forums.
"This has all the hallmarks of a party that nobody comes to, unless there is a serious rethinking," said former Medicare administrator Gail Wilensky, who ran the agency under President George H.W. Bush.
Wilensky said the idea of coordinating care isn't the problem, but "it sounds like (the administration) really overshot the mark."
The regulations are "overly prescriptive, operationally burdensome, and the incentives are too difficult to achieve to make this voluntary program attractive," the medical group association said in its letter. One of the major problems seems to be that medical groups have little experience in managing insurance risk, and the administration blueprint rapidly exposes them to potential financial losses.
Without major changes, "we fear that very few providers will enroll ... and that (Medicare) and the provider community will miss the best opportunity to inject value and accountability into the delivery system."
Private insurers are also experimenting with versions of the accountable care idea, but successful adoption by Medicare is seen as the key to spreading it across the country. The Obama administration had estimated as much as $960 million in savings from the first three years of the program, and bigger amounts thereafter.
Fisher, the medical association head, said he does not think the administration will easily back off its approach, because on paper it saves the government money.
Source: Fox Nation
One Clinton and Two Obama Appointed Judges to Hear Healthcare BIll Lawsuit
Instead of the full 9 member court there will only be 3 justices hearing the healthcare bill lawsuit. One of these was appointed by Clinton and the other 2 by Obama. This is no different than bribing a jury and we need to stand up and put an end to this kind of abuse of power and criminal behavior and that is what rigging a court is.
We the people have the power to petition our representatives for the impeachment of theses activist justices who fail to uphold the Constitution. They take an oath of office to uphold and protect the U S Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic.
Domestic includes justices that would rewrite the Constitution to suit their personal agenda. We are at a crossroads, we can either put up or shut up! We are the ones who for years have allowed these courts to overstep their Constitutional powers. Now if we petition our representatives for impeachment they are forced to take it to the floor for action and even if they vote against us it will get into the media and send a strong message to these justices that we will no longer sit silent and let them do as they please, constitutional or not. The Constitution can only be changed by amendments voted on by 2/3 majority of our elected representatives, not by the political agenda of partisan justices. So like I said we either sit back and allow these justices to run amuck or we stand up and say enough. You can in fact write your own petition at the link here and get it moving among all the people or groups you are with.
Mitt Romney: My First Act As President Is Undoing Obamacare
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