Healthcare Daily Digest for Monday, 18 March: Accountable Care Organizations Want Medicare to Reconsider Healthcare Benchmarks

The benchmarks Medicare has set for its program is coming under increased scrutiny as the date for measuring those benchmarks gets closer.

A group of 18 Medicare Pioneer ACOs (accountable care organizations) that’s asking Medicare to reconsider the benchmarks. Particularly, the change to “flat percentage benchmarks without
anchoring methodology.”

“Pioneers strongly support outcomes based contracts, and we applaud CMS and CMMI for introducing a payment model that centers on quality,” the 18 ACOs said in their letter. “We want to work closely with you to bring the collective experience of our groups’ efforts to build a validated model to truly improve quality of care for the population we serve together.”

The deadline the ACOs have given to Medicaid for this joint-production: 1 April 2013.

Monday’s headlines:

Democrats Respond Derisively to Paul Ryan’s Budget: “While suggesting Democrats were open to reforming Medicare and other entitlements, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin also took some shots Sunday at Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget, saying it would eliminate Medicare.”

We’re Not Good in This Country About Talking About What Things Cost: “With health care costs continuing to rise while new government regulations begin going into effect, “employers and employees alike are struggling to determine what future medical benefits will be offered — and at what price.”

Did You Know that Panasonic Even HAD a Healthcare Business?: “The news [that Panasonic is reportedly considering exiting from making plasma TV panels] comes shortly after reports on Sunday said Panasonic was considering selling off its healthcare business.”

An Interview With the Director of Escape Fire: “I recently interviewed Matthew Heineman, the director of the documentary Escape Fire, a film dedicated to deepening the national conversation on fixing our broken healthcare system. The film made its nationwide debut on CNNlast night.”

What Single Payor Is, and What Single Payor Isn’t: “Dr. David Dvorak is an emergency room physician. He supports a single-payer system for Minnesota and wants to make one thing clear: ‘single payer’ doesn’t mean socialized medicine.”

Healthcare Investments for Fun and Profit: “There are a lot of questions about how the new healthcare laws will impact insurance companies. Obviously investors should not swear off healthcare stocks, but they should require a discount to embrace this risk. Unfortunately, the prices of many of these stocks are not compelling. I will examine Humana Inc (NYSE:HUM), Aetna Inc. (NYSE:AET) and UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE:UNH) in the context of these new healthcare laws to see if they are worth the risk to investors.”