In Case You Missed It — Healthcare Daily Digest for Thursday, 17 January

Business Roundtable (BRT) is a trade/lobbying group primarily made up of corporate CEOs. As such, of course they have ideas about Medicare privatization, and that idea is, essentially: We agree with failed vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan and his Medicare plan.

One of the main things that BRT thinks would be beneficial is to go even further with the age qualification for Medicare, and bump that all the way up to 70. And yes, we’re living longer, and 20somethings are the new adolescents, and I’ve lost count of how many 40-year-olds think a backwards baseball cap is “business casual” rather than a sign of arrested development, but 70 seems pretty aggressive though ultimately by the time I reach 65 we’ll all be living under our ape overlords anyway on the tiny island that’s left after all the polar icecaps melt.

According to a piece on TheHill.com, “BRT proposed raising the age by another three years but phasing in the change over the same time period. The changes would not affect anyone who is currently older than 55.” Or, put another way: most of the members of BRT will not be affected by raising the age to 70.

Other headlines:

• It’s Time to Get Serious About Living in the Future: The headline on this Forbes.com blog reads “Less Than Two Percent of Hospitals Are Paperless As Medicare Penalties Loom.” We’re looking at T-minus 2 Years for those other 98 percent to get their technological act togehter and get everything off of paper and onto some sort of handheld device that will also Twitter, take movies, and scan for alien life forms on hostile planets. Good luck out there!

• Demonstrating Value and Contribution: “Ohio Hospitals Provide $3.1 Billion in Community Benefit.”

• Kansas Hospital Looks at Charity Care Changes: “Lawrence Memorial Hospital board members…were told the amount of unpaid care the hospital provides has grown to $30 million in 2012 from about $18 million in 2007.” With that in mind, the hospital looks at some fundamental changes to its policies around charity care.