Joe Paduda over at Managed Care Manners took the helm for the latest edition of Health Wonk Review and – much to our delight – he’s dedicated the edition to the PPACA (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act for those who may have forgotten).
PPACA …
Paduda included seven posts under the subhead PPACA:
- Louise Norris has a great explainer about one kind of “coverage gap” – how long you can actually go with out coverage before you’re subject to an Obamacare penalty. Anthony Wright at Health Access California, meanwhile, writes about efforts in California to close the gap in coverage so undocumented workers are covered.
- Timothy Jost has a great post at Health Affairs running down ideas that the GOP is floating for legislation that would repeal Obamacare. (You know what they say: “If at 50+ times you don’t succeed …”)
- Bob Laszewski and Hank Stern provide a one-two punch to Obamacare’s gut: Laszewski has a piece that points out the failures of ACA exchange “poster child” Covered California while Stern – an Insureblog post, News from Ms Burntwell, [insert rimshot here] has a list of “ObamaTax” bad news.
- Brad Flansbaum offers his perspective on the impact of reimbursement changes on physician compensation, while Joe Paduda has short piece about whether private insurance or Medicare/Medicaid does a better job of controlling costs.
Medicare …
- Louise Norris and Jason Shafrin both took a look at the passage of the bipartisan fix for Medicare physician reimbursement. Norris, writing for the re-launched medicareresources.org, offers her take on the much-heralded legislation and its implications for Medicare beneficiaries.
- Shafrin has his own assessment, pointing out the the legislation adds $141 billion in additional costs over the next decade while simplifying programs intended to reward top-performing docs.
… and beyond
Last, but as they say, “not least” in this week’s edition:
- Julie Ferguson has a sobering piece on workplace suicides, including a look at common factors as well as the need for mental health support for family farmers.
- John Lynn writes about what’s next for Health IT in the near future.
- Jaan Sidorov has an interesting look at the healthcare digital divide, noting, “There’s an app for that!”
- Roy Poses looks at patient engagement and hospital CIOs who believe “it’s all about me.”
- One Happy Nurse reveals why a 7-hour wait in the ER isn’t so bad.
It’s all good stuff. Happy reading!
Next up for HWR? Yours truly hosts HWR here at healthinsurance.org on May 7.
See you then.